Africa Makes Leap in Cross-Border Mobile Payments
非洲跨境移动支付大跃进
New partnerships aimed at getting a bigger slice of the $48 billion Africans sent and received last year
企业建立新合作关系，意在从去年480亿美元交易总额中分得更大份额
JOHANNESBURG—Africa’s biggest telecommunications companies are striking deals allowing their customers to make payments across networks and borders, the latest stride in the continent’s ascent as a leader in mobile financial technology.
（发自约翰内斯堡）非洲的电信巨头们正在敲定协议，允许用户跨网络、跨境支付。这也是非洲大陆上升为移动金融技术领跑者而迈出的最新一步。
Starting this month, London-based Vodafone Group PLC and South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd. plan to allow customers in East and Central Africa to send each other money, the first time Africa’s biggest telecoms have cooperated in the competitive mobile payment space.
本月开始，总部在伦敦的沃达丰集团（Vodafone Group PLC）和南非的MTN集团计划实现东非和中非用户之间的收付款。这也是电信巨头在竞争激烈的移动支付领域的首次合作。
Their new partnership could spur even more economic growth in these fast-growing markets, and drum up revenue for mobile companies in countries where demand for new cellphones and airtime has matured. Fierce competition is one reason MTN lost revenue per user in 19 of its 22 markets in the first quarter, MTN said.
这一合作可以进一步带动这些快速成长市场的经济发展，同时提振移动通信公司在这些国家的收入，那里的新手机和通话服务需求已经饱和。MTN表示，激烈的竞争是导致其今年一季度在22个国家中的19个出现用户人均营收下降的原因之一。
“Finally, [telecoms] woke up and smelled the coffee,” said Hans Kuipers, a Johannesburg-based partner at the Boston Consulting Group. “In order to really develop a healthy ecosystem, you have to develop interconnectivity.”
“移动通信公司终于认清现实了。为了建立一个健康的生态系统，不同公司之间必须发展‘互联性’”Hans Kuipers说。他是波士顿咨询公司（Boston Consulting Group）驻约翰内斯堡的合伙人。
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来源：世界银行 WSJ
The telecoms also hope that their partnership will give them a bigger slice of the $48 billion the World Bank estimates that Africans sent and received as remittances during 2014.
两家公司也希望这项合作可以为他们拿下非洲移动支付市场的更大份额。根据世界银行的估计，非洲人2014年共计汇入、汇出480亿美元。
Until now, mobile companies have resisted “interoperable” partnerships as they raced to build their own market share. The most successful mobile-money service is the M-Pesa system started by Vodafone’s Kenyan subsidiary Safaricom Ltd. in 2007.
Today Safaricom’s 14 million M-Pesa customers pay for everything from safari lodge stays to taxi rides via the platform.
此前，移动通信公司一直抵制“可互操作”的合作关系，因为他们在抢占各自的市场份额。目前最成功的移动金融服务是沃达丰肯尼亚子公司Safaricom在2007年推出的M-Pesa系统。今天，Safaricom共有1400万M-Pesa用户通过这一平台支付狩猎度假屋、出租车等所有事情。
Now some of that cash could flow to MTN, via the new partnership that will allow payments between Vodafone subscribers in Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania and MTN users in Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Zambia.
现在，部分支付金额将流向MTN。新的合作支持肯尼亚、民主刚果、坦桑尼亚的沃达丰用户和乌干达、卢旺达、南苏丹和赞比亚的MTN用户之间进行支付。
One hurdle has been getting central bank approval in each market to send and receive money from abroad, said SerigneDioum, MTN’s head of mobile financial services. As of May, MTN had approval to receive money in Uganda, as well as to send and receive money in Rwanda. Vodafone declined to comment.
但还是有一个障碍，就是跨境收、付款要获得每个国家央行的批准，MTN移动金融服务主管Serignr Dioum表示。截至5月，MTN已经获得了乌干达的跨境收款许可和卢旺达的收汇款许可。沃达丰则对此拒绝置评。
‘Finally, [telecoms] woke up and smelled the coffee.’
“移动通信公司终于认清现实了。”
—Hans Kuipers, a Johannesburg-based partner at the Boston Consulting Group
—— Hans Kuipers，波士顿咨询公司驻约翰内斯堡合伙人
Mr. Dioum said MTN and Vodafone sought to pair countries where MTN was stronger with countries where Vodafone’s subsidiaries dominate, creating broader regional reach for both companies. East Africa, he said, “is where our mobile money offers have more penetration and it is where mobile money is working well.”
Dioum先生表示，MTN和沃达丰寻求将双方各自的优势市场组合起来，从而为彼此开拓更广阔的市场。他说，东非“是我们的移动金融服务市场占有率较高的地方，也是移动金融发展良好的地区。”
MTN and Vodafone wouldn’t say how they will split profits from the network-to-network, cross-border payments.
两家公司均未透露联网跨境支付产生的利润如何分成。
Mr. Dioum said the partnership will cut fees for cross-border transfers from up to 20% of a transaction’s value to 3% or less, something MTN achieved in a pilot partnership launched with Airtel Burkina Faso last year between Burkina Faso and neighboring Ivory Coast.
Dioum先生表示，两家公司的合作将会降低跨境转账的费率，从过去高达交易金额的20%下降到3%甚至更低。在去年MTN与Airtel布基纳法索子公司在布基纳法索和邻国科特迪瓦之间进行的试点合作，便产生了这样的效果。
The World Bank says reducing such fees by just five percentage points would save Africans $16 billion a year. That’s money customers might channel toward more mobile purchases, operators say.
世界银行估计跨境支付费用只要降低5%，每年就能帮非洲人节省160亿美元。运营商表示，用户可能拿这笔钱进行更多的移动端交易。
“We want people to use their [mobile] wallet to perform every single transaction, including international money transfers,” Mr. Dioum said. Last year, Ugandans sent $72 million in remittances to Kenya, according to data from the World Bank. Kenyans sent Ugandans $51 million.
Dioum先生说：“我们希望人们每笔交易都使用移动钱包，包括国际转账。”据世界银行的数据，乌干达人去年向肯尼亚汇出了7,200万美元，肯尼亚人则向乌干达人汇出了5,100万美元。
Vodafone said it already has seen the benefits of interoperability following a February deal for its 7 million M-Pesa customers in Tanzania to transact with the 4 million Tanzanian customers of rival Tigo, a subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular SA.
沃达丰表示他们已从2月份的一次合作中看到互操作性的优势。2月，坦桑尼亚的700万M-Pesa用户与竞争对手Tigo公司的400万用户实现跨网络交易。Tigo是Millicom的子公司。
“The more people playing in the ecosystem, the better it is for everyone,” said Greg Reeve, Millicom’s head of mobile financial services. With the signing of that deal, which followed a different agreement between Tigo and two other Tanzanian carriers last year, Tanzania has become the most interoperable market in Africa.
“移动支付生态体系里的人越多，大家的收益也就越好。”Millicom移动金融服务主管Greg Reeve这样说。在Tigo与沃达丰的合作之后，加上去年其与另外两家坦桑尼亚运营商的合作，坦桑尼亚现已成为非洲最具互操作性的市场。
Mortimer Hope, director of spectrum and public policy in Africa for the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, said, “In Tanzania, usage of mobile money was fairly good, but once there was interoperability, there was a steep increase in usage.”
全球移动通信系统协会非洲频谱与公共政策总监Mortimer Hope说到：“在坦桑尼亚，移动支付的应用本就相当好，自从建立了互操作性，使用率更是出现陡增。”
The association, which represents the interests of mobile operators world-wide, said many of its most innovative members are working in Africa, and that mobile-payment methods they pioneer may end up deployed from the U.S. to Japan.
这一代表全球移动运营商利益的协会表示，它的很多最具创新力的成员都活跃在非洲。，他们在非洲开创的移动支付方法最终可能在美国、日本得到应用。
African operators say they are only starting to tap their homegrown potential.
非洲运营商表示他们才刚刚开始开发自家的市场潜力。
“We don’t really know how big it is,” said Michael Joseph, director of mobile money at Vodafone and former chief executive at Safaricom. “This is what we’re starting to capture.”
沃达丰移动支付主管、Safaricom前首席执行官Michael Joseph说：“我们刚开始发掘，还不知道潜力到底有多大。”
翻译：Ether
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