Mobile money for the unbanked

BARCELONA, SPAIN: The GSMA joined hands with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, at the Mobile World Congress 2009, inorder bring low cost mobile financial services to emerging markets.

The Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme would put $12.5 million on the table and work closely with operators, governments, banks and other stakeholders to accelerate the roll-out of services.

The MMU would bring in commercial opportunity with services that were of genuine benefit to unbanked people. Ovum forecasted that mobile money transfers in the Middle East and Africa would grow from $1 billion in 2008 to $20 billion in 2012.

Eden Zoller, principal analyst, Ovum, said: "There are strong evidences that mobile payments in emerging markets can be successful for all parties concerned. The best known is probably Vodafone Safaricom M-Pesa service in Kenya, where there were 4.2 million M-Pesa users at the end of September 2008 transferring around Euro 100 million of funds every month, mostly in small sums of between Euro 5-20."

Mobile service provider Zain also announced a new mobile banking service called Zap that would bring cater to over 100 million people in East Africa.