The challenge

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has a population of nearly 65 million people, only 1.2% of whom have access to formal financial services. Mobile telephony has grown rapidly and DRC now counts over 10 million subscribers. The country is also experiencing a period of political stability and economic and financial development. In 2010 alone there was an increase of 22% in assets kept with formal financial institutions.

DRC’s financial growth represents significant potential to rapidly improve the rate of banking services. Acknowledging the low number of banks’ branches and the gap of financial sector infrastructures, mobile financial service could serve as the conduit for improving outreach to the masses excluded from the formal financial system.

The opportunity

In 2011 CBC established the Comite de Pilotage de Mobile Banking,a task force on mobile financial services (MFS) charged with creating a work plan for the design of a regulatory framework supportive to the imminent launch of mobile financial services prospected by different mobile network operators (MNOs). CBC wanted the task force’s members to gain a better understanding of regulatory, supervisory and business options within the context of mobile financial services and determined that the best way to accomplish this was through a knowledge exchange visit to Kenya and the Philippines.

The impact

The overall goal of the Central Bank of Congo related to this grant is to increase access to finance through mobile financial services. The expected outcome is the creation of an effective regulatory framework for e-money.

This experience informed the drafting of a work plan, enabled a more focused and structured industry consultation, and facilitated the revision of draft regulations.