Putting its commitment to expanding mobile payments in
developing regions into financial action, mobile network operator
(MNO) body the GSM Association (GSMA) has awarded the first four
grants from its Mobile Money for the Unbanked fund (MMU).
A geographically diverse disbursement, the
unspecified grants have been made to the AXIS mDUIT project in
Indonesia, MNO Oi in Brazil, Roshan in Afghanistan and SMART
Communications in the Philippines.
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The grants are being funded by the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation which in February this year announced it
had committed $12.5 million to the GSMA in support of its MMU
initiative. Established by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his
wife Melinda, the BMGF is the world’s fourth-largest private
foundation.
The AXIS mDUIT project is a greenfield
deployment in Indonesia due to launch in December. The GSMA
believes the project has a significant opportunity to bank the
unbanked via mobile in Indonesia as only 40 million of the
country’s total population have bank accounts, whereas 90 million
have mobile phone subscriptions. Services to be offered by AXIS
include payments, savings and credit.
In Brazil, Oi intends to provide individuals
living on low incomes and in remote communities access to some
basic banking services that will allow individuals to receive
welfare funds, make domestic remittances and buy products at
participating merchants’ stores.
A cash-out option is also being
considered.
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By GlobalDataIn Afghanistan, building a distribution
network that can grow and manage customers in a country at war is
the main focus of Roshan, which in February 2008 announced that it
was partnering with UK MNO Vodafone to develop a mobile payments
service.
Named M-Paisa, the service is based on the
highly successful M-Pesa service offered in Kenya by Vodafone and
Kenyan MNO Safaricom. According to the GSMA, currently 97 percent
of Afghans are currently unable to access traditional banking
services.
SMART Communications, which already has
extensive experience in the mobile payments market via its SMART
Money service, is to receive financial assistance form the GSMA to
advance its Island Activations Programme in the Philippines.
The initiative is aimed at benefiting
consumers on remote islands or inland locations who are isolated,
have no or limited access to financial services and limited
electricity.
SMART’s objective is to enable customers in
these areas to send and receive domestic remittances, reload
e-wallets, pay bills or send money via its SMART Money
Platform.
It is the GSMA’s intention that its MMU
programme will eventually support about 20 projects focusing on
Africa, Asia and Latin America with the goal of reaching 20 million
previously unbanked people with mobile financial services by
2012.
