Comments on: The Untapped Potential of Mobile Phones http://www.assetpolicy.org/blog/archives/137 Asset Building Blog Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:32:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Jennie Mollica http://www.assetpolicy.org/blog/archives/137/comment-page-1#comment-119737 Jennie Mollica Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:15:09 +0000 http://www.assetpolicy.org/blog/archives/137#comment-119737 We need ambassadors like you, Ben, to open our eyes to the potential for technology to change the landscape of our work dramatically in the years ahead. Thanks for traveling afar and for bringing your insights and inspiration back to us. In Nigeria, it’s MoneyBox Africa that’s innovating the use of mobile phones for financial management and reaching villages far away from any bank. According to their website, “with MoneyBox Africa, anyone - who can use a mobile phone - can open up an account on the street, save money into the account, topup the phone, pay utility bills, buy insurance, pay tithe, send money to friends and relatives, withdraw money at agent locations, any bank or ATMs, get access to credit and make investments.” This website contains a nice depiction of how the cards are used: http://p55857.typo3server.info/93.html. In the words of the CEO of MoneyBox Africa, this is about “empower[ing] people at the grassroot and help our people create, protect, and preserve their wealth.” MoneyBox Africa is achieving this trend-setting change in cooperation with paybox, the enterprising company that’s behind mobile payment technology in much of Europe and now in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. And in a move that may predict what’s in store for us in the USA, paybox was purchased in January 2009 by Dublin, CA-based Sybase/365 (http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1061874). A survey conducted by Sybase predicts that 57% of U.S. banks will add mobile services in the next 12 to 24 months, and that by 2010 America will catch up with Asia and Europe. With fee-based income driving the technological change, what will this mean for low-income mobile phone users? Now may be the time to advocate for an expansion of mobile services that reaches America’s neighborhoods in ways that truly protect and preserve the wealth they hold. We need ambassadors like you, Ben, to open our eyes to the potential for technology to change the landscape of our work dramatically in the years ahead. Thanks for traveling afar and for bringing your insights and inspiration back to us.

In Nigeria, it’s MoneyBox Africa that’s innovating the use of mobile phones for financial management and reaching villages far away from any bank. According to their website, “with MoneyBox Africa, anyone - who can use a mobile phone - can open up an account on the street, save money into the account, topup the phone, pay utility bills, buy insurance, pay tithe, send money to friends and relatives, withdraw money at agent locations, any bank or ATMs, get access to credit and make investments.” This website contains a nice depiction of how the cards are used: http://p55857.typo3server.info/93.html. In the words of the CEO of MoneyBox Africa, this is about “empower[ing] people at the grassroot and help our people create, protect, and preserve their wealth.”

MoneyBox Africa is achieving this trend-setting change in cooperation with paybox, the enterprising company that’s behind mobile payment technology in much of Europe and now in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. And in a move that may predict what’s in store for us in the USA, paybox was purchased in January 2009 by Dublin, CA-based Sybase/365 (http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1061874). A survey conducted by Sybase predicts that 57% of U.S. banks will add mobile services in the next 12 to 24 months, and that by 2010 America will catch up with Asia and Europe. With fee-based income driving the technological change, what will this mean for low-income mobile phone users? Now may be the time to advocate for an expansion of mobile services that reaches America’s neighborhoods in ways that truly protect and preserve the wealth they hold.

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