n 2012, the micro-lending institute Kiva partnered with Kenya’s Strathmore University to offer tuition loans to low-income students. The loans were crowdfunded by Kiva and distributed by Strathmore University, who selected applicants based on the criteria of having high academic performance and coming from a low-income household, among other requirements. From 2012 to 2018, Kiva fundraised USD 762,675, which was distributed to 84 students who received an average loan of USD 9,004. The program ended in 2018 because the delinquency rate had risen to 14.65%, with many students being unable to pay back their loan owing to scarce job opportunities after graduation (Kiva, 2018).

The former chief executive and co-founder of nonprofit lending platform Kiva.org, Matt Flannery, on Wednesday revealed his latest initiative Branch International Inc., which he calls “a mobile-based microfinance institution for the world.” Branch raised $1.4 million in equity seed funding from Formation 8 and the Khosla Impact Fund. In many ways, Branch operates like a bank in the cloud, one that is accessible not through local “branch” offices, but through a user’s smartphone. It provides small amounts of credit--up to $20--to Android users in Africa, specifically Kenya today, but doesn’t take deposits.

This is why the Vodacom-Safaricom duo has created a joint venture with full powers to make M-Pesa a “super-app” to provide for various needs such as booking taxis, making various appointments or paying for various services by mobile phone.

M-PESA Tips Tips Safaricom investigates all reported cases of fraud or attempted fraud on the network; and our dedicated Fraud team works together with the relevant authorities to seek legal address where appropriate. Fraudsters are known to use tactics that take advantage of customers; they require you to provide information or do something yourself.

Hailed as the “Kenyan technology success story”, many have claimed M-PESA to be a testimony to the greatness of the East African country’s technology scene, producing world-class technology companies that rival those in South Africa. However, is the acclaimed mobile money service really Kenyan at all? The answer is no. M-PESA is British.

For a successful model, the Arab World can look to Kenya’s development of mobile money or “M-Pesa”. In many ways, the elements that lead to M-Pesa’s success in Kenya are already present in the Arab World. Young people in MENA are digitally savvy, are active on social media and are some of the heaviest users of mobile phones in the world.

Researchers have also noted the potential of M-Pesa to affect savings. Morawcyznski and Pickens (2009) observe that users often keep a balance on their M-Pesa accounts, thereby using the system as a rudimentary bank account despite the fact that the system does not provide interest.

Each and every transaction done on the M-PESA platform is electronic and can therefore be monitored by Safaricom, which runs its own bank-grade anti-money laundering system. Even a cash-in or a cash-out operation has an electronic leg and is captured by the system. The Central Bank of Kenya gets regular reports on M-PESA transactions, as it does from other payment service providers.

This article explores the austere labour regime of Safaricom – Kenya's largest telecommunications firm and financial services provider – from the perspective of the women and men who work as ‘human ATMs’ for Safaricom's breakout service, M-Pesa. Far from women and men simply acting as ATMs, I argue that the affective and social labour of these people working at sites across the country constitutes a form of maintenance work that, while essentially free in Safaricom's accounts, critically underwrites the success of M-Pesa and Safaricom.

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.

Most people probably don’t think of Kenya as an innovation and technology hub, but in 2007 it became the launching pad for M-Pesa, a transformative mobile phone-based platform for money transfer and financial services.  Since then, M-Pesa has undergone explosive growth: in 2013, a staggering 43 percent of Kenya’s GDP flowed through M-Pesa, with over 237 million person-to-person transactions. M-Pesa is nearly ubiquitous in the daily lives of Kenyans due to a range of services that include money deposit and withdrawal, remittance delivery, bill payment, and microcredit provision.

The Kenyan government's announcement of a new 10 percent tax in March 2013 threatened the future prospects of M-Pesa, Safaricom's mobile money transfer service, which had revolutionized the way money moved in Kenya. The new tax would be levied on all cash transfers but was largely targeted at M-Pesa, which controlled around 80 percent of the cash transfer market.

Women constitute the majority of remittance recipients globally and remittances have an impact on both women’s actual income as well as on social normsRemittances are believed to directly touch the lives of 1 billion people globally, maintaining millions of receiving families above the poverty line with remittances often representing 60 per cent or more of household income.

Digital money transfer service WorldRemit has partnered with Chinese smartphone maker Huawei to enable the international transfer of money across Huawei's mobile services in Africa, the companies said on Tuesday. Mobile money services that allow customers to transfer funds using their phones have proved hugely popular in parts of Africa, particularly where people have less access to traditional bank accounts.

Through Xpress Money’s extensive agent partner network, WorldRemit customers will be able to make secure, instant money transfers to be collected as cash. Initial countries in the rollout will include Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tonga. Over the next few months, customers will also be able to receive money transfers in their bank accounts, mobile wallets, etc. 

The remittance market in Africa has for too long been monopolised by companies imposing very high fees that are on average three times those charged on remittances to Asia. They combine a pricing structure that imposes extortionate minimum charges with consistently poor services.

World Remit. Starting from 2016, it is now possible to use World Remit website and mobile app to send money from Algeria to Malawi and other 150 countries. You can load your World Remit account through World Remit cash collection points, or some local banks in Algeria. Advantages of using World Remit: It is safe and secure.

What to watch out forMaximum daily limits. Transaction limits depend on how you are sending the money, while a total 24-hour cap of $9,000 applies to all transactions being sent by you out of the US.Changing fees. Depending on where you are sending to, how you are paying and how you are transferring money, your fees may vary. Although a base fee of $3.99 is applied to most transfers, keep an eye on this category when actually completing your transfer to make sure it doesn’t change.No hedging options. WorldRemit only offers one-off transfers, unlike some of its competitors that offer additional tools to help you save money. Hedging tools are most often used to lock in an exchange rate, helping you save money on future transfers if the market shifts against your position.Inconsistent markups. Exchange rates vary through WorldRemit and depend not only on the currency you are sending to but also on the destination country. Expect mid-market markups anywhere from 1-4%.

Ismail Ahmed, founder and CEO at WorldRemit, states that WorldRemit customers can send money with just a few taps on their smartphone and that the new cash pick up service in Algeria enables people in the diaspora to send money to be collected as cash at financial brands back home. WorldRemit customers currently send over 500,000 transfers every month

Digital money transfer service WorldRemit has launched a new cash pickup service in Algeria and Lebanon, according to a press release.In Lebanon, funds recipients can collect cash from more than 130 branches of Wings International. Algerian recipients can collect cash from any branch of Trust Bank Algeria across the country. With the WorldRemit app or website, people in more than 50 countries can send instant, secure money transfers to more than 125 destinations, the release said.