"Mobile money, a service that allows monetary value to be stored on a mobile phone and sent to other users via text messages, has been adopted by the vast majority of Kenyan households. We estimate that access to the Kenyan mobile money system M-PESA increased per capita consumption levels and lifte
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d 194,000 households, or 2% of Kenyan households, out of poverty. The impacts, which are more pronounced for female-headed households, appear to be driven by changes in financial behavior—in particular, increased financial resilience and saving—and labor market outcomes, such as occupational choice, especially for women, who moved out of agriculture and into business. Mobile money has therefore increased the efficiency of the allocation of consumption over time while allowing a more efficient allocation of labor, resulting in a meaningful reduction of poverty in Kenya." (Abstract)
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"Mobile value-added services (MVAS) represent a growing collaboration between the private sector and the development community. In this paper, we examine one such MVAS, the Nokia Usaha Wanita service running on the Nokia Life+ platform in Indonesia, and we assess its impact as an innovative means fo
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r the economic empowerment of businesswomen. Data were gathered through 282 telephone interviews with a nationwide random sample of women who subscribed to Usaha Wanita. Our research found evidence that subscribers derived economic benefit from using the service. Subscribers reported that their business profits were greater, because of what they had learned from reading Usaha Wanita content. Women who were subscribers also had higher "good month's" profits as well. Increased profits were positively correlated with frequent reading of the tips and information provided by Usaha Wanita and subscriber perception that the service was useful for business. Women who exhibited entrepreneurial optimism also had greater business profits. Findings suggest that entrepreneurial optimism amplified the effect of mobile phone use on profits." (Abstract)
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"Over just a decade in India, the mobile phone was transformed from a rare, unwieldy instrument to a palm-sized staple that even poor fisherman can afford. Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey investigate the social revolution ignited by what may be the most significant communications device in history and
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explore the whole ecosystem of cheap mobile phones." (Publisher description)
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"Analyzes the growth and evolution of mobile telephony, including the rise of data-based services delivered to handheld devices through “apps” (applications) and other ways. Summarizing current thinking and seeking to inform the debate on the use of mobile phones to improve livelihoods, the repo
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rt looks, in particular, at key ecosystem-based applications in agriculture, health, financial services, employment, and government, with chapters devoted to each, and explores the consequences of the emerging “app economy” for development. The global conversation is no longer about the phone itself, but about how it is used and the content and applications that it opens up. These apps and “mash-ups” of services, driven by high-speed networks, social networking, online crowdsourcing, and innovation, are helping mobile phones transform lives in developed and developing countries alike." (Back cover)
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"The community radio stations participating in the pilot project offer special dedication and greeting programs that allow community members to send greetings to friends and family on air. The main objective of this pilot was to understand whether these generally underfunded radio stations could mon
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etize these greetings systems through a mobile money technology that would be developed with another implementing partner, MobiKash, a mobile wallet service provider based in Nairobi." (Executive summary)
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"This article uses the Steven Framework to show the influence of research on the policies and practices of mobile money transfer and mobile phone-enabled payments in Africa. While it is a muchdiscussed subject, few people know the wider narrative by which products such as M-Pesa were intentionally c
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hampioned from outside the mobile phone industry. This championing was part of a much broader intentional strategy to change the landscape of financial service provision in Africa and to decrease the cost of international remittances. The origins of this strategy are to be found in research on the emerging behaviours associated with mobile phone use in Africa. There is an increasing call for evidence-based policymaking. The M-Pesa story shows a clear example of research informing (and thereby contributing to) policy development." (Abstract)
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"This document presents a ‘’state-of-the-art’’ review of branchless banking. It examines existing trends, extracts insightful lessons from past experiences and articulates the main challenges ahead with regards to the transformative role of branchless banking. It is also designed to link dev
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elopmental objectives with market player interests, thus paving the way for a meaningful intervention of German Development Cooperation in the branchless banking space. In many aspects, it will try to bring the market player perspective into the dialogue with public development cooperation." (Executive summary)
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"This paper examines how banks can translate the potential of mobile phones into greater financial access for poor people. Although mobile phone operators have been able to use the mobile phone for mobile remittance and bill payment services in several countries, banks have had little success in usi
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ng mobile phones as part of a growth or outreach strategy. This paper focuses on smaller banks or microfinance institutions (MFIs) that face a much higher cost-of-service delivery because of the smaller transaction values they handle and the likely more remote and dispersed location of at least some of their customers. The opportunity seems particularly great for them, but implementation challenges also loom larger because of their small scale. This discussion assumes these banks and MFIs have adequate back office and transaction switching capability and sufficient internal controls, whether managed in-house or outsourced." (Page 1)
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