Deploying mobile commerce in Burundi: lessons learned from Kenya and South Korea

Abstract

The objective of this study is to guide the Burundian government and the private sector by providing policy and strategy directions for successfully deploying mobile commerce. Using the mobile commerce framework developed by Varshney and Vitter, we analyzed the status of mobile commerce ecosystem in the country and identified the drawbacks of existing infrastructure required to m-commerce. After that, we benchmarked on Kenya and South Korea, two successful countries in electronic and mobile commerce. Regarding wireless user infrastructure, we found that Burundi has achieved a nationwide 2G network but does not assure quality of service. On wireless user infrastructure, we found that basic feature mobile handsets are the most used mobile handsets to access wireless network in Burundi. Furthermore, we identified affordability issues due to high taxes imposed on mobile handsets. In the analysis of mobile commerce applications, we observed a lack of local content optimized for mobile handsets. We recommend the government to review its ICT policies by including quality of service assessment and support for local developers of IT applications and local content. Finally, the study suggest the private sector to deploy a mobile payment system, support local application developers and content providers and lastly, partner with International platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter for the benefit of the Burundian citizen.