In a significant move this summer, Kenya’s leading telecoms operator, Safaricom, extended its innovative mobile money service, M-Pesa, to Ethiopia. “Mobile money platforms help out in places where credit information is missing and infrastructure isn’t well developed,” said Agarwal, the paper’s lead author. The authors argue that these features empower mobile money platforms to address institutional voids in credit markets in three critical ways. Through their decentralized networks, mobile money platforms connect various financial services and products from partners like banks. “Mobile money is providing a one-stop-shop to access a whole range of financial services,” Agarwal said.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 29, 2023 15:41 UTC