Privacy in mobile money: central banks in Africa and their regulatory limits

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The increased pervasiveness of technology in Africa has increasingly facilitated the growth of mobile financial services. In Africa where financial inclusion is so limited, mobile financial services provide avenue for majority urban and rural population to participate in economic activities. Yet until recently Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have dominated the mobile financial services. Banks and financial institutions which are traditionally the subject of the regulatory ambit of central banks have only recently taken interests in the mobile financial services. Quite often this has been done by partnering with MNOs. To this end, central banks in Africa have developed guidelines and regulations to bring MNOs of financial services under their regulatory authority. This article is set to analyse bank guidelines as well as regulations on electronic payment systems from the perspective of the right to privacy of customers in Africa. Illustrations of regulatory issues raised in this article are drawn from different African countries. Particularly, the author of this article argues that although the traditional banker’s duty of secrecy which restricts bankers from disclosing information about their customers might still be applicable to mobile money providers, it may not be adequate to secure such information. Similarly, the recently developed mobile money regulations by central banks in Africa are limited to secure the right to privacy in the mobile financial services.