M-PESA (M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money) is the product name of a mobile-phone based money transfer service that was developed by Sagentia (later transferring to IBM in September 2009) for Vodafone. M-PESA was first launched by the Kenyan MNO Safaricom, an affiliate of Vodafone, in March 2007. M-PESA quickly captured a significant market share for cash transfers, and grew astoundingly quickly, capturing 6.5 million subscribers by May 2009 with 2 million daily transactions in Kenya alone. M-PESA Customers can deposit and withdraw money from a network of agents that includes airtime resellers and retail outlets acting as banking agents.
M-PESA is a branchless banking service, meaning that it is designed to enable users to complete basic banking transactions without the need to visit a bank branch. The continuing success of M-PESA, in Kenya, has been due to the creation of a highly popular, affordable payment service with only limited involvement of a bank. The technology platform for the service is provided by Microsoft and was highlighted as a key philanthropic initiative from Vodafone by Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at DAVOS in 2009.
M-PESA is an innovative mobile transfer solution that enables customers to transfer money It is aimed at mobile customers who do not have a bank account, either by choice, because they do not have access to a bank or because they do not have sufficient income to justify a bank account. M-PESA is an immensely popular service offering that has radically changed both the financial and telecommunications sectors in developing countries and spawned a lucrative industry for mobile money.
In the last few years, Africa has recorded the greatest mobile telephony growth in the world. In Kenya alone, there are over 8 million mobile subscribers, yet out of 33 million Kenyans, only 3 million operate bank accounts. Mobile technology is the ICT platform through which M-PESA transactions are carried out. The dynamic changes in the economy, have led to an increasing need to transfer money. M-PESA bridges this gap using technology that makes money transfer affordable, accessible, secure, fast and convenient.
New M-PESA initiave were then launched in Tanzania and Afghanistan and there are now plans to expand the M-PESA product to India, Egypt and South Africa.
Easy to use money transfer services
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