M-KESHO in Kenya
Finally, M-PESA is connecting with banks in Kenya. And with a big bang too, as two big players in the financial inclusion scene in Kenya are joining forces: Safaricom (the mobile operator behind M-PESA) and Equity Bank are launching M-KESHO, a co-branded suite of financial products that will ride on the M-PESA transactional ‘rails.’ Three years ago, there were 2.5 million bank accounts in Kenya, out of a population of 39 million.
GSMA Publish 2010 Mobile Money for the Unbanked Annual Report
Today the GSMA is publishing our 2010 Mobile Money for the Unbanked Annual Report. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the last year has been a busy one for our programme – and this report catalogues our key pieces of work, including a reference guide on how to build, incentivise and manage an agent network and detailed case studies on Zap, True Money and the Philippines.
GSMA Announces Seven New Grant Recipients from the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Programme
The GSMA announced the details of a further seven grantees from the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) Fund, which is administered by the GSMA Foundation, Inc., with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. New grantees are Cellcard in Cambodia, Digicel in Fiji, Orange in West Africa, Safaricom in Kenya, Tata Indicom in India, Telenor in Pakistan, and Tigo in Africa.
2010 Mobile Money Summit – Day 1: Mobile Money for the Unbanked Working Group
Today, the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro has been the host of the 5th Mobile Money for the Unbanked Working Group. The MMU Programme is at its midpoint and since its inception in February 2009, we have not only built a strong grant portfolio of over 19 projects; but have also witnessed the emergence of approximately 147 mobile money deployments worldwide. In the past twelve months, the MMU programme has set itself a goal – to provide mobile money services to 20 million unbanked consumers by 2012.
Protecting Customers and Operators from the Abuse of Mobile Money Services
Before launching a mobile money service, it behoves operators to think carefully about how to prevent abuse that would harm customers. Such foresight helps assure regulators that the service will be safe
GSMA publish Part 3 of the Handbook on Agent Networks: How to Manage a Network of Mobile Money Agents
Today the MMU team is delighted to release the final section of our handbook on mobile money agent networks. This instalment discusses managing a network of mobile money agents on an ongoing basis. In this article, we argue that serving as a mobile money agent makes a number of unusual demands on retailers: rather than selling a product, like fast-moving consumer goods or even airtime, mobile money is a service, offered in accordance with a set of processes that agents have to learn and adhere to.
GSMA Publish Case Study on Zain’s Zap
Today GSMA is publishing a case study on ‘Zap’, Zain’s mobile money service that was introduced in February 2009. In just over a year, Zap has been deployed in Bahrain, Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Niger, Malawi and Uganda. But while Zain’s desire to make Zap ubiquitous is clear, so far their approach to designing mobile money ecosystems has been less well documented – and perhaps a bit misunderstood.
