Being a Zemidjan

Fidèle is 32 years old and spends his days driving his motorcycle in the streets of Cotonou, Benin. Being a Zemidjan – motorcycle taxis driver is his livelihood, but deep down, he dreams of one day being able to make a living from his music. He tries to save money so he can record his songs. He had predicted that within a year he would have reached his goal, but five years later, it is clear that he still has his yellow Zem vest on his back.  “If I have cash in my pocket, it is dangerous, and I spend it all. Sometimes I lose it, or dishonest customers steal it from me. That’s why it is so hard to save.” Unfortunately,  Fidèle is not alone in this situation; the 250,000 Zemidjans of Cotonou would all have similar stories to tell. In this sense, there is enormous potential to make life easier for the Zemidjans,  by including them more centrally in the digital economy.  Moving from cash to digital requires a real change of attitudes,  habits and behaviours. “As long as people continue to pay me in cash, I will spend cash, and nothing will change.”

Les enjeux du projet

When we started working with UNCDF in Benin in 2015, digital financial services were just emerging, with a few initiatives, limited awareness, and an idea of the digital ecosystem needed, but yet to be built. At the time, less than 15% of the population had an electronic money account, but mobile density was more than 85%.

These conditions seemed ripe for the development of the digital ecosystem, but Fidèle made us understand that we would have to be bold if we sought to change behaviour. This audaciousness was abundant in the corporate culture of  MTN, Benin’s leading mobile network.which is committed to being “at  the forefront of providing a bold new digital world to (its) customers.”

Nous avons alors pris le problème à l’envers. Au lieu de se focaliser sur le produit, nous avons ciblé une population que nous voulions servir : Les Zemidjans. Au Bénin, les Zemidjans sont des ‘conducteurs’ aussi bien de motos-taxis que de tendances. Ils sont au courant des dernières nouvelles et les font circuler. Notre pari : créer un écosystème autour des Zemidjans, en utilisant le Mobile Money comme solution aux défis spécifiques qu’ils rencontrent : A/ le défi de sécurité, adressé par la mise en place du paiement numérique, et B/ le défi du manque de moyens pour réaliser leurs ambitions, adressé par la tontine digitale. L’idée était de convaincre les Zemidjans d’utiliser le Mobile Money et de d’influencer de manière indirecte la population à l’adopter également. 

Support to build digital ecosystem

La construction d’un écosystème digital ne se fait pas du jour au lendemain. La collaboration entre les équipes MTN, UNCDF, Innate Motion et PHB aura duré plus de deux ans, et couvert une vaste gamme d’activités, de la recherche au prototyping des solutions numériques, de la définition de modèles d’affaires à celle d’une campagne de communication adaptée, de la formation aux tests pilotes des solutions développées.  

The real catalyst throughout this project is the “Human-centered” approach used. Together with our partners and business humanizers at Innate Motion, we went to meet the Zemidjans, their customers and their suppliers (gas stations, small restaurateurs and mechanics). We sought to understand their reality and define a reliable and relevant human vision of what MTN can bring to the Zemidjans. This allowed us to identify their needs to take charge of their lives, and use it as a cultural driver for the adoption of digital financial services.  Throughout the project, we systematically referred to the insights and aspirations of Fidele to move forward.

We have to be cautious! “Human-Centered” doesn’t necessarily mean everything will be smooth – challenges fell like rain. On the one hand, the first NFC boxes for merchant payments were not working properly, and this discouraged the Zemidjans and their customers; value propositions also had to be adjusted to incorporate more short-term benefits for the  Zemidjans;  finally, the pilot’s limited size (about 200  Zemidjans, called “Zems Chocos”)  was not significant enough to have a domino effect on the wider population.

En même temps, ces défis sont ce qui nous ont permis de nous améliorer et d’avancer. Au final, ce sont deux solutions numériques qui ont pu être développées et testées en phase pilote: (1) une solution de paiement marchand utilisant les technologies NFC et QR code et (2) une application mobile pour la collecte et le décaissement de l’épargne.

Making impact at scale

The two pilots, which lasted one year and six months respectively, provided an opportunity to measure the strategic results of the project. In total,  226 Zems participated in the pilot and used mobile money to be paid by their customers and to pay their suppliers. They completed more than 3200 transactions. The feedback gathered have improved both the technical solution and the value proposition.  The digital tontine pilot involved 13 savings groups (115 savers) who tested the application during one full cycle.  The renewal rate after this cycle was  100%, and the Zems Chocos feedback helped improve the application design as well as the user experience.  These pilots laid the foundation for the construction of the digital ecosystem in Benin, including (1)  Zems as brand ambassadors and drivers of digital payments growing awareness of digital payments ; (2)  the implementation of NFC and QR code solutions for mobile payments at the national level with customers using mobile money for payments among a network of more than 2000 merchants (3) the deployment of a digital tontine application at the national level.

 A l’issu de ces pilotes, début 2019, qu’en est-il de la construction de l’écosystème digital ? L’UNCDF le considère plus mature, avec des taux d'utilisation des services financiers numériques qui sont passé de 18% à 40% entre 2017 et 2019. Le Bénin s’est même hissé en pole position en termes de comptes de mobile money actifs au sein de la zone UEMOA et a réussi le pari d’étendre sa gamme de services au-delà des produits de premières génération (dépôts/retraits) pour intégrer les paiement business et gouvernementaux.

Un merci tout particulier à nos impact makers Hermann et Jamelino, et longue vie aux Zems Chocos!

Pour en savoir plus :

1. Les Zem, ambassadeurs du paiement mobile au Bénin (blog)
2. Une tontine digital pour les Zems (video) (video)
3. Supporting MTN Benin in digital payment solutions for moto-taxi (blog en anglais) drivers