Africa’s unbanked may not have a better option than mobile money services for gambling, but they may need one soon. That was the takeaway from SBC Digital Summit Africa panel, ‘Payments in Africa,’ as gambling operators are urged to find options that will meet customer demand.

As banking services haven’t been the greatest, many African nations, and the gambling services that cater to them, have turned to mobile payment options provided by telecom providers. “It has therefore become impossible to do anything in the online space, without having access to these telco based payment services,” said Mark Tipping, CEO of Gaming4Africa.com.

Governements are now discouraging these options, pushing domestic businesses to safer and more traditional payment services. The dilemma, he noted, is that traditional e-wallets have a history of being scam-prone. “Nigerian consumers always had their reservations about using traditional online payment services such as e-wallets, being widely mistrusted,” said Konfambet CEO Tunde Aremu.

Now with the digital economy starting to boom, Africans want more options, but they want them to be better. “We now see that customers want to use more secure options and will pay through card or e-wallet options,” said Aremu. Knofambet is trying to meet those needs by using card carrier services such as Paystack Flutterwave and InterSwitch.