Mobile Money Essay

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Developing countries are severely constraint by the physical infrastructure of the financial institutions which means that a large part of its population is excluded from the formal banking system such as Kenya and many other African countries. Thus with the aid of mobile money the populations of these developing countries are benefited. Some benefits of mobile money are that financial inclusion has a multiplier impact on the lives of people drawn into the formal financial system which leads to social inclusion. Thus when the poor class get access to financial services, their cash flow management gets better, their financial planning is enhanced and their savings are increased with increased options for providing for themselves for their old age at this time. (Agrawal, 2010) Mobile money is called as intangible cash in the economy, in the absence of formal banking system; most of the transactions are cash based giving no audit trail to the regulators. M-PESA (mobile money) brought in the transparency in the money transactions by reducing the availability of cash and digitizing the transactions. M-PESA is equivalent to smart cards …show more content…

The cost of money remittance is very high in most of the parts of the world ranging from 3 % to as high as 10%. This is why more people depend on informal channels (through friends and family) to remit money or physically deliver the money. Traditionally, this has meant high fees, risky unregulated services, or long expensive trips carrying cash in an unsafe and unpredictable environment. It has been observed that M-PESA users needed to make fewer trips back home to deliver money and the transaction size also came down with frequent transfers. Unlike bank, the M-PESA service is accessible 24X7 and money can be sent anytime, anywhere. (Agrawal,

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