A recent report by the United Nations Trade Agency is calling for coordination and harmonization of mobile money in East Africa. The report states that the rapid growth of mobile money, specifically in East Africa calls for an effective and robust legal and regulatory framework. The report further says that governments need to address issues relating to telecommunications and financial regulations to make sure that the mobile money services bring the desired benefits, especially to the poor.
To ensure a successful growth, the UNCTAD report makes suggestions to ease access to mobile money services, making the tools offered more useful, and protecting those who use them. Some of these recommendations include heightened coordination and cooperation across various regulatory and market sectors, such as telecommunications, banking and electronic commerce
According to a World Bank report, 75% of the poor are unbanked, and most, especially in Africa, have turned to mobile money services as a nontraditional method of banking. East Africa in particular has had an impressive growth in mobile money, with about 60 mobile money services in place out of the total 130 systems worldwide. M-Pesa is the most popular with 15 million active customers who transfer an estimated $658 million every month.