Introduction and objectives of the workshop Anne Rita Ssemboga Program Officer

1. ITU Digital Consumer Forum 2019WORKSHOP ON CONSUMER PROTECTION FOR DFS SERVICES31 JULY, 2019 Mbabane, Eswatini Introduction and objectives of the workshop Anne Rita Ssemboga Program Officer Regional Office for Africa Telecommunication Development Bureau International Telecommunication Union

2. Introduction • The potential of the digital economy continues to grow • 51% of population on line equivalent to billion • More that 5.2 billion active mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide at the end of 2018; • In 2017, the mobile industry was estimated to contribute 3.6 trillion equivalent to 4.5% of global GDP- (GSMA)

4. Objectives of the Forum • Share experiences and improve knowledge on requirements for consumer protection in DFS • improved collaboration and identify critical areas for policy and regulatory harmonization- • Strengthened relations and collaboration between national consumer associations, regional, international organizations and entities involved in consumer protection and use of digital services in Africa

5. Outcome • Recommendation on national & regional regulatory consumer framework for DFS • Identify areas for harmonization and collaboration on approaches for consumer protection in respect to DFS • National frameworks • Regional Frameworks

6. References / Information Focus Group on Digital Currency including Digital Fiat Currency • The main objectives of the Focus Group are: • Study the economic benefit and impact of introducing DFC over mobile money; • Investigate the ecosystem of digital fiat currency implementation for financial inclusion; • Map the functional network reference architecture and process components required to implement digital fiat currency and integration with existing payment systems for interoperability; • Identify use cases, requirements and applications of digital fiat currency; • Develop better understanding of the security, regulatory implications, consumer protection, fraud prevention and counterfeiting issues of DFS and how can digital fiat currency can address these concerns; • Identify critical sovereign security, transparency and verifiability of DFC technology and provide guidelines towards the escrow of critical software and hardware components to ensure trust and verifiability; and • Identify new areas for standardization in ITU-T study groups.

7. References • Focus Group on Digital Currency including Digital Fiat Currency • The Focus Group is an open platform for digital financial services stakeholders – such as telecom regulators; financial services regulators; digital financial services providers, payment platform providers; mobile network operators; international organizations, Fintechs and industry forums – to share knowledge and lessons learned in the field to achieve the objectives mentioned above https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/dfc/Pages/default.aspx • Concluded Focus Group on Digital Financial Services • https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/dfs/Pages/default.aspx

8. Thank you and Good Luck anne.rita.ssemboga@itu.int