Back in 2002, there were less than 200,000 people in Afghanistan with the access to a telephone line. Today the picture is completely different, with some 15 million Afghans using mobile phones and 85% of the population living within the combined network coverage of the four major carriers. This mass installed base opens up possibilities for mobile banking services.
In that sense, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is helping the country go mobile with three grants, totaling more than $2 million. One of the grants is designed to connect the new Afghan electricity utility with mobile phone billing and payment for electricity service. The other one funds a partnership of another telecommunications company with a micro finance consortium whose clients are predominantly women…
In related context, the Afghan Education Minister recently highlighted the urgent need for mobile payments when a staff member of the Education Ministry was killed while transporting cash in northern Afghanistan to pay teachers. The new systems being developed will certainly help make money transfers a seamless process…
[Via: CellularNews]