The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has
announced that it will award mobile operator Digicel and its
partner Scotia Bank $2.5 million to fund a mobile money scheme in
Haiti.
Digicel, the first firm to launch mobile money
services on the Island have been awarded the money as part of a
$10 million incentive fund set up to
jumpstart the introduction of mobile money into the currently
crippled Haitian economy.
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The devastating earthquake in January 2010 destroyed one-third of Haiti‘s bank branches, further limiting access
to financial systems that served only 10 percent of Haiti‘s population before the earthquake.
Digicel’s mobile money service enables
customers to use their mobile phones to make deposits and
withdrawals at retail outlets, and transfer money between accounts.
A similar service M-Pesa, has been successful in Kenya which since
it’s introduction three years ago has 13 million customers.
According to Sylvia
Mathews Burwell, president of the Global Development Program
at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation “Making mobile money
services available to the poorest families in the developing world
can be a first step to introducing a broader range of financial
services, including savings accounts, helping people build
financial security and productive lives.”
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