Mobile Money: Reaching to the Far Edges of the Globe

Mobile money is revolutionizing the microfinance realm. It enables people in corners of the globe to use their cell phones or money transfer locations to send money to far away financial institutions or family members. Our Kenyan program uses the successful MPESA system for repayments and loan distributions. For a client to send their repayment, it is only a few quick pushes of buttons on their phone to send their repayment to our account. When their funds are ready for use, they receive an SMS notification direct to their cell phone.

Since I joined Zidisha over a year ago, our West African program has partnered with a regional bank. Working with a bank is not only difficult for us but for our clients as well. A bank offers the traditional capitalistic mindset to those who are working on a humanitarian project. The bank also assumes most clients are inferior in mindset to their own workers. For six months now, I have been working to change our West African partnership to a company that is not only more non-profit friendly but will allow our clients to never have to set foot in a traditional financial institution again.

The partnership is close to being finalized and I will be more than excited for both parties when it is completed. I will write again when I have more news.