Zain on money with ‘Zap’: Mobile commerce service takes GSMA top prize

Zain, the leading mobile network operator in the Middle East and Africa, has won the inaugural GSMA’s 2010 ‘Mobile Money for the Unbanked Service’ award for ‘Zap’, its mobile commerce service. The announcement was made at the Global Mobile Awards, the industry’s leading annual prize ceremony, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Mobile Money for the Unbanked Service is a new award, established to recognize innovative mobile banking around the world that pioneers the roll out of low-cost financial services to millions of people, in countries where traditional financial services are either not within easy reach or unavailable. It is aligned to the GSMA’s Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) initiative, which was created to connect the unconnected and improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of the world’s population living on less than US$2 a day by supporting and encouraging the development of sustainable mobile money solutions.

Zap, which was launched exactly one year ago on February 16, 2009, in partnership with leading international and regional banks, provides the most comprehensive and accessible package of m-commerce features currently available anywhere in the world. With more that 12 million customers already fully-enabled for the service across seven African nations, ‘Zap’ is the biggest Mobile Commerce service in the world in terms of geographical coverage, enabled customers and service functionalities. It is currently accessible to approximately 200 million potential customers in Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana, where over 80% of them are ‘unbanked’, with little or no access to financial services. Zain has plans to roll-out the service in all its operations.

“This is yet another indication that Zain is at the cutting edge of technological development,” said Zain Africa CEO, Chris Gabriel. “Not only are we pushing the boundaries of where the mobile phone can take us, we are showing that we can improve lives and make sustainable economic contributions in the countries where we operate. Time and again Zain is showing that when it promises ‘A wonderful world’, it is more than a slogan.”

Zap provides customers with a virtual mobile wallet, which allows them to use their mobile phone in much the same way as a bank account debit card, managing their money through their handset. It provides customers with increased security and flexibility, reducing the need to carry cash and ensuring payments between friends and family from around the world remain secure. Customers also benefit from being able to access the service 24/7 through their handset, allowing them access to their money anytime, anywhere. The service is supported on all handsets, including the ultra-low-cost handsets (ULCH) which Zain is successfully rolling out across the continent.

As one prominent African media group wrote recently, “The popularity and appeal of Zap transcends its current and intended geographical coverage as it is specially created to improve the social, economic and environmental security of Africans”.

On awarding the prize, the judging panel, said, “Once again, Zain has shown that it can shake up the system with its vision of bringing essential services to people who really need them. Zain changed Africa by bringing the mobile phone to the masses; it ignored borders by creating “One Network’ and now, with Zap, it has made transferring money less fraught with risk, in a very dynamic way.”

The judging panel also noted the distinctiveness of Zap as it is compatible with Zain’s award winning ‘One Network’ platform, which allows all Zap customers to move freely across geographical borders and be treated as a local customer in any of the 22 ‘One Network’ countries in terms of pricing. Furthermore, they retain home network service functionalities; they can access their Zap accounts, send/receive money and pay for goods and service exactly the same way as they can at home. The judges also praised the multi-language capabilities of the Zap service.