Unit 4 Macro M-PESA supporting growth and development

M-PESA is a mobile payment solution launched in March 2007 and credited with having a significant impact on economic development in Kenya. This blog will carry updated resources on M-PESA and it’s economic and social impact. Click below for resources

Basic Background:

• Launched in March 2007
• Named after the Swahili for money (pesa)
• Operated by Safaricom (40% owned by UK mobile phone business Vodafone)
• Originally a micro-finance project
• Less than 10% of Kenyans have access to financial services - huge un tapped / repressed demand for basic banking
• Nine out of ten adults have access to a mobile phone in Kenya
• By 2009 M-PESA had 6.5 million customers, more recent figure suggests 15.1 million on the system
• Around 20% of Kenyan GDP washes through the M-PESA system
• Safaricom is not allowed to make a profit on the interest and neither is the customer
• Interest earnings go into a charitable M-PESA foundation
• M-PESA has been very successful in Tanzania but has had less impact in Afghanistan and India
• Airtel is the main domestic rival, formerly called Zain and now owned by India’s Bharti Airtel,

M-PESA used in myriad different ways - Kenyans pay school fees, collect their salaries, shop for groceries, buy everything from drinks in beer shacks to airline tickets thanks to mobile money, sending transfers at the push of a few buttons on a mobile telephone. As per capita incomes rise, people will make savings using the system or might be able to take out loans.

M-PESA - Changing lives in a changing world

BBC News: M-Pesa: Kenya’s mobile wallet revolution

Guardian: Africa’s mobile economic revolution

‘Mobile Banking: Case of M-Pesa’, Nick Hughes

BBC News: How mobile puts business at the tip of Africa’s fingers (July 2012)