Report
A study released by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the UN Foundation and the Vodafone Group Foundation examines the opportunities mobile phone banking offers to the poor. According to CGAP’s CEO Elizabeth Littlefield, mobile phones present a tremendous opportunity to deliver financial services cost-effectively to the nearly three billion people who do not currently have bank accounts. The study, “Mobile Phone Banking and Low-Income Customers: Evidence from South Africa,” is based on surveys of customers of WIZZIT, a “virtual bank” offering mobile phone and debit card banking services to South Africans without access to traditional banks.