The Mobile Money for the Unbanked Service is a new award, established to recognise innovative mobile banking that provides low-cost financial services to users, in countries where traditional financial services are either not within easy reach or unavailable.
It is aligned to the GSMA's Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) initiative, which was created to help connect and improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of those living on less than US$2 a day by supporting and encouraging the development of sustainable mobile money solutions.
Zap was launched in February 2009 in partnership with international and regional banks. Zap is currently accessible to approximately 200 million potential customers in Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana. Zain has plans to roll-out the service in all its operations.
On awarding the prize, the judging panel, said, “Once again, Zain has shown that it can shake up the system with its vision of bringing essential services to people who really need them. Zain changed Africa by bringing the mobile phone to the masses; it ignored borders by creating “One Network' and now, with Zap, it has made transferring money less fraught with risk, in a very dynamic way.”
The judges also praised the multi-language capabilities of the Zap service.
