mobile-money

Some banks, meanwhile, have come to see mobile money not as a threat but as an opportunity, and are teaming up with operators.

Mobile money presents a shining opportunity to start a second wave of mobile-led development across the poor world.

There is an "alignment of market forces and stars" that will push the mobile money industry forward, she said.

if the president's cousin owns the country's main bank, he may not rush to let cheap mobile-money systems into his country.

In Africa, only Ethiopia and Zimbabwe do not provide mobile money services. Now, that will change for Ethiopia.

"The alternative to mobile money in Afghanistan is cash, " she said.

With such phones now so commonplace, a new opportunity beckons: mobile money, which allows cash to travel as quickly as a text message.

Meanwhile Zain, which operates in several African markets, has started its own mobile-money service, called Zap.

Mobile-money schemes generally limit balances and transfers (typically to around $100), which helps allay fears about money-laundering.

MTN's launch of a mobile-money service in Uganda in March 2009, in partnership with Stanbic Bank, provides further cause for optimism.

Vodafone launched a mobile money transfer system called M-Pesa on Safaricom, its Kenyan affiliate.

The explosive growth of mobile money has sharply reduced the costs of financial transactions.

And Greathouse says mobile money offers advantages over traditional banks.

It has already leapfrogged ahead of the West in areas such as mobile money (using mobile phones to make payments) and online games.

Here, the walls painted yellow "mobile money" (MobileMoney) service point a particularly eye-catching.

Mobile-money services allow these small retailers to act rather like bank branches.

After selling his goats, Simon visits his local M-PESA, or mobile money store, to deposit the cash.

Given all of its benefits, why is mobile money not more widespread?

In a couple of days he will fly to Afghanistan to conduct another field study about mobile money.

They can take your cash, and (by sending a special kind of text message) credit it to your mobile-money account.

The transformative effect of cheap bandwidth will be felt well beyond mobile money.

And some mobile-money schemes that have been launched, such as one in Tanzania, failed to catch on.

At that point payouts are made directly to the handsets of farmers in the affected areas using Safaricom's M-PESA mobile-money service.

Disintermediation is also made possible by mobile money.

Other firms are extending the reach of mobile money.

Extending mobile money to other poor countries, particularly in Africa and Asia, would have a huge impact.

By 2012, it predicts, some 1. 7 billion people will have a mobile phone but no bank account, and 20% of them will be using mobile money.

MTN plans to increase the number of outlets that can handle mobile money to 5, 000 by early 2010.

Second, we must attend to the development of mobile money.