Searching: Blogs

Are Girls Better at Planning and Saving than Boys?

While there might be a selection bias in terms of fewer boys in the universe actually saving, there is also a perception that boys are not adept at managing their money.

An Alternative to M-PESA? Orange and Equity Bank Launch Iko Pesa

There’s been news of several new mobile money launches over the last few weeks. Digicel in Haiti has just launched its TchoTcho Mobile service. Its main competitor Voila has launched its service for use by relief organizations throughout the country.

Branchless Banking – Scenarios for 2020: Video and Presentations

The scenario examines the impact of a new player in the market and how a competitive and crowded marketplace for bill payment services stimulates a new wave of innovation.

Good Things Come in Small Packages: Mobile Money in Fiji

In the world of mobile money, larger countries get all the attention. But big things sometimes come in small packages – and mobile money developments in the tiny Pacific nation of Fiji is an exciting example.

Social Protection and Financial Inclusion

The 2010 Global Expert Colloquium on Savings and CCTs was co-sponsored by the Ford Foundation, Citi, UNDP, New America Foundation and Proyecto Capital.

Postal Savings Banks Reinvigorated by Increased Competition

Postal banks in South Africa and Kenya are celebrating their 100th anniversary. But the environment has changed dramatically with the advent of mobile money and increased interest from commercial players in the unbanked market.

10 Things You Thought You Knew about M-PESA

Few initiatives in microfinance, or for that matter in development, have been as successful as M-PESA: 3 and a half years after launch, over 70% of households in Kenya and more importantly over 50% of the poor, unbanked and rural populations use the service.

Where Will the Next Mobile Money Innovation Come From?

Kenya grabs a lot of attention with mobile money, but is all the innovation happening at the top of the food chain?

Mobile Health Might Be the eBay to Mobile Money’s PayPal

Nobody gets up in the morning and says “I want an efficient payment instrument today.”

Getting Beyond Payments

Most branchless banking services help clients move money over distance : a money transfer to a family member in the countryside, a bill payment to the utility company, a social benefit from the government.

Branchless Banking 2010: What Price?

Is branchless banking cheaper than traditional banking, and by how much?

Branchless Banking 2010: Is the Hype Justified?

After several years of very high profile attention on mobile money and other branchless banking schemes, we think it’s time to test the hype. Or more accurately, we’ve wanted to for awhile.

How Branchless Banking Can Foster Savings Accounts for the Poor

How can government and private sector most affect the uptake and usage of branchless banking among the unserved majority by 2020?

Mobile Banking for Those with No Mobile

Safaricom’s M-Pesa is now so well known in the mobile banking world that it has come to be accepted by some as a blueprint for mobile financial services. The service relies on the phone in the hands of the customer (now more than 12 million) to perform transactions and the phone in the hands of the agent (all 20,000 of them) to credit and debit accounts.

Microinsurance Momentum in the Philippines

Over a hundred practitioners gathered in Manila on Friday, October 1 for a consultation on the new “Roadmap for Financial Literacy on Microinsurance,” an action plan prepared by a Technical Working Group comprised of all the key stakeholders from government, the microfinance and cooperative sectors and the insurance industry.

Count Them…4 Mobile Money Services Now Live in Tanzania

TigoPesa, created by Tanzania’s fastest-growing mobile network operator, Tigo, is the fourth mobile money service offered in Tanzania. Vodacom Tanzania, a subsidiary of the Vodafone Group, is the leading mobile network operator with a 37% market share.

Mobile Money Innovation… Waiting… Waiting…

To some extent, falling hardware prices and mobile data transfer costs make it inevitable that we will see suddenly cheap technology applied to old problems. But isn’t there more we could be doing?

Enabling International Remittance Services in Georgia

International remittances play an important role in the lives of people across the world, but in Georgia they are of major economic importance, accounting for 9% of the country’s GDP.

Can Mobile Money Be Profitable? We Asked Mobile Money Managers

We surveyed over 20 senior managers from some of the major mobile network operators in over 15 markets. 64 percent of the respondents launched mobile money in the past year. 70 percent claim to already reach over half-a-million customers each with transfers or bill payments or both.

Priorities for Branchless Banking (Part 3 of 3)

Branchless banking is best conceived of as the construction of a network utility. In the third of three blog posts we’ve featured this week, Ignacio emphasizes the applications of this utility for poorer customers.