MobileMoney:Africa's 11 - Interviews Barry Coetzee of Iveri Payments

Emmanuel Okoegwale of MobileMoneyAfrica, Interviews the CEO of iVeri Payment technologies, Mr Barry Coetzee.

Over View.
iVeri creates technology for banks and businesses to facilitate
multiple-channel transaction acceptance. Our goal is to help our customers
create a profitable and sustainable business by enabling them to implement
the right transactional channels for their market environment.

We have been developing electronic payment technology since 1998. Today, we
process millions of transactions and have customers in several countries.
iVeri is a proven provider of best-of-breed multiple channel transaction
technology.

MMA: Iveri's platform works on a combo of channels and what are your experiences so far on the mobile channel?
Coetzee : Channels for transactions are determined by the infrastructure being used. So for the “mobile channel” we would include transactions by SMS, USSD, WAP and IVR. Each of these channels have their own unique characteristics which affect how they are used for financial transactions. SMS is by far the most widely used. This is because it is well established and well understood. However for financial transactions it is probably the worst channel from a reliability and security point of view. USSD is probably going to be the channel of choice going forward. However, the mobile operators are slow in deploying this channel. They seem to prefer rolling out the much more expensive 3G technology, which although it is great, unfortunately is not available on the majority of handsets in most countries. iVeri’s attitude to channels is simple. We will support all possible channels. In this way each financial business using our technology is able to choose their preferred channel based on the infrastructure available to them.


MMA: African Financial Institutions are still attached to the old norm of 'p2p personal Banking'.How is Iveri changing the pattern.
Coetzee: Banking has survived many technology waves. Mobile is another technology wave. Banks are risk averse and as such will naturally not be leaders in innovation. iVeri, with its established record of reliability is a known factor to banks and as such reduces their risk in using new technologies.


MMA: What are the key differentiators of your solutions to competition's.
Coetzee: Mobile transacting is already a commoditised product. All vendors generally offer the same product set. Transfer, Bill Payment, Wallet, Top Up. Vendors really only compete on price and service. iVeri is always aggressive on pricing. Probably our biggest differentiator is our experience. When you deploy new technology, you want to be sure the party you are working with is reliable. iVeri has a reliable track record.


MMA:With your focus on Africa,is time ripe to use technology extensively as a mean of customer engagement in Africa.
Coetzee: Developing markets are moving away from developed markets because the mobile handset is our technology of choice, whereas in developed markets it is the PC. We are committed to driving this move. We are only focused on providing customer centric solutions to African financial institutions. Only when we have exhausted this avenue will we look elsewhere. You have to look after your home and family before you try to look after others.


MMA:With widespread footprints in Africa,what are your views on regulations.Is it catching up with Innovations.
Coetzee: African regulators are generally re-active as opposed to pro-active. They allow the innovators to enter and create a market and then they decide how to regulate this. Although this sounds like a good way of doing things, the results are actually mostly not advantageous to the country. Re-active regulation always has to incorporate the incumbents even though they might not be good for the country. An example of this is in Kenya where any new regulation would have to incorporate MPesa, regardless of whether that was good for the country or not. India, on the other hand has a pro-active regulator who decides on what rules best for the country up front. This creates a level playing field where all players (not just the big ones) are playing to known set of rules. I would like to see African regulators being a lot more pro-active with their regulation.

MMA:What does the future hold for Africa using innovative platforms like Iveri
Coetzee:The future is just starting for electronic payments in Africa. iVeri is a dedicated payment solution provider that is made in Africa for Africa. I think the future is very bright.


MMA:In coming years,what should Africans watch out for in the Mobile money landscape.
Coetzee: Security. At the moment convenience is driving the Mobile Money wave. However, sooner or later the crooks are going to move in. The emphasis will then quickly shift to security. This is going to be very tough as the technology currently being used is not easy to secure while maintaining all the convenience. There will be a clash between increasing security and reducing convenience.

MMA: How do you intend to engage millions of Unbanked
Africans?

Coetzee:The example to follow here is the huge success in the deployment of mobile
networks and handsets. In reality the technology is very advanced and
complex. However, it has been packaged and marketed in such a way that most
people use it without a second thought. We strive to make our products and
services follow this example. Our success will be measured by our footprint.


To contact iVeri:
Barry Coetzee
www.iveri.com
info@iveri.com
http://twitter.com/iveri
http://www.facebook.com/pages/iVeri/59310882690
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/242993


Emmanuel Okoegwale
Nettel@africa Telecommunications policy and Regulation scholar.
www.Linkedin.com/in/emmanuelok
emmanuel@mobilemoneyafrica.com