Unlike the last year, this time around we won’t cover the Mobile Money Summit from the floor. In 2009, Fira de Barcelona hosted the event which this year is taking place in Rio de Janeiro. The fact that we’re not at the event, however, doesn’t mean we won’t bring you the interesting news from the Summit, quite the contrary…
GSMA announced that seven new projects are to be deployed as part of the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) Fund, which was launched at the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress. The program, as you may know, is administered by the GSMA Foundation and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the tune of $12.5 million.
And the grant winners are… (drums please)… Cellcard in Cambodia, Digicel in Fiji, Orange in West Africa, Safaricom in Kenya, Tata Indicom in India, Telenor in Pakistan, and Tigo in Africa. The projects will cover such areas as money transfer, bill payments, international remittances and sophisticated savings and insurance products.
According to GSMA’s director Gavin Krugel, projects were chosen on their ability to deliver, speed of delivery, scale and sophistication. “Between now and the end of 2011 millions of consumers are expected to directly benefit from mobile money services launched with the support of the Fund – that is 170 million customers at the base of the economic pyramid and who previously lacked access to financial services, from 19 operators in Latin America, Africa, and Asia,” he added.
We like it… we really like! 🙂
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]