Kenya Has Beaten The World In Mobile Money

Kenya has built an economy on mobile banking. Just by exchanging numbers using Safaricom, Kenya’s mobile banking system, you can pay for anything—it’s a totally cashless transaction. The service, named m-Pesa, was developed in 2007 by Safaricom and Vodaphone. “By 2010, over 50% of Kenya’s population had used it—this means rural villagers haggling over produce, then using their Nokias to make the final deal.” Using this service, people can pay for anything but they don’t need to have cash, a permanent address or a bank account. People living away from home can send money to their families via mobile phones. To use the service, customers go to m-Pesa shops to exchange cash for virtual credit, known as E-float. E-float can be swapped in a single text message and that message is used to get cash. m-Pesa has also created jobs within Kenya—another benefit. Other countries are jumping on the bandwagon: across Africa but also in India and Brazil, various groups are thinking up ways to implement this into their own systems.