[Kictanet] Fw: Final Reminder: Invitation to BusinessXchange Forum - Tuesday 31st October 2006.

Mon Nov 6 15:54:00 EAT 2006

Dear Sean,
I shall have both Treasury and Central Bank attend the seminar.  We are
already having preliminary discussions to avoid any problem between
entrepreneurs are the regulators considering the fact that the ICT Bill
has not become an Act of Parliament.

Regards

Ndemo.

> Mobile banking will be a key focus of the African Banking Technology
> Conference we are holding in Nairobi over 6-8 February, including a
> presentation, as well as a training workshop on "Banking the Unbanked", by
> Brian Richardson, CEO of Wizzit, mentioned in the article below. For full
> details, please see http://new.aitecafrica.com/node/416
>
> Proposals for other presentations are still welcome.
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Sean Moroney
> AITEC Africa
> seanm at aitecafrica.com
> UK Tel: +44-(0)1480-880774
> UK Fax: +44-(0)1480-880765
> UK Mobile: +44(0)7973-499224
> SA Mobile: +27(0)72-610-7153
> Kenya Mobile: +254(0)721-845674
> Skype: seanmoroney
> www.aitecafrica.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: kictanet-bounces+seanm=aitecafrica.com at kictanet.or.ke
> [mailto:kictanet-bounces+seanm=aitecafrica.com at kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf
> Of
> bitange at jambo.co.ke
> Sent: 06 November 2006 07:42
> To: seanm at aitecafrica.com
> Subject: Re: [Kictanet] Fw: Final Reminder: Invitation to BusinessXchange
> Forum - Tuesday 31st October 2006.
>
> Mkubua,
> M-pesa or Mteja pesa is Safaricom.
>
> Regards
>
>
> Ndemo.
>
>
>
>> Thanks Bw PS. This sounds very innovative and perhaps the kind of
>> services
>> that would suit many Kenyans. Certainly m-pesa also needs to be
>> congratulated for their innovation. Does anyone know their contacts?
>>
>> Kind Regards
>> Waudo Siganga
>> Chairman
>> The Computer Society of Kenya
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, November 5, 2006 5:47 am, bitange at jambo.co.ke wrote:
>>> Dear All,
>>> Do you see opportunities in the Economist article below:
>>>
>>> Ndemo.
>>>
>>>
>>> Phoney finance - Mobile telephony and banking
>>>
>>> 875 words
>>>
>>> 28 October 2006
>>>
>>> The Economist
>>>
>>> ECN
>>>
>>> 381
>>>
>>> English
>>>
>>> (c) The Economist Newspaper Limited, London 2006. All rights reserved
>>>
>>> Banking the unbanked, by mobile phone
>>>
>>> Most South Africans do not have bank accounts. But most do have mobile
>>> phones
>>>
>>> LIFE is now easier for Andile Mbatha, who owns a hair salon in Soweto.
>>> Gone are his days of trekking to his bank, which could take two hours
>>> by
>>> minibus, to send money to relatives. Nor does he keep piles of cash in
>>> his
>>> salon any more. Last year, he opened a bank account with Wizzit, an
>>> innovative provider of financial services. He now sends money to his
>>> sister in Cape Town whenever he wants, from wherever he wants, using a
>>> simple menu on his mobile phone. Half his customers no longer pay cash
>>> for
>>> their haircuts. They use their phones to move money from their accounts
>>> to
>>> his, in a few seconds. "This has taken out a lot of stress," says Mr
>>> Mbatha.
>>>
>>> About half a million South Africans now use their mobile phones as a
>>> bank.
>>> Besides sending money to relatives and paying for goods, they can check
>>> balances, buy mobile airtime and settle utility bills. Traditional
>>> banks
>>> offer mobile banking as an added service to existing customers, most of
>>> whom are quite well off. But Wizzit, and to some extent First National
>>> Bank (FNB) and MTN Banking (a joint venture between Standard Bank and a
>>> mobile-phone network), are chasing another market: the 16m South
>>> Africans,
>>> over half of the adult population, with no bank account. Significantly,
>>> 30% of these people do have mobile phones. Wizzit hired and trained
>>> over
>>> 2,000 unemployed people, known as Wizzkids, to drum up business. It
>>> worked: eight out of ten Wizzit customers previously had no bank
>>> account
>>> and had never used an ATM.
>>>
>>> Mobile banking is just one example of a wider phenomenon in South
>>> Africa.
>>> With its odd mix of advanced capitalism and developing-world economics,
>>> the country is successfully luring people who hitherto dealt only in
>>> cash
>>> or barter to the world of formal finance. A simplified kind of account
>>> called Mzansi was launched in 2004 to reach the unbanked, and portable
>>> banks and ATMs have been rolled out in townships and in the
>>> countryside.
>>> To this fast-changing scene, mobile-phone banking looks to be a
>>> promising
>>> addition. Millions of South Africans send money to their relatives in
>>> other parts of the country. And most of these sums, which add up to
>>> about
>>> 12 billion rand ($1.5 billion) each year, still move informally.
>>>
>>> South Africa is not the first place to use mobile-phone banking:
>>> countries
>>> such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines have had it for a while.
>>> But the potential is probably bigger in the developing world, and in
>>> countries in which migrants remit money to their families in relatively
>>> poor homelands. In Greece, a European Union member that is now awash
>>> with
>>> migrant labour, Albanians or Bulgarians often send money home by
>>> putting
>>> crumpled banknotes in the hands of a trusted compatriot, who takes a
>>> cut.
>>> If they could do it all by pressing buttons, they would.
>>>
>>> In most of Africa, meanwhile, only a fraction of people have bank
>>> accounts-but there is huge demand for cheap and convenient ways to send
>>> money and buy prepaid services such as airtime. Many Africans, having
>>> skipped landlines and jumped to mobiles, already use prepaid airtime as
>>> a
>>> way of transferring money.
>>>
>>> They could now leap from a world of cash to cellular banking. In Kenya,
>>> a
>>> pilot scheme called M-Pesa is being used to disburse and pay
>>> micro-loans
>>> by phone. Meanwhile Celpay, which FNB bought last year from Celtel, a
>>> mobile-phone company, is offering platforms for banks and phone
>>> companies
>>> in Zambia and Congo. In countries like Somalia, with chaotic conditions
>>> at
>>> home and a huge diaspora, cash transfers by phone would be a boon.
>>>
>>> For banks, persuading people not to use branches for simple
>>> transactions
>>> such as balance enquiries or transfers should reduce operating costs.
>>> So
>>> far, they charge the same for mobile as for traditional banking, though
>>> Wizzit says its services are at least a third cheaper than those of a
>>> traditional bank.
>>>
>>> But drawing the unbanked into the joys of cell-finance isn't always
>>> easy.
>>> Many think banking too expensive and complicated, and helping new
>>> customers become financially literate takes time. The technology
>>> remains
>>> clunky in some cases, with downloads requiring dozens of text messages.
>>> Several rival platforms are still in the fight, but so far those that
>>> emphasise simplicity and ease-of-use over state-of-the-art technology
>>> and
>>> security have made the greatest strides. A lot also hangs on putting in
>>> place the right laws and regulations. They need to be tight enough to
>>> protect vulnerable users and discourage money laundering, but open
>>> enough
>>> to allow innovative mobile banking to grow.
>>>
>>> If the transfer of money by mobile phone-between countries as well as
>>> within them-takes off, it could have implications far beyond the salons
>>> of
>>> Soweto. In 2005, according to the United Nations, global migrants
>>> remitted
>>> $232 billion, of which up to 20% was lost on the way, mostly in bank
>>> charges or fraud. If cellular transfers could slash that figure, mobile
>>> banking would prove to be a good call.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> This message has been scanned for viruses and
>>> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
>>> believed to be clean.
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> kictanet mailing list
>>> kictanet at kictanet.or.ke
>>> http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>>>
>>> Please unsubscribe or change your options at
>>> http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/waudo%40signet.co.ke
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> kictanet mailing list
>> kictanet at kictanet.or.ke
>> http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>>
>> Please unsubscribe or change your options at
>> http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke
>>
>> --
>> This message has been scanned for viruses and
>> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
>> believed to be clean.
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at kictanet.or.ke
> http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
> Please unsubscribe or change your options at
> http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/seanm%40aitecafrica.com
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at kictanet.or.ke
> http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
> Please unsubscribe or change your options at
> http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke
>
> --
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
>
>

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.