Dear Telecentre Friends, mMoney is a great opportunity to telecentres!
For long money movement in rural areas has been close to static. While in the urban areas money is owned by many people and it can change hands rapidly, in the rural areas very few people have money and it mainly remains in the hands of those few who mainly purchase outside the community e.g in urban markets... The problem is worsened by the relatively waterproof geographical economies that can not easily allow money flow from one economy to the other especially downwards e.g, rural and urban (micro) and developed and developing countries (macro economies) - this makes goods and service trade across economies very hard. And indeed accounts as the main challenge of sustaining telecentres as the purchasing power of the rural flocks merely shrinks instead of swelling. mWallet and its associated services address just this gap thus unlocking new opportunities. But this may not just happen, the telecentre movement will have to organize, incubate and nurture trade relations with rural-urban and developing-developed countries that improve quality output, goods and service mobility as supported by mMoney systems. There are already things that we can learn from especially Business Process Outsourcing - BPO, online transcations, online education etc. But the gaps that will remain the concern of the telecentre movement will be in commodity trade where urban rural transportation will need to be well thought out so that middlemen exploitation is completely eliminated or minimised. Secondly, it is emergingly true that the future is more uncertain about the applications of technology to support the poor than the absence of the technology itself. That said, telecentres of today and onwards, will emerge as Business process linkage and support organs replacing or complementing the roles of cooperatives and microbanks especially in the eyes of the poor - they will become the gateways to rural development and improved livelihoods. And this forms the strategic focus of UgaBYTES for the year 2010/12. Join the focus by making it your priority too or simply by becoming partner in mind, in development... to those who have made it their priority of work. Help complete the cycle with positive feedback to whatever is good. Best regards, --- Sulah On 11/16/09, Mwathi Francis <[email protected]> wrote: > With mobile penetration reaching 100 per cent in many developed markets, the > mobile phone will soon be in virtually everyone's pocket. Payments and > banking are currently major areas of growth in the mobile world and these > are set to become even more specialized than they are at the moment. > According to a new report from Juniper Research the international mobile > money transfer market will be worth in excess of US$65 billion by 2014, > based on gross transaction values - driven principally from migrant workers > based in developed countries. > > The huge potential for mobile money transfer can be seen from the sheer > volume of cross-border remittances typically sent through existing channels > such as banks and money transfer agencies. Measured flows have grown > exponentially over the last decade, with an estimated US$248billion sent > primarily from industrialised countries to the world's emerging markets in > 2007. Although remittance flows are currently experiencing short-term > decline, existing services and pilot projects have shown operators a > feasible route towards gaining a share of those large remittance flows > expected by and new mobile remittance services are expected by 2011 at the > latest. Operators and banks in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa are > in the process of deploying services primed to encourage and exploit > potential growth. > > Major operators with international and inter-regional footprints such as > Vodafone and Orascom Telecom have announced their intention to deploy mobile > remittance, which they hope will act as a catalyst for the wider adoption of > mWallet-enabled transaction services. Mobile remittance offers a speedy, > cost effective and convenient channel for people to send money regularly to > friends and family at home, who themselves may not have bank accounts. > > The mobile money transfer report also revealed a new emerging sector for > microcredits, saving accounts and insurance payments. Known as > "sophisticated financial services" these services are entirely focused on > developing countries where users do not have access to traditional banking > or financial services or simply use alternative means of payment > traditionally such as physically transporting cash, or storing cash savings > at home. The report found that is new market for financial services on the > mobile, can add to the attractiveness of mobile money services, and help to > reduce mobile operator churn. > > -- > Enter our Photo contest for your chance to win recognition and prizes from > telecentre.org > For more info, please check www.telecentre.org > > > Francis Mwathi > Support Community Facilitator > UgaBYTES Initiatives (www.ugabytes.org) > Telecentr.org (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com) > Tel: +256 414 370163 > Mob: +256 783 010269 > Skype: francis.mwathi > E-Mail: [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > ugabytes mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ugabytes.org/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_lists.ugabytes.org > -- Executive Director UgaBYTES Initiative Tel: +256414370163 Mob: +256712314969 Skype: sulah.ndaula Yahoo: ndaulasula Email: ndaulasula@ (ugabytes.org,yahoo.co.uk or gmail) _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [email protected] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [email protected] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
