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Utilizing Mobile Money in Healthcare

Photo Credit: OpenIDEO

According to article released this week by Uganda Online, hospitals in Uganda are now accepting mobile money to pay for health expenses. While there are eight mobile providers in Uganda, four are providing mobile money services to their customers – MTN’s MobileMoney, Airtel’s ZAP, UTL’s M-Sente and Warid Pesa – with Orange Uganda planning on releasing their version of the service soon. In the article, a picture clearly shows that the hospital (Case Clinic) allows for mobile payments from MTN and Airtel. Other companies in Uganda are allowing for mobile payments – DStv (satellite TV provider), NWSC (water and sewerage) and Umeme (energy provider).

Utilizing mobile money in the health sector is nothing new. M-PESA in Tanzania has been used by the CCBRT Hospital to pay for patients’ bus ticket from rural areas to the hospital’s location in Dar es Salaam (the capital city). In Kenya, Changamka allows individuals to save and pay for health services by combining a medial smart card with M-PESA. In the Philippines, Smart Communications has partner with PhilHealth, a national insurance provider, to allow customers to pay their premiums via mobile money. This list continues as money mobile is being further employed in the health sector which includes insurance, vouchers program, and conditional cash transfers. The ability to save and pay via mobile money for health issues creates insurance for individuals and families that do not have access to typical insurance products. Mobile money has also been leveraged to pay nurses and community health workers serving in rural areas which helps with worker retention and decreases tardiness.

In the mHealth sector, this is a clear sign that innovative solutions can be shaped around current mobile products and services. Once mobile money has been established in countries, this opens doors for new businesses to be developed around the mobile money platform. The examples above show the need and desire for products that create the ability to both save and pay for health service. While the Ugandan example is not a revolutionary app (or killer app), it provides a necessary product so individuals and families can receive curial medical services. In this case, the ‘killerness’ of the service to using mobile money in the health care system is that it fits both the needs and infrastructure of Uganda, include accepting payments from multiple mobile providers.

January 27, 2012/by actualize

Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Financial services demonstrate the most proven sustainable business models within ICT4D

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 of actors (corporations, Citizen Sector Organizations, social entrepreneurs…) in Asia, Latin America and Africa which are using ICTs to provide services to the BoP. Hystra, a French consulting firm and its partner Ashoka evaluated the projects based on their ability to solve a problem, their scalability and their financial sustainability. The report presents 15 of the most ground breaking market-based business models, which have reached a significant level of scale and have improved the living standards of the BoP using ICTs.

Financial sustainability varies across sectors, financial services being the most mature of the four areas studied.

3 of the projects featured as financial services case studies in the report serve profitably more than 5 million customers each via different business models: M-PESA in Kenya with mobile money, Bradesco in Brazil with branchless banking via post offices and small retail shops, and FINO in India with a suite of POS-powered financial services available to over 40 million clients via door-to-door agents.[1]

Why are financial services the most developed area in terms of business model sustainability? One of the reasons cited is the willingness of clients to pay upfront for the service, because it offers them immediate savings compared to previous practices (such as cheaper money transfers). Moreover ICT-based financial services often go well beyond previous offerings, creating new practices for unbanked populations such as savings or insurance schemes that lower their vulnerability to adverse events. For example, some MNOs have developed innovative loyalty-based life insurance covers. These types of products help reduce churn and attract new customers for MNOs while providing a new valuable service to customers.

Establishing trust in the service is a key factor of success for ICT-based financial services, as they deal directly with people’s money. These services require robust and secured platforms, in addition to trusted agents who are able to sell the service, manage liquidity and provide a direct interface between the technology platform and end-users. Leveraging existing trusted networks such as Safaricom’s airtime resellers (in the case of M-PESA) or post office agents (in the case of Bradesco) appears as an effective way to create trust in these services.

The business models studied in the report tap into multiple revenue sources, getting commissions from governments for g2p payments, banks and insurance companies for the opening of new accounts, end-users for the transactions they perform, and MNOs which benefit from customer retention and higher end-users fees. Governments can actually play a large role in promoting such services: using them for their G2P payments, they can be a sufficiently large first client of ICT-based financial services to justify the initial investment in the technology that new companies entering this space need to make – one of the first services offered by FINO was G2P payments and state health insurance, for example. Many actors have tried – with mitigated success – to replicate M-PESA. However, the study points out to a wider range of models which can be just as effective in providing financial services using ICT. The key is to find which business model is suitable in each local context.

The study was sponsored by AFD, Ericsson, France Telecom-Orange, ICCO and TNO and conducted by Hystra and Ashoka. The full report is available for download in the MMU library.

[1] The number of FINO clients stood at “only” 28 million when the case study was done in February 2011, but FINO grows by over a million customers each month!

January 25, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Money: the preferred channel for Haiti 2 years after the quake!

Photo Credit: USAID Impact blog

A new finding by Dalberg Global Development Advisors reveals that mobile money (MM) channel has emerged as the preferred alternative out of four major ICT solutions used in Haiti within the past two years after the 2010 earthquake.

The report “Plugging into Mobile Money Platforms: Early Experiences of NGOs in the Field” indicates that four electronic cash distribution solutions have emerged globally as alternative channels to physical delivery of cash to humanitarian victims. These are mobile money, electronic vouchers, prepaid cards, and smart cards.

The finding attests to the fact that the success of any of these four mechanisms of money transfer will often depend on the supporting environment. For example money transfers through pre-paid and smart cards work better when there exist a strong banking infrastructure and credit card networks. In the absence of this infrastructure such as the case in Haiti after the quake, the only two remaining options are physical cash delivery and mobile-based solutions.

The report continues that in Haiti, MM has emerged as the preferred alternative to physical delivery because of the rapid development of mobile telephony and the successful launch of MM. Haiti has completed more MM cash transfer programs than any other country, and to date, just under US $6 million in transfers has been disbursed to more than 24,000 beneficiaries via the MM channels of six NGO programs, the report said.

It will be recalled that Haiti was hit by a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 M_w earthquake, with the epicenter near the town of Léogâne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital on Tuesday January 12 2010. The aftermath of this earthquake led to a massive relief and recovery efforts by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with global support from individuals, governments, foundations, international organizations and the United Nations.

In June 2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the USAID-funded project in Haiti, Integrated Finance for Value Chains and Enterprises (HIFIVE) announced the launch of the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI) to stimulate the development of mobile money services in Haiti.

For the detailed report, visit here.

January 13, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Nigeria’s Central Bank to issue more mobile money licenses

Nigeria’s Central Bank announced it would issue more mobile money licenses in an effort to streamline the process and deliver more options to Nigerians.

Nigeria’s Central Bank announced it would issue more mobile money license (image: BBC)

The Deputy Director of Domestic Payment Division of the Central Bank of Nigeria Emmanual Obaigbona, said that the move is to assist banks in their ability to move the program forward, which officially began on 1 January.

Obaigbona added in a statement that the aim is to broaden the overall participation in mobile money system, in general, and the cash-less policy in particular.

He added that “the apex bank has already licensed 11 mobile operators who successfully passed the pilot studies conducted for them last year.

“The 11 licensed operators are not the end of the list. The CBN intends to license more operators to meet the set standards for operating mobile money services in the country,” Obaigbona said.

He continued to say that the apex bank’s decision to issue the mobile money license “was to reduce the unbanked population to the barest minimum and subsequently develop the economy.”

Still the move has many analysts worried that it could create too many restrictions in the country, especially after the central bank barred telecom operators from promoting any specific mobile money product.

“I am a bit concerned that this will open the market up too wide and destroy companies and peoples’ ability to understand what they are participating in right now,” said Asamoa Hiran, a telecom and banking specialist in Lagos.

He told IT News Africa that there is “too much confusion right now to really understand what is going on, so we are all waiting to see what the future will hold.”

The launch of mobile money banking hopes to move Nigeria, which has the largest population not using banks, into the financial system.

David Eto

January 12, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Orange Money attracts 3-million customers

Orange Money, the mobile payment service from telecommunications company Orange, has reached the threshold of 3-million customers in the eight countries where it is now offered, thus becoming one of the most powerful electronic money services in Africa.

Orange Money has reached the threshold of 3-million customers (image: stock.xchng)

Orange Money has tripled its customer base in the past year and continues to grow with the recent launch of services in two new countries: in Botswana in partnership with the Standard Chartered Bank, and in Cameroon in partnership with the BICEC (BPCE group).

In countries where it is available, mobile phone customers may open an Orange Money account whether or not they have a bank account. Orange Money allows customers to carry out simple banking operations and transactions in total security.

Orange plans to expand the Orange Money offer in the near future to include the possibility of receiving international money transfers. Orange and Western Union, a global leader in international money transfer services, have joined forces to develop this new service, which will enable Orange Money customers to receive transfers directly on their mobile phones via Western Union’s global system.

According to the World Bank, countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia (AMEA) in which the Group operates receive more than 25 million transfers every year.

“Orange Money is a very important part of our strategy in Africa and emerging markets. Mobile payment services have the potential to bring cost-effective and secure access to banking services to people with low incomes, who often live in rural or remote areas. By providing our customers with the means to save money, pay bills, run their businesses and receive money from abroad, we are not only reinforcing customer fidelity but we are also able to play an active role in the economic and social development of the country,” said Marc Rennard, Orange’s Executive Director for AMEA operations.

January 5, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Money is Better than Cash at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Open your wallet right now. Most likely, you have a debit card, a credit card, a health insurance card, and access to the massive financial infrastructure that these three cards represent.

The ability to store, save, use, and borrow money anywhere in almost limitless fashion, without worry about amount, theft, or even making change. Add in the freedom from a direct worry about health costs, and these three cards represent a level of financial freedom unknown to anyone in the developing world… today.

Mobile Money Revolution

Yet by tomorrow, there will be more people who have similar access to financial services, via electronic transactions on mobile phones. In fact, over the next five years there will be a mobile money revolution at the bottom of the pyramid as international financial institutions like VISA, Mastercard, and the like move in forcefully to service the next billion customers.

They see M-PESA transferring 20% of Kenya’s GDP and the money that can be made offering mobile financial services to the BoP. But its not just payments and credit, there are also opportunities in many other types of financial services.

Here are two examples with insurance, which is usually the providence of in-person sales worldwide:

In Ghana, Tigo Family Care Insurance provides life insurance for prepaid subscribers and their family members in the event of a natural death.
In Kenya, the Syngenta Foundation’s Agriculture Index Insurance Initiative uses mobile phones and weather stations to offer farmers affordable crop insurance.

Now we could go on, but listing examples of mobile money was not the focus of the Technology Salon on how mobile financial services are transforming the economics of international development. What really captured our attention was the realization that mobile phones are merely a conduit to the larger experience of electronic transactions, which include mobile money, but also the full gamut of wealth that is created, stored, and exchanged digitally.

Please join us for the next Technology Salon

Better than Cash

First let us agree that electronic payments systems (bank accounts, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), pre-paid cards, smart cards, mobile money) are a great benefit for everyone involved. Electronic payments systems:

Increase access to basic financial services, including savings, lending, and e-payments.
Reduce barriers to entry for fee-for-service business models
Reduce the risk of money theft and increase personal control over financial resources
Increase speed of payments both to and from consumers, businesses, and government
Improve transparency, mitigate corruption, and reduce leakages in the disbursement of government funds.

A great example of all five of these benefits is the ability to pay for municipal water and electricity services via mobile money in multiple African markets. By making payments electronically, both consumers and government have more accurate records, consumers are able to save for and manage payments, and service providers can expand services with a higher expectation of payment, and more timely payment, therefore serving more customers, more efficiently.

In their Better than Cash program, USAID’s new Mobile Solutions Office seeks to expand electronic payment system use by governments, for utilities but also government payments in everything from conditional payments (welfare, healthcare, etc) for citizens, to payroll payments for government workers, to pension payments for retirees.

The net effect of this shift to electronic payments will be much more efficient government programs. Yet the Mobile Solutions team isn’t stopping with other governments, its goal is to transform the way USAID does it’s programming as well. With language already in RFP’s to encourage implementing partners to use electronic payments in their work, USAID will be pushing a move from cash payments to electronic payments for all its beneficiaries.

Barriers to Adoption

Before we get too far around the hype cycle, there are issues that will retard the growth of mobile financial services and the larger electronic payment systems. First, policy makers may have a grasp of what works to encourage electronic payments and use mobile financial services first-hand, but they don’t often know how to steer their countries from the theoretical to the practical.

Next, at the business level monopoly mobile operators may be just as hard to convince to innovate as a highly competitive mobile phone marketplace with multiple players. Neither situation lends itself to interoperability, which is key for large-scale electronic payment systems and the mobile financial services they support.

Finally, not everyone has a mobile phone. Yes, shocking but true. So simpler systems like scratch cards and offline intermediaries will co-exist with electronic payment systems for years to come. Better that we recognize and welcome them than limit any payment system to one hardware delivery mechanism, no matter its revolutionary benefits.

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January 4, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Leveraging mServices for Development: An Opportunity for MNOs

Photo Credit: City of Dallas

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 escalate, the large rural customer base (a great deal of whom are farmers in the markets we are talking about) represents a sizeable business opportunity for MNOs” said an expert.

This comes as new developments are taking place with mobile financial services across the continent of Africa that has a huge market for all kinds of mobile services. Orange, one of the most prolific mobile financial services provider, is expanding further via a new partnership with Western Union to better meet the mobile services needs of its customers in Africa and Middle East.

The service will allow users to carry out simple banking operations and transactions in total security including money transfers – where users can send money using their phone to any Orange mobile customer in the country; payments – giving users an easier way to pay their electricity, water, television or phones bills, as well as providing a simple way to buy mobile phone credit from any location; and financial services – including solutions facilitating savings and insurance.

While all these services seem “financial”, analysts see the general penetration of mobile technology into the developing world as a great opportunity to facilitate services in other sectors such as governance, healthcare, education, agriculture, rural development, water and sanitation, and the overall economic development. Good partnerships among MNOs and between MNOs and other service providers that focus on the wider services should be the target for all.

GSMA has already initiated a number of programs that call for collaboration to leverage resources to better deliver these mobile services to the millions of rural folks currently left unconnected. Examples include:

m-Health service such as supporting community health workers in gathering and managing health information; capturing and analyzing data for disease surveillance; providing remote diagnoses via telemedicine; improving access to health information and resources through health hotlines; facilitating health education, training and emergency support; coordinating drug and medical supply distribution; enhancing rapid disease testing via mobile phone microscopy applications.

m-Farmer service aimed at driving scalable, replicable and commercially successful mFarmer Services; building services that impact farmers’ income and productivity; reducing the barriers for operators to launch or improve mFarmer Services; testing and proving models for delivering mFarmer Services via mobile phones; and promoting a culture of knowledge sharing in the mFarmer ecosystem.

m-Women service with the objectives of increasing access to mobile phones for 150 million women who live at the base of the pyramid over the next three years and leveraging the mobile channel to improve the socio-economic status of women across the developing world.

m-Learning service that will provide access to or deliver educational content and experiences through mobile devices using a number of technologies including Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS/3G, WiFi or WiMAX, via various mediums with the ability to learn anytime, anywhere.

It is time for the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to take advantage of these opportunities to maximize revenue for their investments and increase their social development impact on the society, especially the remote communities.

December 7, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

The Advent of Mobile Finanical Services in Agriculture

Close up of man in Africa looking at his cell phone As the global population continues to grow – it is expected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050. It will require a 70% increase in food production above current levels. Most of this increased yield will have to be achieved in less developed countries (LDCs), many of whose farmers operate on a small scale and are highly exposed to crop failure and adverse commodity price movements. This month, Vodafone, Accenture and Oxfam released a report on mAgriculture. The report titled “Connected Agriculture” assesses the potential benefits of new mobile data services such as mobile financial services, weather forecasts, and agriculture information and advice for smallholding farmers operating in marginal circumstances.

Additionally, in light of market saturation, MNOs face the task of growing average revenue per user (ARPU) and market share in rural areas. Agricultural Value Added Services (Agri VAS) present a considerable business opportunity due to the enormous potential user base in LDCs. The farming sector in these countries often suffers from chronically low productivity. Lack of information acts upon productivity and income levels like a glass ceiling. However, with increasing teledensity in the developing world – Africa is being tipped to pass one billion mobile subscriptions and become the world’s second largest mobile market by 2016, mobiles are uniquely positioned to address the information and financial needs of farmers – an intervention that can help increase their incomes, yields and economic wellbeing. Vodafone’s research indicates potential $138 billion addition to developing world farmers’ incomes by 2020

The financial and information opportunities at the base of the pyramid (BOP) in themselves hold significant untapped value for the private sector. The BOP has both intricate financial and information needs, which have the potential to be met through mobile money and information-based mobile services. Mobile Money can reduce the financial gap for farmers by giving them access to savings and insurance, which in itself reduces the impact of extreme weather and allows for greater investment in improving production.[1] Meanwhile, m-information services have the potential to open up significant markets opportunities, by relaying sales prices, GIS-based commodity demand information, as well as more basic yet essential information on agricultural best practices and reliable weather forecasts.

While there are existing agricultural information services provided via traditional channels such as radio and television, government extension services as they are usually referred to can be made much more efficient by leveraging the mobile channel. This can help improve their quality and trust amongst user communities increasing their potential for scale. In addition, by linking to them to mobile financial services, farmers will not only improve their productivity but will also be empowered to make better investment and risk management decisions (e.g. request credit for new fertilizers or other inputs they need to grow more and better crops). These benefits are also likely to extend to the wider community as increased agricultural income helps rural families afford education, healthcare and other services.

The GSMA mAgri Programme

The Development Fund’s mAgri Programme was set up in 2009 to accelerate the development, provision and adoption of mobile solutions to benefit the agriculture sector in emerging markets. In June 2011, the programme announced the second phase of their mobile agricultural programme, the introduction of the mFarmer Initiative, a partnership between GSMA, USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The scope of the mFarmer Initiative is to support mobile phone operators and agricultural partners in launching commercially viable mobile information services that bridge the information gap and increase the productivity and income of rural small-holders. It aims to attract 2 million of the worlds’ poorest farmers to become users of mFarmer Services by 2013. This compliments their previous work on mobile agricultural services in India and Kenya.

The team has recently launched the Agri VAS Market Entry Toolkit which explores the opportunities for Agricultural VAS and covers emerging best practice on marketing, service design and business modelling. It is primarily addressed to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), other service providers, and agricultural organisations that are looking to partner and launch Agri VAS.

Just as the successful provision of mobile financial services for the BOP requires innovative partnership models; Agri VAS will require similar efforts from the part of its stakeholders. While MNOs have a leading role to play, they will need the collective support and partnerships from key stakeholders in the agricultural supply chain in order to fully unlock the benefits for farmers in LDCs.

November 21, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Extension Service, Food Security, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Africa’s Agribusiness Dream: How can ICTs Help?

Photo Credit: Timbuktu Chronicles

Earlier this month, the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) held its 8^th Biennial US-Africa Business Summit in Washington DC. One of the key focus areas at the summit was the agribusiness sector in Africa with sessions and workshops covering topics such as “Winning for Farmer Entrepreneurs and Investors”; “Partnering to Build an Integrated Agribusiness Sector”; “Financing a Dynamic African Agribusiness Sector”; “Removing Barriers to Create Opportunities in Regional and Global Trade”; and “Leveraging Development Assistance to Support Private Enterprise”. Stories and experiences from a number of participants who are already in the market in certain parts of Africa clearly show the increasing interest in changing Africa’s agricultural sector from an “AID Recipient” to a “BUSINESS Partner”. This of course, calls for a number of changes including the perception of agriculture by the smallholder farmers that need to be undertaken in Africa’s bid to revamp its agricultural sector.

As an agricultural information specialist, I followed with keen interest the proceedings at the said US-Africa Business Summit with special concern for agricultural development in the continent. What I saw and heard at the summit during the discussions on issues such as farmer entrepreneurship, partnership, financing, removing barriers for regional trade, and leveraging development assistance within the agricultural sector, seemed to be missing a major component – information and communication technologies (ICTs). In fact, one would have expected most of these discussions to have some element of ICTs as enabler or catalyst for the entire agricultural value chain. Especially given the Information Economy Report 2011: ICTs as an Enabler for Private Sector Development (PSD), published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that pointed out clearly that the potential of leveraging ICTs to develop the private sector is far from fully exploited.

Access to information by smallholder farmers is key for producing high quality products to meet market specifications both locally and international. ICTs are key in gathering and delivering timely and accurate agricultural information for farmers to be able to do just that. Smallholder farmers are currently using ICTs in pre-production and production activities across the world that the business sector needs to exploit and leverage upon in Africa. This is being achieved through the reformed and modernized Agricultural Advisory Service (AAS), which connects local farmers to research, market, and policy. Popular applications that should interest companies and institutions interested in Africa’s agribusiness include Grameen AppLab Community Knowledge Workers; Farmer Voice Radio Project; M-Powering Farmers, and other radio services across the developing world.

Farmers also lack access to credit for their production and there are a host of financial services using the new ICTs to facilitate the flow of financial services to smallholder farmers in the developing world. Mobile payments, mobile money, or mobile banking applications are being used to make financial transactions more accessible, faster, and safer for rural farmers. These services also link farmers to financial services and make it easier for them to save money obtained from their farm activities for other social services. These are great opportunities for entrepreneurs and the business community interested in investing in Africa’s agribusiness to explore. Examples include the M-PESA currently operating in countries like Kenya and Tanzania; Mobile Money in Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and others.

Also worth exploring is ICTs for market. When one talks about business, the first thing that comes to mind is “market” and markets affect smallholder agriculture production from inputs supply such as seed, agrochemicals, farm machinery to the outputs or products delivery to the final consumer either in the local, regional or international market. Access to market information helps farmers find out about market prices, make decisions regarding when to harvest, how to negotiate with intermediaries, etc. ICTs models such as esoko in a number of Sub-Saharan Africa countries, e-Choupal and Reuters Market Light in India, Manobi in Senegal, Infotrade in Uganda, and Zambian National Farmers Union MIS are just the tip of the iceberg.

The traditional agricultural extension service, which has been a public platform over the decades, is undergoing a lot of reforms to create an enabling environment for the private sector to heavily invest in the ICTs sector. With the new models of agricultural extension reforms such as decentralization, privatization, commercialization, pluralism, and partnerships, there should not be any barrier for the private sector in using ICTs to enhance their agribusiness in Africa. American and European businessmen and companies interested in Africa’s agriculture should not make mistake by ignoring the importance of “information” in their business – ICTs can help when recognized and incorporated into the agribusiness plan!

October 31, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Airtels’ mMoney Market for Ghanaian: An ICT4D Model

Photo Credit: Airtel

The Sales Director of Airtel Telecommunications Mr. Luck Ochieng ‘outdoored’ an advanced form of mobile banking in Ghana on Wednesday by stating that “this innovative mobile service would help customers to overcome many challenges the public go through when transacting business in their daily lives.”

The mobile money service in Ghana will allow customers to pay their postpaid and DStv bills; pay for goods and services; contribute to their loans and savings; send airtime to themselves, to friends and to family on Airtel or other networks; send money from their Airtel Money account to other Airtel money customers; send money from their Airtel Money account to people on other networks; receive money on their Airtel Money account; and perform Cash-in and Cash-out activities i.e. buy or sell Airtel Money and much more.

This is a huge move in the area of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) in Ghana, which is expected to impact lives from the ordinary citizen through the corporate sector to the national government. With an estimated 80% of Ghanaian being “unbanked”, this opportunity could not have come at any other better time than this. The caption of the news at the Ghanaweb site tells it all “Airtel subscribers can pay ‘trotro’ fares with phones.”

Mr Ochieng emphasized the importance of the service to enhance public safety through a ‘cashless society’ where one could make direct purchases with e-money instead of the actual exchange of cash from one source to another. The Ghanaian society is on high alert in recent years with the rise in attack by armed robbers on market women who carry huge sum of money across the regions for payment of goods and services. In addition to the cost of human lives that are lost in some of these attacks, the indirect consequences on businesses, primary producers, and the transport sector is unbelievable.

Ghana has gone through the various stages of information and communication technology development (ICTD) over the years. This is seen in the significant progress being made in terms of i) developing national ICTs policy to guide the deployment of the technology across the country; ii) the setting-up of an independent regulatory body that is overseeing the overall process to ensure free and fair competitive market; iii) the presence of multiple telecommunication operating companies in the Ghanaian market; iv) revolving funds such as the universal service and access fund (USAF) and other private-public-partnership activities that are in place for financing broadband extension to remote area; v) the development of the physical infrastructure of ICTs in Ghana ahead of a number of its neighboring countries; and vi) the sound environment for developing the technologies associated with the infrastructure for effective functioning are being created.

It is time to look more into information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) – the application of the technologies to improve lives and reduce poverty. So is is time for the implementation of services such as e-governance (connecting all local and central government departments with functioning websites and email addresses); e-agriculture (connecting rural farming communities, empowering them to use the technologies and linking them to market); e-education (connecting scientific and research centers universities, colleges, secondary schools and primary schools with ICTs); e-health (connecting health centers and hospitals with ICTs, especially the rural ones with the urban centers), e-democracy (enabling ordinary citizens to have their voices heard through community access points, connected public libraries, cultural centers, museums, and post offices); and the m-banking services.

Juniper Research predicts that active users of mobile money services will double in the next two years, exceeding 200 million worldwide by 2013. This is an opportunity that no one would like to miss. Airtel is in the right position to take the mobile money industry in Ghana with their “Best Mobile Money Product or Solution” award during the 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

October 20, 2011/by actualize

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