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Supportive payment systems Print E-mail

A paradigm shift needs to occur in order to determine how the poor might be profitably brought into the banking sector.

by

Steve Esselaar Researcher LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Ali Ndiwalana End User Support Manager Directorate for ICT Support at Makerere University, Uganda

Christoph Stork Senior Researcher Link Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 

reprinted without permission from i4d online a great magazine for the ICT4D enthusiast

http://www.i4donline.net/articles/current-article.asp?articleid=1268&typ=Features 

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Money talks Print E-mail

Improved phone technology could revolutionise how people from developing countries support their families, says Simon Batchelor.    http://www.developments.org.uk/articles/loose-talk-saves-lives 

Loose talk spread

Grace works in Nairobi. When she wants to send money home to her father in rural Kenya, she doesn’t use cash but pays him in mobile phone air time. She purchases prepaid “pay as you go” airtime at her local Duka (shop), and sends a code via text message to her father, so he can make use of it. Sometimes he will put the airtime on his phone so he can talk to Grace or other relatives and friends, but often he sells it on to local merchants.

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Mobile wallets and virtual currencies Print E-mail
From http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/feature_articles/mobile_wallets_and_virtual_currencies by Mark Pickens & Brian Richardson

Zara stands at the counter of the village shop waiting to pay for some rice and cooking oil, but instead of reaching for her purse to pay with cash, she takes out her mobile phone and uses that instead. Is Zara some 'with-it' gadget-loving resident of Tokyo or Seoul? Increasingly, customers such as Zara are far more likely to be living in Dakar, Nairobi or Khartoum.

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