Samsung SGH-E700… now with Android?

Imagine my sudden, unexpected excitement when I...

My iPhone 15 Pro Max SLi Ultra Ghia Plus strategy

So there's a new iPhone about to...

Vodafone Kenya has 175,000 mobile payment users

What started out as a mobile microfinance project has taken off phenomenally well as a mobile payments service. Nice one Vodafone.

Link: Cellphones may take banking to the rural poor in the third world – International Herald Tribune

When Vodafone began a pilot microfinance project in Kenya in 2003 using mobile phones, said Nick Hughes, head of international payment services for Vodafone, “the idea was to reduce the cost of loan disbursal and recovery.”

“But what we found was that customers were using it for person-to-person transfers” of money in addition to making loan payments.

As a result, three months ago, the company introduced a commercial program in Kenya to make payments possible by cellphone. Customer use has grown. “We’ve passed the 175,000 mark,” Hughes said, “and they’re signing up at about 2,500 a day.”

If it’s working well in Kenya, I’d imagine it would work really, really well in the UK too. I’d like to be able to do this along the lines of how Anam’s service works.

Check out the rest of the IHT’s coverage at the link above for a lot more on what’s going on in Kenya.

Recently Published

Samsung SGH-E700… now with Android?

Imagine my sudden, unexpected excitement when I saw this email and subject in my inbox this morning: "OMG," I thought. "Have they actually done...

Why you need GadgetsOman (or similar) in your life

About four days ago I got a familiar WhatsApp message from the team at GadgetsOman. It was just a day or so after the...

My iPhone 15 Pro Max SLi Ultra Ghia Plus strategy

So there's a new iPhone about to launch. It's not that different from the one I've already got (iPhone 14 Pro Max). The camera is slightly...

Microsoft Surface Duo: Insert lament post here

I was reading Ron Amaedo’s post on ArsTechnica earlier today about the ending of software upgrade support for the first edition of the Microsoft...

“Apple will only sell 100,000 of their headsets in the first year” Really?

BGR reports a TrendForce estimate that Apple will sell 100k units of their new headset when released and says “but that’s still a big...

The BlackBerry Movie: Worth a look, but it’s heavy on fiction

I went to see the BlackBerry movie last night here in Dubai. I was astonished to find the movie theatre almost full, apart from...