November 1, 2005
Cell phones plug Africa's poor into mobile banking
Mobile technology has already revolutionized communications in the world's poorest continent, bringing phones to millions of poor and isolated people who had never before made a call, reports Reuters.
"Now cell phones are serving as a bank in your pocket, providing virtual accounts for South Africans excluded from the financial mainstream by exorbitant charges and branch networks clustered in wealthy white suburbs.
[ Picture of South African bushman on cell phone by Sean Fitzgerald ]
... Open to anyone with a phone, mobile banking has proved a hit with people such as Mpanza in South Africa's townships and villages, and looks set to spread quickly across Africa.
Account holders use text messages, or SMS, to pay for goods, transfer money to friends and family and top up the credit on their pre-pay phones. Bosses can pay salaries direct into cellular accounts and customers can deposit cash at Post Offices and some bank branches.
It's cheap, it's easy, it's unintimidating," said Jenny Hoffmann, head of MTN Banking, which launched the service earlier this year. "And if you live on a hill in (rural Africa) you don't have to go to town to make a payment."
Related articles:
-- Africa is in the grip of a mobile phone revolution
-- Africa's cellphone boom creates a base for low-cost banking
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/11/010456.htm