A comparative analysis of the regulations governing mobile money services in South Africa and Zimbabwe and their impact on sustainable financial inclusion of the poor and vulnerable people

Mobile money services refer to service where a mobile phone is used to provide banking services with little or no involvement of traditional banks. This service has become a powerful tool for bringing unbanked and underbanked people into the formal financial sector. The roll out and success of the service in question has not been smooth in some countries due to stringent financial regulations. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative legal analysis of how financial regulations have enhanced or hindered mobile money services adoption in South Africa and Zimbabwe and the extent to which this has helped to increase financial inclusion. Through a comparative analysis of primary and secondary sources of law, this study observed that South Africa and Zimbabwe have contrasting mobile money services fortunes which can be attributed to the regulatory approaches adopted by the two countries towards the mobile money services. South African adopted a no regulation approach requiring any entity that engages in mobile money services to do so within the confines of existing financial regulations. As a result of this, mobile money services have made little to no contribution to the fight against financial exclusion in South Africa. On the other hand, this research found that Zimbabwe has a thriving mobile money service sector. This can be attributed to the test and learn regulatory approach adopted by the country's regulators. At the time of writing this thesis, MTN and Vodacom in South Africa are relaunching their mobile money services after discontinuing the services 5 years ago. Rigid financial regulations were fingered as one of the causes of failure of the first attempt. The author hopes in highlighting the regulatory shortfalls of the approach adopted by South Africa in regulating mobile money services, this thesis will help policy makers, regulators and industry players to develop robust and inclusive mobile money regulatory eco-systems which promote financial inclusion as is the case with Zimbabwe