SDKs are toolkits that software developers use to build applications using pre-built components instead of having to build each of those components themselves. An SDK may contain libraries, documentation, code samples and software tools developers require to build their solutions. APIs on the other hand enable mobile money providers to expose their services through which third parties can offer their solutions, seamlessly integrating tech between the two.
The GSMA says that using these new SDKs, mobile money API providers can now quickly create and deploy new services. A statement by GSMA notes that when using these SDKs, it is possible to handle all the use cases of the Mobile Money API in a quick and simple way.
Some of the use cases are merchant payments, disbursements, international transfers, P2P transfers, recurring payments, account linking, bill payments and agent services (including cash-in and cash-out).
“In way, to create our SDKs, we collected intelligence on market trends and commonly used technologies in the mobile money industry. Insights were gained by researching the API platforms of providers in the market as well as qualitative interviews with leading industry players. This intelligence helped us understand the market needs concerning different technologies, particularly the main programming languages that are commonly used for back-end and front-end development,” reads a statement by GSMA.
All code was built in alignment with mobile money providers’ business needs, making it easier to customise the code. And the first company to applaud this new development is MTN Africa.
“I am very excited about the release of GSMA mobile money API SDKs given the kind of innovation possibilities these tools accelerate. The SDKs enable quicker time to value where the core API capabilities are provided like a reusable utility for any developer, hence leaving the developer to focus more time on their innovation competitive advantage,” said John Mark Ssebunnya , the general manager – technology strategy and architecture MTN Group Fintech.
Ssebunnya added that the fact that the SDKs are available in several front-end and back-end programming languages is a bonus to the fintech ecosystem. The new SDKs were created in five different programming languages: Java, NodeJS, PHP for back-end; JavaScript and Android for front-end.
“The SDKs being open source is another key industry enabling trait that will let any fintech expand on their capabilities while contributing to their robust and secure evolution through gradual community improvement. In the same spirit, the several scenarios made available by the GSMA Inclusive Tech Lab will help us to tailor our own MTN MoMo SDKs and take our API to another level of usability,” he added.
RIGHT STEP
Mobile money continues to be a vital driver of financial inclusion especially in Africa. The increase of mobile money solutions and the reach of their agent networks has helped to spread the access to money transactions over different places and services. In Uganda alone, an estimated 30 million people use mobile money, with transactions volumes amounting to over $8 billion by 2020.
In the most recent State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money, close to 80 per cent of mobile money providers have most of their revenues driven by customer fees. Therefore, many of them are now seeking to strengthen their value proposition with different financial services. This would connect consumers and businesses with a wide range of third-party services to meet their evolving needs, from e-commerce, credit, savings, and insurance, to enterprise solutions for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
Experts therefore look at the development of more SDKs as a step in the right direction, helping to reach different platforms and services and demanding a rapid software development to attend market needs.
According to Innocent Kawooya, the CEO of HiPipo, these toolkits are fantastic steps in the right direction of creating a globally inclusive innovation environment that benefits every innovator while impacting and including all users of digital financial services, especially low-income customers.
“It is exciting to see great efforts by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in supporting initiatives like the Mojaloop Foundation’s Open source, which is a blueprint of the Level One Project, initiatives like the HiPipo’s Include Everyone Program, and 40 Days 40 FinTechs that are supporting FinTechs and DFSPs to access information about new and emerging tools and technologies such as the Tool Kit GSMA has created,” he said.
Adding: “We have witnessed works by Mojaloop and Google to build APIs and Adoption Toolkits such as Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP), open banking third-party payment initiation (3PPI) and all these innovations are a faster way to build a sound, secure, competitive, and universal financial system that is essential for sustainable and inclusive growth of everyone.”
Experts further argue that SDKs can make the job of building innovative solutions much simpler for developers since they are designed to allow developers to rapidly integrate the different mobile money functionalities and services into new applications, making the development cycle shorter.
This is possible because SDKs are built as a layer around APIs, abstracting many configurations that need to be done for the use of the API. They also provide enhanced features like better error handling, and security features like authorisation and authentication. Importantly, they enable easy use of specific scenarios, like specific merchant payments, disbursements or remittances flows, that otherwise would need to be fully built directly by the developers.
From the perspective of mobile money providers, SDKs can enhance their platform offering, and support the creation of an active developer community consuming their APIs, as developers can save time integrating vital API services in a quick and reliable fashion. It helps to enhance provider’s API product proposition, enables the developer community, drives traction in the market, and maximises the provider’s brand credibility.
In a way to make the solution even more attractive and customisable, the SDKs also include a diverse range of code snippets. These are generic pieces of code that help developers to better understand in a general way how the SDKs work for the several scenarios and use cases available. Several code snippets were created, covering over 500 use scenarios, available in all the mentioned programming languages.
As for all technologies developed by the Inclusive Tech Lab, the codes created for the SDKs are an open-source initiative, and freely available to the mobile money community.
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