In the news today, YU, Kenya’s fourth mobile network has (finally) launched its mobile money service, yuCash. The service is being powered by Obopay which is a well-established and global mobile money system. YU intends the service to be operational not just in Kenya but throughout Africa wherever it intends to establish operations.
In rolling out yuCash, YU is has partnered with Equity Bank to deliver services throughout its extensive branch network in Kenya, and presumably in Uganda where it also has a significant footprint. In Kenya alone, Equity Bank has over 4 million account holders making it the largest bank in this respect. It also means that YU could get many Equity Bank customers to sign-up for yuCash by default which could be a key factor for services uptake.
yuCash is now effectively Kenya’s third mobile money service after the wildly successful M-Pesa service from Safaricom and Zain’s Zap service. However, by using Obopay for yuCash’s back-end, YU has upped the ante since Obopay is NOT just a mobile money service. Using Obopay, its also possible to make Internet payments for goods and services with registered merchants and service providers who are part of the Obopay ecosystem. As a result, yuCash could (potentially) become a default e-commerce platform for Kenya and the broader African region.
However, what remains to be seen is how much traction yuCash will gain considering its coming to the mobile money game quite late with Safaricom’s M-Pesa having a dominant lead in the marketplace. Having been the first to launch and also having the largest number of users to-date. M-Pesa is very well entrenched in the psyche of users in Kenya as the de facto mobile money service. But, M-Pesa is yet to evolve into a more sophisticated and extensible mobile money system like Obopay which could become its Achilles heel.
Greetings Moses,
Yucash is an interesting shot from YU at the money transfer business. Credit to their efforts even on the mobile telephony sector here in Kenya.
E-money transfer is the current momentum worldwide, i hope you noted the NokiaMoney launch in the recent weeks.
I must say i was dissappointed by Safaricom Mpesa’s rollout despite being billed as the first worldwide mobile money transfer product(this might need further clarification).
they missed the chance to franchise Mpesa worldwide and make royalty money from the “first to market” competitive advantage.
same way Obopay is gonna reap from YUcash franchise.
keep on.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/njorejkaranja
I would like to enquare about this new service with an interest to be an agent. Kindly email me all the requirement and am based in Nairobi.
how can i access the internet through my yu l;ine is it possible?
YuCash
This is going to create a great positive difference to Kenyans
We and my business are ready to be considered for agency business We are in Nairobi.May YU provide us with enrollment details
EOO