[November 23, 2009] Telecoms Firms Grow Mobile Money Tweet Nairobi, Nov 23, 2009 (The East African/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- MTN Uganda and Vodacom Tanzania are among six beneficiaries of grants from the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Fund, which is administered by the GSM Association Foundation, Inc, which represents the worldwide mobile communications industry. Other beneficiaries include MTN Cameroon, AKTEL (Bangladesh), Dialog Telekom PLC (Sri Lanka) and Grameenphone Ltd in Bangladesh. The MMU grants fund projects promoting the uptake of mobile money services for the unbanked and underbanked, with funding for projects up to $1million. Research shows 60 per cent of Ugandans are unbanked and 71 per cent of them save in "secret" places -- such as under the bed. MTN Uganda will help connect the 86 per cent of rural people, particularly small-scale traders and those who buy and sell agricultural produce, to banking services. The simplicity and security of the MTN MobileMoney is designed to narrow the gap between rural and urban communities and enable merchants to reduce transport costs and also avoid being targets. Vodacom Tanzania has an established and growing M-Pesa customer base. However, lack of disposable cash among the agent network is seen as a major obstacle to increased agent e-money float holding and hence transaction volumes. Wider line of e-Money The grant will support a project to enable Vodacom Tanzania to provide a geographically wider line of e-money credit or revolving credit to increase the total float holding value within the M-Pesa agent network. The additional investment will see customer access and usage improve as entrepreneurs invest in the M-Pesa business opportunity and grow the agent network. "These and our previously announced MMU grants are being used to significantly accelerate acceptance and adoption of mobile money services for base-of-the-pyramid customers globally," said Gavin Krugel, director of GSMA. He said operators are working to reduce the infrastructure gap in rural areas and are making m-Commerce more accessible, convenient and affordable to customers. "Mobile money can change the lives of unbanked people for the better," said Eden Zoller, principal analyst at ICT research firm Ovum. "For most it will be the first time they have had a financial identity -- a profound and positive change." In Cameroon, less than 10 per cent of the working population has a bank account. MTN's MobileMoney service targets farmers, workers and small entrepreneurs for peer to peer, account to cash, and cash to cash payments by mobile phone. Subject to regulatory approval, it will also be used to pay utility bills. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]