Will Africa’s Mobile Money Revolution Take Hold?

From AFK Insider -

“When mobile network operator (MNO) Safaricom launched its M-Pesa mobile payments system in Kenya seven years ago, few business models were as ripe to explode. With extremely high mobile penetration rates, a high proportion of unbanked households, a regulatory system that allowed telecoms companies rather than banks to lead the way, and a migrant population suffering from expensive domestic remittances, it is little wonder that more than two-thirds of Kenyan adults use the service today.

In fact, M-Pesa has become the largest driver behind financial inclusion in Kenya. Today, 66.7% of the country’s residents have access to formal financial services, compared to just 41.3% in 2009. In addition, 43% of Kenya’s GDP passes through M-Pesa.

But the service, which has also been quite successful in Tanzania, is not just the continental leader in mobile payments. It can additionally boast of operations in non-African countries where its parent company, Vodafone, operates, including Afghanistan, India, and even EU-member Romania.”

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Forget Bitcoin: There’s A Better Model For Mobile Money

From ReadWrite

“It's called M-Pesa, and it's also spreading around the world.

Bitcoin has all the buzz right now. But there's another financial innovation that could have a far more meaningful impact on the lives of billion of people without bank accounts across the world.

In 2007, two years before the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto wrote the original proposal for Bitcoin, Safaricom, a Kenyan telecommunications company effectively controlled by Vodafone, launched M-Pesa, a service that let anyone with an active cell-phone line send and receive money instantly.

“Pesa” means money in Swahili, and M-Pesa, short for mobile money, has become synonymous with money in Kenya. M-Pesa transactions accounts for 40 percent of the gross domestic product. It has spread beyond Kenya’s borders to South Africa, Afghanistan, India, and most recently Romania. It doesn't require smartphones; it works on the very basic so-called “feature” phones that are common in the developing world. If you can send a text message, you can bank with M-Pesa. “

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Kenya's mobile wallet tech expands to Eastern Europe

From CNN Money

“Nairobi's M-Pesa, a mobile payments service that allows money to be deposited, withdrawn, and transferred using a phone, is credited with transforming tens of millions of lives in Africa by making financial services available to people not served by the conventional banking system, from the Masai Mara to Lesotho.

Now the world's most successful mobile wallet technology is expanding beyond Africa to Europe, starting with Romania. In what may be a historical first, the move involves the export of a technology from the developing to the developed world, reversing a centuries-old trend.

"So far, M-Pesa has found success in similar markets that have relatively low smartphone adoption, less access to financial services and credit cards, and that are predominantly prepaid," says Jack Kent, a mobile analyst for IHS Technology in London. In Central and Eastern Europe, he says, credit card penetration is below 20%, and prepaid mobile plans are used by 70% of subscribers.’

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