The majority of my African folks are left out of the banking system when only a few medium class chaps thriving in business, working for multinational or relatives of politicians and politicians themselves can actually afford or deserve owning a bank account, a debit or credit card.
The majority is left out because they are alleged to be unbankable and are therefore forced to deal with cash, they cannot afford or have access to any credit, which eventually helps keep any bubble out of the real economy. Ergo, nearly no one borrows from the future to spend today as oppose to citizens in the US and in most of the West.
In the meantime, these orphan capitalists are abandonned to inflation and hyperinflation in some of the African spots as they do not have access to foreign currency market to edge against their government failures.
I recall watching a video interview of Bill & Melinda Gates at Davos humbly speaking about their pilot project of mobile payments in Kenya with Safaricom, an affiliate of Vodafone. My first feelings and thoughts were: "God bless these guys".
Now, this system has become a reality and may quickly be a commodity among my folks on the continent. It will propel Africans in the 21st century although most or all of them will still struggle to have access to a decent daily food intake, drinking clean water or have any sort of access to the labour market.
Losts of positive implications though need to be celebrated here, last and foremost Carbon Manna:
1- At least, as most poor families own a mobile telephone, they will be empowered to maintain the real value of their average $1/2 income per day.
2- They will quickly develop viable mechanism or behaviour to escape the inflationary pressure chasing their single dolar income.
3- They will have access to first class banking without the middleman and the usurary costs that go with it.
4- They now have the ability to make payments of any kind via their mobile phone, although most of payments will cover their daily purchase of staples.
5- Ultimately, Carbon Manna will sneak into this system to empower my folks with monetizing their carbon footprint, should they choose to trade it by changing their cooking habits from biomass burning to more efficient stoves, by converting their house lightening to solar source, or cutting their motocycle carbon vomiting.
Bill & Melinda need to take credit for tiredlessly taping into the unthinkable and using their creative knowledge to free the developing world from their poverty disease.
By fighting this disease, they are fighting all other overwhelming diseases and they are delighting God.
Please feel free to post in your comments and questions.
---------------------------------- Full article (Crunchgear.com) --------------------------------
GSMA and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Partner to Expand Availability of Financial Services through Mobile Phones
17 February 2009, Barcelona, Spain
The GSMA, which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced an innovative programme that will expand the availability of financial services to millions of people in the developing world through mobile phones.
The Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme, supported by a US$12.5 million grant from the foundation, will work with mobile operators, banks, microfinance institutions, government and development organizations to encourage the expansion of reliable, affordable mobile financial services to the unbanked.
“There are over 1 billion people in emerging markets today who don’t have a bank account but do have a mobile phone,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA.
“This represents a huge opportunity and mobile operators are perfectly placed to bring mobile financial services to this largely untapped consumer base. Based on the initial findings of research conducted with the microfinance centre CGAP and McKinsey & Company, we believe that mobile money for the unbanked has the potential to become a US$5 billion market opportunity over the next three years.”
The MMU programme will fund regulatory and market research to help overcome some of the barriers of providing these services and demonstrate the business case for serving this market. The programme includes a US$5 million fund to catalyse a new wave of mobile money innovation, encouraging mobile network operators to create new services for previously unbanked people in emerging markets.
The MMU programme will support approximately 20 projects in developing countries, focusing on Africa, Asia and Latin America, with the goal of reaching 20 million previously unbanked people with mobile financial services by 2012.
“Traditional financial services are often too costly and inconvenient for people who earn less than US$2 a day to obtain, and too expensive for banks to provide,” said Bob Christen, director of the Financial Services for the Poor initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Technology like mobile phones is making it possible to bring low-cost, high-quality financial services to millions of people in the developing world so they can manage life’s risks and build financial security.”
This grant to the MMU programme is part of the foundation’s Financial Services for the Poor initiative, which is working with a wide range of public and private partners to harness technology and innovation to bring quality, affordable savings accounts and other financial services to the doorsteps of the poor in the developing world.
The foundation believes that setting aside small sums in a safe place allows people to guard against risks, build assets, and provide opportunities for the next generation.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment