Evina, a cybersecurity company for carrier billing, and Telecoming, a tech firm developing DCB experiences, released the 2022 edition of the DCB Index. This initiative is part of the strategic alliance between the two companies to place Direct Carrier Billing, which is a payment technology that allows mobile users to pay for any service by charging the purchase to their carrier bill, at the forefront of the payments industry and reinforce their commitment to developing a transparent, secure and stable mobile economy. The DCB Index provides insights into the Direct Carrier Billing market of countries in the Middle East and Africa region (MEA), ranking them according to their current DCB status and potential to further develop this growth-boosting mobile payment method.
The ranking is based on four main factors: mobile players' actions to prevent fraud on DCB, their drive to innovate in DCB, the country's overall DCB penetration and the DCB growth potential. For ready reference, the results of the Evina reveal that South Africa is the leading country in the ranking, with the highest score. All mobile operators are deploying DCB, and there is an overall increase in fraud protection compared to last year.
In the Middle East and North Africa, Morocco and UAE steal the show, surpassing last year's leader Bahrain. Morocco has significantly increased DCB deployment and invested in cybersecurity measures to protect this payment technology. Moreover, Nigeria and DR Congo follow close behind, differentiating themselves by opening more opportunities for DCB deployment and increasing their level of protection against fraud attempts on direct carrier billing.
David Lotfi, CEO of Evina, explained that “the overall fraud prevention of mobile players across the Middle East and African region has increased by 0.2 compared to 2021, showing a collective willingness to safeguard the powerful payment tool that is Direct Carrier Billing. Businesses have yet to understand that DCB can become even more powerful than credit cards and that mobile operators already have all the advantages to elevate DCB and become the biggest fintech companies. DCB is without a doubt a major opportunity for the African continent, alongside mobile money, if protected with the right cybersecurity solutions. This DCB Index has been created with the sole purpose of giving mobile players an overview of the development of DCB in the MEA region in order to better understand how to improve their business in their own country, or what conditions to consider when deploying in these countries."
