Mobile payment sensitisation workshop held in Yaounde

'Mobile Money' also known as mobile payment is becoming popular in Cameroon. But in the opinion of some experts, a lot more effort is required to reach the level of efficiency similar to Kenya where the introduction of this method of payment has helped 45% of the population, bringing the rate of bankarisation of the country to 70%.

The issues, practices and opportunities of this new payment system were at the heart of the training which ended yesterday for the business press journalists.

In Cameroon, the bank rate is still less than 20% and the penetration rate of mobile is quite high (50% in 2014), with coverage of areas inhabited by the estimated mobile operators in nearly 80% on the same date.

The two-day seminar which took place in Yaoundé on the theme: "mobile Finance: issues, practices, opportunities for Cameroon" is intended to accelerate the rate of patronage of the 'Mobile Money' and to 'educate' people on the benefits of this method of payment.

The economic journalists of Cameroon and other key participants received education on the concept of mobile money sytem. The meeting organized by the Association of the economic journalists (Press Eco) with the assistance of Orange Cameroon, was designed to educate media men on the concept so that they can popularize it among the population.

They can rely on indicators mentioned by Elisabeth Medou Badang, CEO of Orange Cameroon, namely speed, security, simplicity and reliability to confirm the efficiency of this system.

For the time being, those who are already experimenting this mode of payment to settle their invoices (700,000 electricity bills paid via this mode of payment in 2014), say it is time savings and cost effective. Providers of these services, also assert that it is a cost-effective payment method.

Site visit, exchanges on experiences of mobile finance in the world, potential impact on the development of financial inclusion are among other joints that have furnished these exchanges whose results will soon be evaluated.