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Mobile Money co-founder Damion Daley at home in Rockfort, Kingston (Photo: Ross Sheil)
A young Kingston-based software developer is helping to launch a cellular phone service in Jamaica that allows persons to make financial transactions via SMS text messaging.
Observations has tested 'Mobile Money', developed by 27-year-old Damion Daley, which will be given a full launch next month. Users will earn percentages charged on receivers of transactions via an affiliate marketing programme. Users will be able to purchase goods and services via SMS, in the same manner that pre-paid mobile platforms allow credit to be sent, sold and bought.
Currently the system is only available on Cable & Wireless mobiles but is also being set up on the Digicel network while talks are ongoing with MiPhone.
Similar systems are already in use overseas, including in South Africa where a bank and cellular company have partnered in a move that is intended to introduce poor people into the formal economy - an aim Daley shares with Mobile Money.
With cellular customers using pre-paid and given Jamaica's high rate of cellular penetration he believes Mobile Money is ideal for the poor and those unwilling or unable to open a bank account or obtain a debit or credit card. The system is expected to allow more convenience than existing online or telephone banking services but users will be able to withdraw money via ATMs.
“You just go to the store and you just ask them if they take Mobile Money and you just make the transfer from your phone. It's an opportunity for everybody,” said Daley of his system, which avoids the bureaucracy associated with applying for a bank account.
However Mobile Money users needing to add money to their account themselves, will need to use Paymaster or a bank account held with either First Caribbean or Scotiabank - with Scotia offering a dedicated ATM card. Persons will also be able withdraw funds via the banks.
National Commerical Bank and BillExpress are also to offer the service.
To join you have to be invited by an affiliate - which in turn makes you an affiliate - persons have a incentive to sign up others since he or she will earn percentages on all transactions those persons make in the future.
Logistical support is provided by Cool Biz, the phone credit marketing arm of Joey Issa's Cool Corporation, which is partnering in Mobile Money. The third partner is former Cable & Wireless employee, Canadian Brett Penny, who provides the backbone of the affiliate programme via his 3,000-member XSJ Mobile.
XSJ Mobile currently has a monthly turnover of $4 million based on selling phone credit. But this sum pales in comparison to the potential revenue envisaged by the partners.
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