NAIROBI, Kenya, – Approximately 155 million mobile money transactions worth US$2.7 billion are conducted in Somalia every month, making it one of the most active mobile money markets in the world. According to a World Bank finding, mobile money has superseded the use of cash in the country, with over 70 percent of adult Somalis using...
October 21, 2026
264 search results for: mobile money
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Protecting Somalia’s growing mobile money consumers
BY THILASONI BENJAMIN MUSUKU, World Bank The mobile money market is booming in Somalia. Approximately 155 million transactions, worth $2.7 billion or 36% of gross domestic product (GDP), are recorded every month. Mobile money accounts for a high proportion of money supply in the domestic, dollarized economy and has superseded the use of cash; seven out...
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Africa fights fistula with mobile money and community ambassadors
YAOUNDE (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – From training community ambassadors to encourage women with fistula to seek treatment, to cash for transport to hospitals, African nations are finding new ways to deal with the agonizing childbirth injury that ruins the lives of millions of girls and women. In Western countries, obstetric fistula was eradicated more than...
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A game changer—the prospects and pitfalls of mobile money in Somalia
CO-AUTHORS: TIM KELLY, AXEL RIFON Mogadishu–Somalia, September 2016. Photo: Altai Consulting. Mobile payments herald financial opportunity in Somalia. But for whom? And for how long? If Somalia’s telecommunications sector is the locomotive driving the economy, mobile money is the highway, transferring value and extending access to the economic playing field, nowadays at a rapid pace....
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Mobile money access lifted two percent of Kenyan households out of poverty: study
By Rob Matheson, Phys.org Since 2008, MIT economist Tavneet Suri has studied the financial and social impacts of Kenyan mobile-money services, which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone. Her work has shown that these services have helped Kenyans save more money and weather financial storms, among other benefits. Now, Suri...
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Thousands of Kenyan single mothers, widows use mobile money to escape poverty
By Neha Wadekar NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Almost 200,000 Kenyan households, many headed by poor, rural women, have lifted themselves out of poverty using mobile money services, experts said on Thursday, calling for the technology to be introduced in other developing countries. The impact was most dramatic among single mothers who used M-Pesa, a...
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M-Pesa success sets pace for mobile money uptake
By JAMES KARIUKI The tremendous success of M-Pesa in Kenya is influencing consumers and businesses in other African countries to adopt mobile money, a survey has said. The study titled Mobile Payment Transaction Market, which looks at the text-based payment mode, Near Field Communication (NFC) and web-based payments, says Kenya’s M-Pesa is popular since any...
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More people getting banked as Rwanda adopts mobile money
Mobile money selling points in Kigali, established by the various operators in the country. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA By Jean-Pierre Afadhali Rwanda is increasingly adopting mobile financial services at a faster pace, a development which makes it competitive in the other economies in the region. In recent years, Kenya and Tanzania have been applauded as mobile...
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How mobile money is driving economic growth
By Thorsten Beck, Agenda M-PESA has made quite some headlines since its introduction in 2007. After its launch, the mobile money technology became the payment method of choice across Kenya, given that its use poses lower risks than informal payment methods, storing money in mobile form implies lower risk than holding cash, and using M-PESA...
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Mobile money subscribers on the rise across the region
East Africans are now using mobile money platforms to move cash equivalent to a third of the value of goods and services produced in the region, the latest industry statistics show. TEA GRAPHIC | NATION MEDIA GROUP East Africans are now using mobile money platforms to move cash equivalent to a third of the value...