Article
Jaccqueline Mathe, unemployed and 22, has just signed up for a bank account in Nellmapius, a black township near Pretoria. All she needed was a government ID and a mobile phone. Mathe hopes to save a quarter of the monthly $28.54 government grant she receives for her toddler, Khothasto, who is riding in a sling on her back. A small crowd with similar plans gathers at a registration tent. They want to join the more than 170,000 South Africans who have a mobile bank account with MTN Banking, a venture between wireless provider MTN and Standard Bank. This January 2008 article looks at how a South African software company is banking on the unbanked, and bringing an account system to the poor.