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kenzabenessalah

M-Pesa Expands to Europe with Service Launch in Romania | Center for Financial Inclusion - 0 views

  • M-Pesa, the mobile money service success story that began in Kenya in 2007 is continuing its march, this time into the surprising location of Romania, raising the questions, what will the product look like in this new European market and how will it fare. At the end of last month Vodafone, the operator behind the new service and one of Romania’s largest telcos, began operations using the country’s 300 Vodafone Romania stores, participating retail outlets, and authorized agents.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      What I found surprising was the fact that M-PESA began operating in Africa and then entered the Romanian market
nouhaila_zaki

M-Pesa - Wikipedia - 0 views

  • M-Pesa is a branchless banking service; M-Pesa customers can deposit and withdraw money from a network of agents that includes airtime resellers and retail outlets acting as banking agents.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      M-PESA is unique because it offers branchless banking which makes transactions more efficient.
  • It has since expanded to Tanzania, Mozambique, DRC, Lesotho, Ghana, Egypt, Afghanistan and South Africa. Meanwhile services in India, Romania, and Albania have been terminated amid low market uptake. M-Pesa allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money, pay for goods and services (Lipa na M-Pesa), access credit and savings, all with a mobile device.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      I like this excerpt because it describes where M-Pesa has successfully expanded and where the company's expansionist efforts failed.
  • M-Pesa is widely seen as demonstrating that it is possible to make a profit while also improving the lives of the poor.[28] Tavneet Suri, based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and William Jack, based at Georgetown University have produced a series of papers extolling benefits of M-Pesa. In particular, their 2016 article published in "Science" has been very influential in the international development community. The much cited result of the paper was, that 'access to M-PESA increased per capita consumption levels and lifted 194,000 households, or 2% of Kenyan households, out of poverty.[29] Global development institutions focusing on the development potential of financial technology frequently cite M-Pesa as a major success story in this respect, citing the poverty-reduction-claim and including a reference to Suri and Jack’s 2016 signature article. In a report on "Financing for Development", the United Nations write: "The digitalization of finance offers new possibilities for greater financial inclusion and alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and implementation of the Social Development Goals. In Kenya, the expansion of mobile money lifted two per cent of households in the country above the poverty line."[30]
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it reports on academic research describing how M-Pesa is the living example of how the search for profit is not antithetical to inclusion and improvement of lives of the poor. Using M-Pesa as a case study, several researchers praise fintech for its ability to offer greater financial inclusion.
nouhaila_zaki

M-Pesa - 2 views

  • One of the drives for Fintech innovations, like M-Pesa, is financial inclusion, which is mostly geared toward an underbanked or unbanked group of people.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      Financial inclusion is a main priority of M-Pesa.
  • M-Pesa is a virtual banking system that provides transaction services through a SIM card. Once the SIM has been inserted into the card slot of the mobile device, users can make payments and transfer money to vendors and family members with SMS messages. Users with no bank accounts can access the numerous M-Pesa outlets distributed across the country. The money that needs to be stored is given to the kiosk attendant, who transfers the amount in digital form to the user’s M-Pesa’s account. Cash collected from M-Pesa is deposited in bank accounts held by Safaricom. The bank accounts serve as regular checking accounts and are insured up to a maximum of 100,000 shillings (or $1000) by the Deposit Protection Fund. M-Pesa provides receipts as proof of transaction. For a transaction to take place, both parties have to exchange each other’s phone numbers because the phone numbers act as account numbers. After settlement, both parties receive an SMS notification with the full name of the counterparty and the amount of funds deposited or withdrawn from the user’s account. The mobile receipt, which is received within seconds, helps to promote transparency for all individuals involved in a transaction.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it explains how this mobile banking service operates. 1. Payments are made through SMS messages. 2. Cash collected by M-Pesa is deposited in bank accounts held by Safaricom. 3. Phone numbers act as account numbers. 4. M-Pesa provides receipts as proof of transaction.
  • M-Pesa is a virtual banking system that provides transaction services through a SIM card. Once the SIM has been inserted into the card slot of the mobile device, users can make payments and transfer money to vendors and family members with SMS messages. Users with no bank accounts can access the numerous M-Pesa outlets distributed across the country. The money that needs to be stored is given to the kiosk attendant, who transfers the amount in digital form to the user’s M-Pesa’s account. Cash collected from M-Pesa is deposited in bank accounts held by Safaricom. The bank accounts serve as regular checking accounts and are insured up to a maximum of 100,000 shillings (or $1000) by the Deposit Protection Fund. M-Pesa provides receipts as proof of transaction. For a transaction to take place, both parties have to exchange each other’s phone numbers because the phone numbers act as account numbers. After settlement, both parties receive an SMS notification with the full name of the counterparty and the amount of funds deposited or withdrawn from the user’s account. The mobile receipt, which is received within seconds, helps to promote transparency for all individuals involved in a transaction.
    • ghtazi
       
      this article shows us how M-Pesa is a virtual system that provides transaction services through a SIM card. M-Pesa allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money, pay for goods and services (Lipa na M-Pesa), access credit and savings, all with a mobile device.
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  • A farmer has no bank account and wants to deposit his commodity sale proceeds of 1,000 shillings goes to an M-Pesa outlet and deposits the money with the kiosk agent or attendant. The agent, in turn, uses her phone to access the client’s account with the client’s registered phone number and credit the account for 1,000 shillings.
    • ghtazi
       
      M-Pesa target customers are anybody who has a phone.
  • M-Pesa is a mobile banking service that allows users to store and transfer money through their mobile phones. M-Pesa was introduced in Kenya as an alternative way for the population of the country to have access to financial services. Safaricom, the largest mobile phone operator in Kenya, launched M-Pesa in 2007. The service is a blend of two entities where M means mobile and Pesa means money or payment in the Swahili language.
  • Financial inclusion is an initiative that seeks to include residents who have no access to banks or who can’t afford the required minimum deposits in the digital banking era. In order for this initiative to succeed, different sectors must collaborate in sharing data with each other and build a meaningful digital platform.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      I like how M-PESA gave opportunities for those who cannot afford to have bank accounts , an alternative to still have access to those services.
  • Through mobile payment services like M-Pesa, the standard of living in Kenya has improved greatly. Market traders, debt collectors, farmers, and cab drivers don’t need to carry around or transact in a large amount of cash. This means that the occurrence of theft, robbery, and fraud is reduced. Also, individuals and business owners don’t have to wait in long lines for hours to make their electricity and water bill payments because these can be made using M-Pesa.
    • samielbaqqali
       
      The mobile payment industry was revolutionized by M-Pesa. The value of this business in the financial industry is demonstrated by the fact that the term M-Pesa has a financial significance. I believe that by using digitalisation in a way that can benefit people and solve their problems, M-Pesa has gained its impact.
  • To combat fraud, Safaricom mandates that users of a Safaricom SIM card who want to register for M-Pesa have to do so with a valid government ID such as the Kenyan national identification card or a passport. This way, each transaction is marked with the identification of the party transferring, paying, depositing, or withdrawing money from an account.
    • ghtazi
       
      to combat fraud they use either a sim card, ID card, or passport. in this way every transaction made will be marked with identifications of the parties transferring money, paying or whatever action it was made.
  • To combat fraud, Safaricom mandates that users of a Safaricom SIM card who want to register for M-Pesa have to do so with a valid government ID such as the Kenyan national identification card or a passport. This way, each transaction is marked with the identification of the party transferring, paying, depositing, or withdrawing money from an account.
  • M-Pesa is one of the innovative tools that have been birthed from the collaboration of telecommunication and banking sectors in East Africa.M-Pesa began in Kenya and is being utilized in 10 countries, including India and Romania. Emergent technology in the financial sector, or Fintech, has made it possible for financial services and products, like M-Pesa, to be more accessible at small costs.M-Pesa makes it possible for unbanked people to pay for and receive goods and services using a mobile phone instead of utilizing a brick-and-mortar bank.
    • nourserghini
       
      this article explains that M-pesa is a virtual banking platform that gives the opportunity for unbanked or underbanked individuals to conduct transactions through a SIM card.
  • This cross-communication tactic used by M-Pesa is developing rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa, where the telecommunication and banking sectors are working together to create mobile banking services for those with limited access to traditional banking.
    • sawsanenn
       
      Mobile payment is progressively being used in emerging regions in which a large percentage of the population has little or no access to traditional banking such as Africa
  • Mobile money is increasingly being adopted in developing nations where a high percentage of the population has little or no access to traditional banking. Revolutionary services like Paga, MTN Mobile Money, Airtel Money, and Orange Money are disrupting the traditional payment systems used frequently by residents of emerging nations, by changing the economy from a cash society to a digital one.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it reflects the increasing importance of mobile money i.e. as proposed by M-Pesa in developing countries.
  •  
    M-Pesa revolutionized the mobile payment industry. The fact that the word M-Pesa got a financial meaning shows the importance of this company in the financial industry. I think that M-Pesa gained its influence by using digitalization in way that can help people and solve their problems.
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