What Africa Can Teach Us About the Future of Banking
This article is for subscribers only.
In the six years since Kenya’s M-Pesa brought banking-by-phone to Africa, the service has grown from a novelty to a bona fide payment network. Unlike in the U.S., where mobile banking demands an app (or three), a smartphone, and a high-speed Internet connection, more than 55 million Africans use basic mobile phones to transfer money from one person to another, take out insurance policies, and collect payment from government agencies.
Even at a few bucks a transaction, Africa’s so-called “mobile money” market is huge, topping $61 billion in 2012—greater than the amount of money sent via mobile in Europe and North America combined, according to Gartner.