A recent study from Juniper Research offers up some great insights on mobile money. The most significant number is the forecast for Mobile Money Transfer to Hit 400 Million User by 2018. That’s up from the 150 million users in 2013.

In terms of applications, Mobile Money transfer has been a driving force in the growth of the mobile money market with international and domestic services offering unprecedented convenience. The study points out that for the market to “take off as predicted, service providers will need to ensure that support infrastructure, including an agent network, will be put in place well in advance of the commercial launch.”

Based on our experiences working with providers such as Singtel, Digicel and Etisalat, this is a critical factor in the success or failure of mobile money transfer.

The World Bank pegs the recorded remittances sent home by migrants from developing countries exceeds $300 billion annually. Remittance, a form of mobile payments & person-to-person transfer, provides a mechanism to exchange transactions between mobile subscribers. Whether the mobile subscriber is remitting a taxi fare to their child across the city (domestic) or a migrant worker is remitting their monthly wages to their friends and family abroad (international) via their mobile, the platform delivering the end to end solution must ensure the completion of the transaction with no margin of error.

For mobile money transfer to truly meet it’s full potential, service providers need to ensure they are putting in place technology and systems that can scale and offer support to train agents effectively.