Mobile Money makes cellular payments easy, from Cambodia to Kenya

pmwww.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile Money Technology has quickly revolutionised the way customers pay their bills and companies manage their payroll, from Cambodia to Kenya. Already millions of people in developing countries who do not have access to a bank account are using mobile phone banking services to convert cash into credits on their cell phones to make safe and easy payments.

A fast rising star on the Mobile Money Technology firmament is WING Cambodia, one of the newest mobile payment services in the world. Cambodia has a population of 14 million, of which only half a million have a bank account, while there are over 3 million mobile phone subscriptions. WING Cambodia operates there in a joint venture with ANZ Bank.

WHY MOBILE MONEY TECHNOLOGY WORKS

Says Brad Jones, WING Cambodia MD: “Urban to rural corridors are essential to us. We started out targeting Cambodia’s 350 000 garment industry workers in 300 or so factories, focusing on a simple payroll product.” The global financial crisis has certainly been felt in the garment industry, with 70-80,000 jobs lost. “We are still working in the garment sector,” says Jones, “but we have also shifted our focus slightly towards providing payroll services to relatively recession-proof industries such as NGO and some corporate clients.”

On the consumer side, the clients are mainly blue collar urban workers who send money to family members in rural areas. Says Jones: “We also use a debit card - particularly valued by our urban customers - that allows customers to withdraw cash from ANZ Royal ATMs in Cambodia. These cards help to improve much of the merchants’ liquidity problems and, with no fees to merchants; this enables them to turn money over quicker.”

MOBILE MONEY GLOBAL SUMMIT

Brad Jones is one of several leading lights in the ever-accelerating world of Mobile Money Technology that will be speaking at the upcoming MMT Global Summit taking place in Dubai from 26-28 October 2009. This follows the hugely successful launch of the event last year and will feature the complete ecosystem of this industry with all the key stakeholders represented.

Mobile networks will rub shoulders with banks, MFIs and NGOs, 3rd party operators and mWallet vendors (often the same people!), Exchange Houses and the Money Transfer Networks themselves - even governments and regulators. An exhibition will showcase the leading mWallet vendors, systems integrators and global hubs.

MMT Global Summit will feature the following industry elite speakers and success stories from all over the world:

Karim Khoja, CEO, Roshan
Afghanistan’s largest mobile network operator and largest employer, Roshan’s M-PAISA mobile money service has brought microfinance loans to rural areas in a country with literacy rates of less than 30%.

Chris Gabriel, CEO, Zain Africa
Live in Kenya and Tanzania, Zain will launch their mobile money service Zap in all 23 countries they cover across the Middle East and Africa. Zap uses a revolutionary agent incentive model.

Jan Chipchase, Principal Scientist, Nokia
Jan Chipchase is a much sought after visionary speaker and is one of the world’s foremost experts on the mobile usability, with a particular interest in how mobile phones are used in emerging markets.

Jojo Malolos, Group Head of Financial Services, SMART
SMART are the original mobile money pioneers, having launched over 7 years ago, and they serve millions of customers in The Philippines.

Gautam Ivatury, Microfinance Specialist, CGAP
The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor CGAP is an independent policy and research center housed at the World Bank. Gautam and his team pioneer research into mobile microfinance.

Zouhair Khaliq, CEO, Orascom International Investment Holdings
Zouhair heads Orascom Telecom’s Group strategy on Banking, Mobile Financial Services and Infrastructure Sharing. Orascom is one of the world’s leading telecom operators.

Sanket Mohapatra, Economist – Migration and Remittances, World Bank
The World Bank maintains definitive data on the cost of international remittances, a market estimated to be worth$397 billion in 2008, of which $305 billion went to developing countries.

Cenk Serdar, Director, Global Mobile Payments, Vodafone
Vodafone have pioneered the development of M-PESA, with over 6.5 million customers in Kenya, also recently launched in Tanzania.

For more information, please visit www.mobile-money-transfer.com/

Posted in: Khmer News