Article
Imagine a cyber currency where pre-paid airtime is traded across borders to exchange goods and services, cancelling conventional currency exchange and the associated costs from the equation. Where at the touch of a button, value can be transferred from your bank and used to buy goods and services. Far-fetched? The very thought of those innovations in technology is already revolutionising the trading system, multiplying its impact on the lives of the poor and giving them facilities once available to the rich only. With an estimated 63% of nearly 1bn people in Africa living in rural areas – where banking infrastructure is sparse and cellphones outnumber fixed lines by more than 10 to one – cellphone banking is proving a revolution.