Ethiopia: M-Pesa, When Technology Meets Financial Demands!

www.simplesharebuttons.com Share this post...

In a recent Visit to Kenya, I had a chance to see a lot of Nairobi and had grown my understanding of the Kenyan way of life.

There were many things that attracted me and made me wish we had them in Ethiopia but M-PESA stands out!

I come from the Rural part of the country where much (I mean MUCH) of the population have no access to banking and financial institutions. Days after my return from Kenya I went to my home town to celebrate the Meskel Holiday (Finding of the true cross) and visit my mom and sisters and the rest of the family whom I haven’t visited in almost a year.

My younger sister studies in a college located about 180 km from my town in Debre markos city. My mom bears the burden of the education costs. What motivated me to write this article happened when my sister’s paying due date arrived and my mom had to send her some money but the money had to be sent and received that same day, the problem however was that there was no electricity in the town so bank transfer was not possible.

Now the only possible way to send her the money was to call someone who lives in the city my sister lives in and ask them to give her the money and when my mom sends the money she will give them their money back.

That’s when I thought of M-PESA, the most advanced mobile Payment system the world has today. M-Pesa (M-Pesa M for mobile, Pesa is Swahili for money) is a mobile-phone based money transfer and micro financing service widely popular in the Kenyan and Tanzanian market.

It’s more of a branchless banking system where people can send and receive money (It differs from air time money which our mobile operator also uses) pay bills and much more.

It’s the most convenient way of using basic banking systems at one’s hand as you are not required to go to a physical bank to do your basic banking transactions.

I believe Ethiopia is a great Potential market for M-Pesa or a service like M-Pesa to succeed. If we can develop the number of mobile phone users and introduce such technology it sure will have a great impact on the economy.

Lack of those institutions greatly affects the mobility of money in the country and due to the large size of the country and population; the growth of banks and other financial institutions is not going in the required speed. Hence, it’s wise to implement such technology and help people solve their financial problem.

If the government was to introduce such a system it can easily generate a great deal of economy and the mobility of finance will greatly help the developing economy.

I arrive to Addis four days before the Westgate incident where 62 people were killed by the Alshabab terrorist group. Soon after the incident people across Kenya were able to raise about 2 million USD to the victims of the incident in a very short period of time using M-PESA.

Imagine if people want to contribute that through banks, No time, No energy, huge queues and other factors would have prevented the collection of the money. With M-Pesa people can pay for their bills at the convenience of their home, office or wherever they are without actually worrying for office working hours, long queues or spending their precious time.

If you think about it, it’s the most efficient system that can save energy and time and increase productivity. It also leaves little or no room for corruption or misuse of management as the system is more secure and easily retrievable.

I read in wiki how M-Pesa help secure the budget by regulating the salary pay of the policeman and help avoid double payment under the previous payment model.