Mobile Banking Services in the East African Community (EAC): Challenges to the Existing Legislative and Regulatory Frameworks

Should regulators require interconnection and interoperability between mobile money networks? Yes, asserts the author, using the five-nation East African Community (EAC) as a case study. Challenges to policy harmonization are posed by different legal and regulatory systems in the EAC Member States; as well as different business models, technologies, functionalities, and forms of mobile money. With few models on which to draw, the EAC must find a way to address the convergence of the telecommunications and financial sectors to enable maximum benefits from mobile banking, especially for the poor.