Enabling Mobile Money Policies in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This case study showcases the Congolese journey for the conceptualization, development, and implementation of the country's e-money regulation, Directive #24. The study details the impact through leadership, pragmatism, and an inclusive participatory process. It discusses on the regulation of mobile money services, and the challenges and outlook for the space. The study provides the following important lessons for regulators:

• Leadership and pragmatism are very important to make the policymaking process effective and achieve the pursued outcomes in a short timeframe;
• Engaging other government agencies and all relevant private sector players in the design phase of a regulation establishes a process of mutual learning that can have a very positive impact on policy outcomes;
• When a new regulation is developed, the regulator and participating stakeholders should project the impact of the regulation on market uptake and customer adoption of mobile money services;
• Some of the policy and regulatory solutions to enable mobile money are off-the-shelf and have already been tested successfully in many countries where MNOs are providing sound and secure mobile money services;
• Regulators can greatly benefit from an iterative process based on what private sector providers learn on the ground post-launch.