mobile banking

In the West African nation of Mali, back street vendors power the mobile phone market. The major players -- Ikatel, a division of France Telecom, along with the homegrown Malitel -- have official stores, but most of their sales come from the street. In West Africa, subscription service is rare. Instead, mobile phone users purchase plastic-wrapped cards of varying denominations, scratch off a silvery bar much like those found on an instant lottery ticket, and recharge their phones with the code hidden underneath. These cards can be purchased from tin-roofed convenience shacks, egg sandwich vendors, or random men walking down the street, stacks of soccer jerseys slung over their shoulders.

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Mobile banking is taking off, with the potential to change entire economies where the majority of people currently are currently "unbanked," as the term goes. There have been been several very interesting reports and articles recently on the topic.  On the Foreign Policy blog, World bank consultant Christine Bowers writes about the enormous  economic implications that mobile banking has for the world's poorest:

"The World Bank estimates that in many countries, over half the population—"the unbanked"—has never had a bank account. The poor tend to be terrified of banks, since they're often humiliated or ignored when they try to enter them. That means they can't leave their savings anywhere safe, pay a bill without walking the cash to the office, or prove that they're credit-worthy. Meanwhile, mobile phone penetration is through the roof, especially in Africa. In 2000, fewer than 8 million Africans had a mobile phone - now over 100 million do. That's one in nine. Now, anyone with access to a cell phone has a place to keep his or her savings without needing a traditional bank account. We won't see millionaires suddenly emerging from the shantytowns just because they're "banked," but even a small nest egg needs a safe resting place.

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