As per a report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), M-Pesa a local mobile money service in Kenya apparently has more domestic mobile transaction than even Western Union has globally.
Kenya’s telecom operator Safaricom started the service in 2007 and as per estimates provided by the IMF, the service is currently used by 70 percent of the adult population in Kenya which amounts to roughly 14 million locals in the country, which makes it the most successful mobile payments service in the world.
With the service being such a huge success in Kenya, the local authorities decided to use M-Pesa to fight the social problem of hunger in the under developed nation and started with an initiative called ‘Kenyans for Kenya’. Such was the success of this initiative that a target of USD $5 million (Kshs 500 million) to be achieved in a month was reached in just two weeks, which had people pitching in donations with a sum as low as $0.10 USD (Ksh10). The campaign has raised about USD $6.7 million by September 2011.
The success achieved with M-Pesa is indeed remarkable and as a result the World Bank has decided to replicate the service model in other member states and has roped in Safaricom CEO, Michael Joseph who will oversee its implementation in other countries.
Watch a documentary on the M-Pesa service in the video below:
