The most well-known mobile money implementation in Latin American and the Caribbean has been in Haiti. But with a large and diverse population of mobile phone users (460 million!) in Latin America and an estimated 35% of adults with an established bank account, it would seem clear that mobile money (or mobile financial services – [...]

Western Union and the MTN Group today announced the launch of a mobile money transfer service in Uganda enabling MTN customers to send and receive money via their mobile phones. This service was announced at a press conference today in Kampala. The Western Union/MTN mobile money transfer service in Uganda will allow users cut down [...]

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 [...]

Vodacom Tanzania has launched a mobile version of money-transfer company Western Union to all their M-Pesa clients, which will allow them to send and receive money from anywhere in the world. At the moment, M-Pesa clients can only transact with 75 countries. Vodacom Tanzania managing director Rene Meza (image: MyBroadband) “We have introduced this service [...]

The importance of mobile network operators (MNOs) who are currently investing in mobile agriculture services (m-agri) to view and utilize their investments as part of the wider “mServices strategy” that includes m-health, m-financial services, m-education, m-governance, m-women, etc came up in the just ended mFarmer and e-Agriculture online discussion. “As competition between operators continues to [...]

Zelalem Dagne had spent the past twenty-five years in the United States, but the thought of returning to Ethiopia continually intrigued him.  Eventually, with some prodding from friends and co-workers, he returned.  What he saw surprised him; the country was ripe for development and for new businesses, Dagne explains.  Despite his initial urge to “do [...]