I participated in a very informative event this week in Washington DC where a researcher was sharing his experience on “Weather-Index based Crop Insurance for Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia”. As I listened to the discussion as an agricultural information specialist, my concern was what is the role of mobile technologies in this? According to the [...]
On Thursday, March 29th, The NetHope Payment Innovations Working Group held its first session. The theme focus of this session was a general overview of branchless banking 101. The working group was lead by Sarah Rotman of the Consultative Group for Assisting the Poor (CGAP). Sarah has worked with CGAP for nearly fours years, and [...]
As written in this blog before, there has been continued innovation in the mobile banking sector in developing countries this year. But, as surmised by CGAP, there is a greater need to find a balance of products that meet the specific needs of those who traditionally have not had access to formal financial services. While [...]
During my presentation, I shared with the audience some of the latest relevant updates and trends that we are seeing from around the world in terms of the uses of mobile money and mobile banking services. One interesting theme is the use of viral marketing to support the expanded use of mobile money and mobile [...]
In a report released in February, GSMA examined the value generated to both consumers and mobile operators by developing interoperable mobile money systems. Entitled “The case for interoperability: Assessing the value that the interconnection of mobile money services would create for customers and operators” and co-authored by Neil Davidson and Paul Leishman, it was released [...]
On February, as a part of the ICT Learning Days at the World Bank, Sonja Oestmann, the Director of Consulting and Partner of Intelecon, presented the findings from a report commissioned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) about mobile money. Entitled “Mobile Money Study 2011,” the reports focused on the mobile money markets in four [...]
As the Mobile World Congress 2012 wraps up in Barcelona, there has been a flurry of news about social investments in mobile money. On Wednesday (February 29th), Omidyar Network and ACCION International announced a $3.2 million investment in Mobile Transactions International, a Zambia-based organization with a technology platform and network of agents for mobile transactions. [...]
Within the last month, there have been multiple new examples of mobile phones being leveraged to expand financial services in developing nations. With the popularity and quick success of M-PESA in Kenya, there was a push to copy the model in other developing countries. But it has been realized that the M-PESA model cannot be [...]
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Hystra Consulting and Ashoka. A recent study reveals how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can viably provide access to education, healthcare, agro-services and financial services to the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). The study reviewed more than 280 initiatives set up by various types [...]
Egyptian bank Credit Agricole Egypt launched has announced on Tuesday it had launched new banking that would allow both customers and non-customers to pay bills without a CAE debit or credit card. Analysts believe this is one step closer to full-on mobile banking in the country. Analysts believe this is one step closer to full-on [...]
