

Mobile Banking Takes off in Kenya - cwan
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/mobile-banking-takes-off-in-kenya/

======
bergie
I got to play with M-Pesa when I was in Kenya for Christmas. Very cool system,
especially the fact that it works on all the cheap dumbphones that people
there have instead of requiring fancy NFC-capable phones and payment
terminals.

[http://www.qaiku.com/channels/show/FutureStore/view/a1ff6df4...](http://www.qaiku.com/channels/show/FutureStore/view/a1ff6df41d0c11e0bb9d492282dc8d8c8d8c/)

------
_djo_
It's worth noting that M-PESA is spreading outside of Kenya. Last year it had
a highly-publicised launch in South Africa, backed by the country's largest
mobile operator and fourth-largest bank.

While the country has a well-developed and high-tech banking system, its banks
serve mostly the middle and upper classes and the business community and have
been unable to come up with viable banking products for the approximately 13
million people without bank accounts. It's hoped that M-PESA will fill that
gap.

This isn't the first mobile phone payment system to have been tried in South
Africa; although the only one to have achieved any level of success was
MiMoney, backed by another major bank. But the level of support behind M-PESA
is massive and early indications are that it will see a similar level of
success to what it achieved in Kenya. Already a number of major retailers are
adding it to their systems as a valid payment option or have already done so.

------
thinkcomp
M-PESA is routinely discussed at mobile payments conferences and among top
bankers as _the_ proof of concept for mobile payments. It's always a bit
strange since it's not often in the technology industry that Africa seems
years ahead of the United States.

I think it's a good example of a space where not a lot of institutional
investors (VCs, angels, others) here in the States have been willing to commit
dollars because it's a long-term endeavor with competition--in other words,
exactly the kind of business that venture capital is supposed to help bolster.
It's a shame, really, because there are probably many other innovations with
serious implications (i.e. not consumer internet startups) that have suffered
a similar fate at the hand of a weak and risk-fearing investment community.
Maybe Obama's new policy will help change that.

