The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Ripple and other partners have launched Mojaloop. This is an interledger protocol intended to enhance financial inclusion across Africa.
Mojaloop is an open source decentralized payment platform powered by the Ripple blockchain technology. Mojaloop is designed to simplify and reduce the cost of developing inclusive payment platforms, by enabling individual’s digital wallet to connect to their respective bank account and to their children’s school account and complete a transaction.
The Ledger
The brains behind Mojaloop include FinTech developers Ripples, ModusBox, Dwolla, Crosslake Technologies, and Software Group. The platform is said to have been built from the ground up using cutting-edge technology including Interledger Protocol, a solution that settles funds between different providers residing across different individual systems.
“Just as the internet revolutionized digital communication, open-source solutions like Mojaloop can spark innovation and democratize access to digital payments, empowering billions of new customers and driving massive economic growth in developing markets,” – said Kosta Peric, Deputy Director, Financial Services for the Poor, at the Gates Foundation.
If you are a developer and you would like to take a look at the source code of this platform, you can get it GitHub. You can use it to build interoperable systems connecting users’ bank accounts and their mobile wallets and merchants via an open loop directory service layer that easily identifies accounts on either side of the transaction. The system must process the transaction instantly and above all must be secure.
Mojaloop is already working with Huawei, Ericsson, Telepin, and Mahindra Comviva mobile money systems to create an Open API that will enable mobile money interoperability. The API will enable mobile money service providers to integrate Mojaloop into their products seamlessly.
“In order to achieve the full potential of mobile money, we must evolve today’s complex and often fragmented digital payment ecosystem. I look forward to exploring opportunities to leverage Mojaloop to help us achieve our goal of bringing digital financial services to all poor and low-income customers,” said Shi Yaohong, President of Software Product Line at Huawei.
