MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Articles From UK's The Guardian, Nigeria's Business Daily Online Praise Potential of Mobile Banking, Microfinance Across Africa

According to a recent story published by The Guardian, a British newspaper, the African continent is now home to more than 500 million mobile phones and is experiencing a wave of innovation in the field of mobile banking. Individuals are now using their mobile phones to deposit and withdraw funds, transfer money and pay bills. The uptake in mobile banking services is made possible by platforms developed by telecommunications providers, like Safaricom of Kenya and Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) of South Africa, which have launched M-Pesa and MobileMoney, respectively. These systems complement thousands of physical kiosks, where individuals can deposit savings or withdraw cash. Unnamed experts are cited as predicting that global mobile phone transactions will exceed USD 1 trillion in value by 2015. The Guardian article offers a survey of Africa's “mobile banking revolution” but also highlights an initiative of the US-based nonprofit Grameen Foundation. In rural areas of Uganda, where the primary livelihood activity is farming, the Grameen Foundation is leasing phones to educated and entrepreneurial farmers who serve as community knowledge workers (CKWs). These individuals are responsible for... Continue reading here. Contact MicroCapital to receive a complete sample issue of the MicroCapital Monitor, the monthly microfinance newspaper.