The Ivory Coast government detailed plans to begin offering interoperability in digital financial services this year, in a bid to boost the number of citizens using mobile money and banking services, Ecofin Agency reported.

Interoperability will enable consumers to send money to those using financial services from another provider. Ecofin Agency stated the government expects an uplift in transaction volumes fuelled by an increase in users.

In a move to increase the number of financial services providers, unstructured supplementary service data (USSD), a key mobile technology for digital services, will be open to companies beyond mobile operators.

The news agency asserted operators held a monopoly in the use of USSD technology.

Along with seeking to boost consumer-to-consumer services, the government is reportedly seeking to digitalise its own financial processes to boost people’s access. Ecofin Agency wrote the goal is to enable access to 80 per cent of its services using mobile.

The measures are part of the regional financial inclusion strategy led by the Central Bank of West African States, it added, noting the government estimated 44 per cent of the nation’s population do not have access to digital financial services.