Mobile commerce solutions have been around for over a decade, but their potential as a means of financial inclusion was only explored in 2004 when GCASH was introduced in the Philippines to transfer money and pay utility bills using airtime credits. According to The Independent, “mobile money transfer was initially attractive as a safe, efficient and cheap means for poorer urban migrants to send remittances to their families in rural areas”; however, over time the service evolved to include a wide range of services that served different market segments in various parts of the developing world.
Some Famous Mobile Banking Solutions for the Unbanked Population
While mobile banking (and/or mobile money) solutions deliver utility to the banked population and offer huge development benefits to the poor or non-banked population as well. Here is a chronological list of some famous mobile money/mobile banking solutions that are highly popular amongst the masses in developing countries:
- 2004: GCASH was launched by Globe Telecom in the Philippines
- 2007: MPesa was launched by Safaricom in Kenya (probably the most prominent mobile money solution for financial inclusion)
- 2009: MobileMoney was launched by MTN in Uganda
- 2009: Zap was launched by Zain in Kenya
- 2010: Easy Paisa (Easy Money) launched by Telenor in Pakistan
1. From Basic Financial Services, to…
While money transfer services are popular among mobile banking users (see MPesa Survey, taken from the CGAP website), over time, a variety of services such as purchase of airtime, purchase of goods and services, and payment of bills were offered as well. Naturally, this required mobile network operators to integrate with third-party institutions, such as utility companies and merchants.
(Note: On the technical side, user-friendly interfaces were introduced and transactions were made more secure. You can read more about the actual process behind a typical mobile banking transaction.)
Part 2 of this post-series talks about 4 other developments in the service-scape of mobile banking.
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