Article
Written by Ken Banks and Benjamin Lyon for PC World/IDG News Service, this column describes CreditSMS, a financial management module built to run on FrontlineSMS that lets informal savings groups, microfinance institutions and “branchless banks” record and manage mobile money transactions, savings and micro-loans by SMS. It traces how services like M-Pesa and GCash grew out of users’ own informal practice of trading airtime, and argues CreditSMS could help formalise these grassroots mobile finance systems without forcing them through traditional banking channels.
Region
Global
Category
Economic
Organisation / Author
Ken Banks