Context

In this course, you will be introduced to concepts like Mobile and Agent Banking, Mobile wallets, the different types of Mobile Money Accounts (MMA’s), mobile payment systems/gateways, and payment system integration.

We will assume that you have basic programming and computer skills. Knowledge of Web Application programming will also be beneficial as we will be discussing technical concepts like API calls, REST API, JSON etc.

However, we will be following simple steps to grasp the concepts, technology trends and what needs to be acquired in order for you to start accepting payments from customers or doing a custom payment system integration projects for other customers using the knowledge and skills you get from this course.

This course is divided into three major sections. The first section brings the general concepts of Mobile Bank Wallets and related technologies of delivery.

The second section focuses on deep-diving into the technical aspects of integrating a payment system by using API into your service delivery platform (web application or mobile apps) in our case HelloCash Payment system with its associated HelloCash/OneCash API

The third section focuses on taking on the HelloCash API and implementing a sample business case where a business is able to sell its products and services using HelloCash/OneCash payment system by integrating HelloCash/OneCash API with its business services delivery platform.

Overview

The following terms will be useful to get started with your progress in this course.

Mobile money and Mobile Payment

According to Wikipedia, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_payment) generally refer to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device. Instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods.

The use of a mobile phone in order to transfer funds between banks or accounts, deposit or withdraw funds, or pay bills. This term is also used for the broader realm of electronic commerce; it can refer to the use of a mobile device to purchase items, whether physical or electronic.

(taken from:

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/mobile-money.html )

Payment system

A payment system is any system used to settle financial transactions through the transfer of monetary value. This includes the institutions, instruments, people, rules, procedures, standards, and technologies that make exchange possible. A common type of payment system is called an operational network that links bank accounts and provides for monetary exchange using bank deposits. Some payment systems also include credit mechanisms, which are essentially a different aspect of payment.

Payment systems are used in lieu of tendering cash in domestic and international transactions. This consists of a major service provided by banks and other financial institutions. Traditional payment systems include negotiable instruments such as drafts (e.g., cheques) and documentary credits such as letters of credit. With the advent of computers and electronic communications, many alternative electronic payment systems have emerged. The term electronic payment refers to a payment made from one bank account to another using electronic methods and forgoing the direct intervention of bank employees. Narrowly defined electronic payment refers to e-commerce—a payment for buying and selling goods or services

offered through the Internet, or broadly to any type of electronic funds transfer.

Modern payment systems use cash substitutes as compared to traditional payment systems. This includes debit cards, credit cards, electronic funds transfers, direct credits, direct debits, internet banking and e-commerce payment systems.

Payment systems may be physical or electronic and each has its procedures and protocols. Standardization has allowed some of these systems and networks to grow to a global scale, but there are still many country-specific and product-specific systems. Examples of payment systems that have become globally available are credit card and automated teller machine networks. Other specific forms of payment systems are also used to settle financial transactions for products in the equity markets, bond markets, currency markets, futures markets, derivatives markets, and options markets. Additionally,. forms exist to transfer funds between financial institutions. Domestically this is accomplished by using Automated clearing house and real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems. Internationally this is accomplished using the SWIFT network.

(taken from : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_system )

HelloCash/OneCash

HelloCash/OneCash is a digital Banking platform developed by BelCash and operated by our partner Financial institutions to provide digital banking services to their customers.

HelloCash/OneCash renders its services to customers by using their mobile. Therefore as mobile money platform having an active mobile phone number is mandatory.

Account types

There are three major HelloCash account types; namely Personal/Regular, Business/Enterprise, and Agent.

Our Personal/Regular accounts

This HelloCash/OneCash account type is meant for any citizen at least 18 years old. After registration, the end-user can buy airtime top-up, pay bills, and send money to relatives and friends in an easy and fast way using their mobile phones.

Our Business/Enterprise

Payment collection and disbursement are one of the main pain points for many businesses.

Our Business/Enterprise portal is not only solving the collection and disbursement problem but also provides a detailed summary report and notifies each transaction.

HelloCash/OneCash Agent

This category of HelloCash/OneCash customers acts as a bridge between the banks and customers.

They facilitate HelloCash/OneCash account creation, deposits, withdrawals and airtime top-up.

HelloCash/OneCash services

The HelloCash/OneCash service enables existing and potential customers of the financial institutions to carry out transactions in four key areas: deposits, withdrawals, transfers and payments. One of the unique features of HelloCash/OneCash mobile money service is the shared infrastructure feature, allowing multiple financial institutions to serve each other’s customers.

Now all customers of partnering banks can visit any agents or branches to access financial services,  regardless of which bank the customer belongs to. The sharing of agent networks allows partnering banks to optimize their investment, as well as increase nationwide service coverage.

Some of the core services given to HelloCash/OneCash customers are depicted below by HelloCash/OneCash account types.

Personal

1. Send money
2. Airtime top-up
3. Bill payment
4. Merchant payments
5. Remittance
6. Balance check
7. Deposit at an Agent or Bank branch by giving cash
8. Withdraw cash from the Agent or Bank branch
9. HelloCash/OneCash to/from Core banking own account push and pull

Business

1. Send money
2. Request payment from customers
3. Withdraw cash from the Agent or Bank branch
4. HelloCash/OneCash to/from Core banking own account push and pull

Agents

1. Bill payment on behalf of a customer using a bill reference
2. Deposit (load HelloCash/OneCash wallet for HelloCash/OneCash customers)
3. Withdraw of cash to HelloCash/OneCash customers from their HelloCash/OneCash wallet
4. Airtime top-up

Value-added features for enterprise customers

BelCash also provides the following additional services to Enterprise HelloCash/OneCash customers.

CRM

Standard customer relations management (CRM) with features like customer contact information, billing and notification, announcements through bulk SMS etc.

Enterprise Portal

Enterprise customers use this web portal to download transactions, transfers and invoices. Additionally, they will be able to generate reports on transactions, send invoices to customers, set up API WebHook connection settings etc.

Third-party integration API

Integrate HelloCash/OneCash with your service. The HelloCash/OneCash API is intended for several types of business third-party integrations. It includes support for all types of credit transfers.

After Authentication, a member’s transfer history may be accessed and new transfers created.

Most members need two-factor authorization to complete transfers. This process can be initiated with the /transfer/authorize endpoint. One or more PREPARED transfers may be authorized in one go.

General

• authenticate for logging in and getting a Bearer token API key. The API key must be passed as Authorization: Bearer header on all other requests.
• transfers for checking transfer history and making new transfers to other members, if allowed
• accounts for accessing multiple accounts from one login, if allowed
• airtime for performing airtime top-up
• invoices for entering and retrieving the status of invoices
• connections for remote access tokens, IP whitelist settings, and webhook settings

Integration styles

There are several ways to use the HelloCash/OneCash API, depending on the intended use case.

• Make HelloCash/OneCash transfers from your account using POST /transfers
• Make HelloCash/OneCash transfers from your account using POST /transfers, then interact with the transfer using webhooks
• Receive HelloCash/OneCash payments to your account, listening to webhook AUTHENTICATING, RECEIVED and/or PROCESSED events
• Allow HelloCash/OneCash users to send you transfer requests, and process them by listening to PREPARED webhook events
• Make HelloCash/OneCash transfers, with potential later transfer amendments using PUT /transfers/{id}

For making transfers, and any other direct HelloCash/OneCash API access like getting a list of transfers, you will need to set up a refresh token in /connections which must be stored securely in your server.

For many integrations, it is possible to use only webhooks, without the need for direct API calls. This can make it easy to support sophisticated integrations with high reliability. Webhooks allow the complex retry, timeout and error logic to be handled mostly on the HelloCash/OneCash side.

Deep dive

General concepts API, REST, WebHook

For the technical deep-dive of the HelloCash API please follow the following link to HelloCash API documentation https://api-et.hellocash.net