Over 23,000 new customers have access to rural banking, thanks to Kenya's Equity Building Society's FDCF funded scheme.
Satellite technology and know-how is now being deployed to give rural workers the chance to deposit cash and take out loans. Around 45% of the new rural customers are women.
This innovative scheme is proving to be a huge success for all concerned. With a remarkable take-up of deposit accounts and new loans Equity Building Society is developing a new customer base and building its market share. At the same time Kenya's rural population have access to an affordable banking scheme, and the chance to lift their communities out of poverty.
Kenya - Access to Finance (Commonwealth News and Information Service)
Twice each week, Kenya's Equity Building Society dispatches a fleet of four-wheel drive vehicles to remote parts of the country offering mobile banking services to rural workers. The cars carry specially trained staff who offer financial help and guidance to smallholder farmers and agricultural workers. They are given a chance to deposit cash and take out loans, bringing much needed access to financial services to these people who would otherwise have missed out.
'Before the mobile bank service arrived it was very difficult for us to run the farm. We had to travel 100 kilometres to the bank in town, carrying money with us. It was difficult to arrange loans when we were so far away. Now we can see the bank each week and arrange to do our business,' said Daudi Kabaka, one of the building society's 300 smallholder beneficiaries from Shaba village in north Kenya. The Equity Building Society has over 23,000 rural clients, 45 per cent of whom are women, according to a report by the Financial Deepening Challenge Fund (FDCF), which funds the scheme.
Sponsored by the UK Government's Department for International Development, the FDCF works closely with private sector organisations that want to invest in commercial financial services to help improve access of poor and middle-income groups to credit, savings, leasing, insurance and investment capital.
Vodafone and Roshan Launch First Mobile Money Transfer Service in Afghanistan
Vodafone and Roshan Launch First Mobile Money Transfer Service in Afghanistan
10 February 2008
M-Paisa brings financial services to un-banked and assists in economic development in Afghanistan
Vodafone, the world's leading international mobile communications group and Roshan, the leading telecommunications operator in Afghanistan, today announce the launch of Afghanistan's first mobile money transfer system. The service, branded M-Paisa, is a mobile technology platform that provides financial services for those without access to banking and aims to facilitate economic activity in the region.
The M-Paisa system builds on Vodafone's highly successful M-PESA mobile money transfer service in Kenya which has seen 1.6 million people register as customers since its launch in March 2007. At launch the Afghan service will, however, have a significantly different focus from the Kenyan version. Initially M-Paisa will act mainly as a vehicle for microfinance institutions' (MFI) loan disbursements and repayments, with an additional range of business to business applications such as salary disbursement and airtime distribution. Consumer person-to-person transactions will also be available from the outset, enabling those MFI clients and employees who have received their money via M-Paisa to benefit from the full capabilities of the service.
FDCF funded M-PESA scheme launched in Kenya as Vodafone/Citibank plan global M-PESA venture
Safaricom, Kenya's leading mobile communications provider, has announced the launch of M-PESA, a scheme which allows financial transactions to be made using mobile phones. This follows Vodafone's announcement of a joint venture with Citibank to roll out the M-PESA scheme worldwide.
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DFID