December is the time of the year when much of the world does a lot of big spending and sends money home to family. If you don’t have a bank account, the logistics of transferring and saving money, or even making payments, become far more difficult. Mobile Money has been called a boon to the unbanked, specifically within Africa. Here are some facts about the penetration and effect of Mobile Money services for the unbanked in Africa.
From Safaricom: Annual Results March 2009 and Related Press Releases
M-PESA – Kenya’s incredible Mobile Money success.
• Launched in March 2007, it already has over 6 million users.
• More people in Kenya are registered for M-PESA than have a bank account.
• 6.175-million registered users (31 March 2009).
• Growth rate of 198% between March 2008 - March 2009.
• 11,580 new registrations per day (March 2009).
• 8,650 retail outlets countrywide.
About Mobile Money Users
• There are around 3.5 billion people in the world who currently have no access to formal financial services.
• In countries like Kenya and the Philippines, this proportion is 90% and 74% respectively.
• The number of people who don’t have a bank account but do have a mobile phone is estimated to be over 1 billion.
• In the Philippines, 16% of the unbanked population is ‘formerly banked’.
From GSM World: GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked (Annual Report 2009)
• The unbanked still find ways to access formal and informal financial services – in the Philippines, the following services are used by the unbanked:
• Mobile Money in Kenya is commonly used to send money back to family, and is less commonly used for retail.
• Users favour Mobile Money for a number of reasons, but primarily because of low service charges and speed of transfer.
• Mobile Money is primarily used to send and receive money, but is increasingly being used for buying airtime and everyday purchases.
• 51.7% of Kenyan Mobile Money users use the service once a month (around payday), only 27.9% use the service less often than that.
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