Abstract
Developing Countries in Africa in general and Zambia in particular, have seen a rapid rise in use of mobile payment platforms. This has not only revolutionized access to finance for the poor but also allowed them access to other financial products such as savings or insurance. With a growing number of mobile money providers in Zambia, there is need for a solution that would enable integration of the mobile money provider’s systems using a central clearinghouse for purposes of clearing and settlement to achieve mobile money interoperability. In this study, we first reviewed the technical landscape and features of mobile payment systems in Zambia and then assessed the feasibility of using blockchain technology in proposing a settlement and clearing system that would facilitate mobile money interoperability. A prototype system was then designed in which amounts being interchanged between providers are managed as assets on a permissioned blockchain. The system runs a distributed shared ledger, which provides non-repudiation, data privacy and data origin authentication, by leveraging the consistency features of blockchain technology.
Highlights
There is a growing number of mobile money wallet services providers in Zambia which has led to the creation different autonomous financial ecosystems with little to no interoperability between them
The proposed Zambia National Switch project [4] being undertaken by the Zambia Electronic Clearing House Limited (ZECHL) will among others enable participants in the mobile financial ecosystem to interchange money by providing a clearing and settlement platform
Blockchain technology presents a perfect opportunity as a potential technology to disrupt payment, clearing and settlement because of its ability to introduce a set of synchronized ledgers managed by one or more entities rather than individual non communicating ledgers [3]
Summary
Abstract—Developing Countries in Africa in general and Zambia in particular, have seen a rapid rise in use of mobile payment platforms. This has revolutionized access to finance for the poor and allowed them access to other financial products such as savings or insurance. With a growing number of mobile money providers in Zambia, there is need for a solution that would enable integration of the mobile money provider’s systems using a central clearinghouse for purposes of clearing and settlement to achieve mobile money interoperability. We first reviewed the technical landscape and features of mobile payment systems in Zambia and assessed the feasibility of using blockchain technology in proposing a settlement and clearing system that would facilitate mobile money interoperability.
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