GSMA receives additional funding for Mobile Money for the Unbanked programme

60 million customers

The GSMA has received an additional USD9.8 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation and Omidyar Network to continue with the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme for another three years (view press release). The three main objectives of the MMU programme are to help MNOs establish best practices for scaling mobile money deployments that sustainably serve the unbanked; establish mechanisms for harnessing economies of scale across the mobile money ecosystem; and equip mobile operators to advocate for and shape regulatory environments that help them contribute to financial inclusion.

The GSMA also revealed today the results from the 2011 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey in which fifty two mobile money service providers across 35 countries participated. The survey’s key findings were that so far 60 million customers have registered for mobile money; nearly 142 million transactions were processed, of which 29.8 million were functional payments such as P2P transfers, bill payments, bulk payments and airtime purchases; airtime top-up was the most common payment transaction with 68% of functional transactions processed.

A decade ago, mobile money services for the unbanked did not exist, but due to the investment of philanthropic organisations and individuals, the innovation and skill of mobile operators, and the integration and collaborative services provided by the GSMA’s MMU programme and other partners, our research has shown that at least 60 million customers have registered for mobile money services,” said Chris Locke, executive director of the GSMA Development Fund.

Related reading

Leave a comment