[P2P-F] Fwd: Mobile Banking Lifting Hundreds of Thousands from Poverty

Michel Bauwens michel at p2pfoundation.net
Sat Dec 17 09:55:40 CET 2016


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sergio Lub <sergio at sergiolub.com>
Date: Sat, Dec 17, 2016 at 3:49 PM
Subject: Mobile Banking Lifting Hundreds of Thousands from Poverty
To: Sergio Lub <sergio at sergiolub.com>


Research Shows Mobile Banking Lifting Hundreds of Thousands from Poverty –
(Fortune – December 10, 2016)
<http://arlingtoninstitute.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=916d9ff25098a781af857b468&id=3241a6c5f0&e=84296f8162>

http://fortune.com/2016/12/10/mobile-banking-poverty-research/

Economists at MIT and Georgetown have found that a service allowing users
to send and receive money on their mobile phones has significantly reduced
poverty in Kenya. According to long-term surveys, M-Pesa (short for “mobile
money” in Swahili) helped 194,000 families, or 2% of Kenyan households, out
of poverty between 2008 and 2014. Among other factors, the authors found
that M-Pesa makes it easier to weather financial or health crises, both by
increasing savings rates and allowing users to tap wider support networks.
The effect was particularly pronounced for women and female-led households,
which previous analysis has attributed to mobile banking’s tendency to give
women more power in typically patriarchal societies. At the highest level,
the study credits mobile banking with increasing the efficiency of the
entire Kenyan economy, by helping users make more productive choices both
on spending and employment. Kenya’s economic growth has been remarkable in
recent years, with an expansion of 5.3% in 2014, and projections putting
2016 growth at 6.0%—within striking distance of China’s recent growth of
6.7%. In addition to its broader economic benefits, M-Pesa has been a
business triumph. In November, M-Pesa operator Safaricom reported half-year
profits of about $234 million U.S. dollars. M-Pesa, which charges users
small fees, generated about 1/4th of total revenue. M-Pesa now has 17.6
million active users in Kenya, with at least one user in 96% of Kenyan
households. The new research seems to bear out predictions made by figures
including Bill Gates, whose foundation has made investments in mobile
banking tech in Bangladesh as part of its campaign against global poverty.
M-Pesa users can make deposits and withdrawals from their mobile accounts
with 110,000 agents, in addition to sending and receiving money over the
digital network. While this study focused on Kenya, similar mobile banking
services are now available in 93 countries, with a total of 134 million
active accounts.


Sergio Lub


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