19 Apr 2022

The average yearly transactions by mobile money service providers since inception stood at approximately P5 billion.

Responding to a question in Parliament on Wednesday, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ms Peggy Serame stated that in accumulation, Orange money garnered P4.5 million, Myzaka P295.8 million and Smega P50 million respectively.

Ms Serame said the transactions included among others, ‘cash-in and cash-out by subscribers at an agent, cash-in deposits through bank to wallet, withdrawals by registered, and withdrawals by payroll, withdrawals at automated teller machines (ATM), point-of-sale payments, online VISA payments and prepaid electricity purchases etc.’

The minister explained that in the unfortunate case of death of a subscriber, the Mobile Money Providers followed a standard process to redeem the funds to the beneficiaries upon receipt of information about the death of the mobile money subscriber.

She added that if no information was received about the death of the mobile money subscriber, and no one came forward to claim the funds within twelve months, the account was managed under the dormant account process as prescribed in the Electronic Payments Services Regulations, 2019.

Ms Serame stated that Mobile Money Providers were guided by Regulation 29 of the Electronic Payment Services Regulations on handling dormant accounts, which made provisions for a mobile money account that had not registered activity for a period of 12 months to be declared a dormant account.

“Specifically, Regulation 29 (5) provides that where there is no request for reactivation of a dormant account, the mobile money provider shall transfer all funds held in the dormant account to a separate account held with a commercial bank,“ she said.

In addition, Ms Serame said the funds held with a commercial bank would be kept for a period not less than three years, to allow the possibility for claims.

She underlined that where the dormant account funds held with a commercial bank remained unclaimed after the three-year period, the mobile money provider would transfer such funds and contact information of the customer to the Abandoned Funds Account held with the Bank of Botswana.

Ms Serame said the total value for dormant accounts across all mobile money providers as at December 2021 was P3.5 million.

The value cannot be unbundled further to account for reasons of dormancy such as death, she said adding that the ministry was not aware of barriers in claiming funds of the deceased from the mobile money operators.

The minister encouraged mobile money operators to enhance customer education so that such information was available to all.

The House also heard that the Bank of Botswana published information on declared dormant accounts transferred to the Abandoned Funds Account in local newspapers, three years following the dormancy of the Account as per Regulation 29 (5) of the Electronic Payment Services Regulations.

Mahalapye West MP, Mr Tshere had asked the minister to state the yearly transaction by each mobile money service provider (My Zaka, Orange Money and Smega) since inception and what would happen in case of death of the subscriber when he/she still had a balance on their My Zaka, Orange Money or Smega.

He also asked the minister how much money had been left pending or unclaimed as a result of the above and plans in place to rectify the problem so that beneficiaries of the deceased could claim the balance. Ends