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M-PESA: Mobile Money for the "Unbanked"
Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, August 3, 2007
Kenyan currency and cell phone SIM cards combine to spread microfinance. Photo credit: Michèle™ (CC).
Kenya's largest mobile network operator recently launched an innovative payment service for the unbanked. It's called M-PESA, combining the "M" from mobile with the Swahili word for cash. Together these technologies are helping spread microfinance and financial services to the poor.
Nick Hughes and Susie Lonie each wrote one part of this case study. Hughes is the Vodafone executive who started this project in 2003. He now heads a mobile payments team with the task of growing the business globally. Lonie is a mobile-commerce expert who managed the project from design to pilot to commercial operation.
© 2007 Nick Hughes and Susie Lonie. Republished from the winter & spring 2007 issue of Innovations with kind permission.
Download: M-PESA: Mobile Money for the "Unbanked" (PDF, 871.92 K)
Read More: Business, Communication, Development, Finance, Poverty, Technology, Kenya, Africa
- M-PESA: Mobile Money for the "Unbanked" (Innovations)
- Reach Out and Enrich Someone (Briefings)
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