Do banks block mobile money innovation in Africa?

A recent blog posting by Dr. Bill Maurer on the CGAP website spoke about mobile money's innovation crisis. The author claims that nothing new has happened in mobile money since Mpesa was launched in Kenya, with the possible exception of the launch of Mkesho this year in Kenya as well.

By Erik Hersman

25 Aug 2010

Besides that development, he contends that everyone around the world is just trying to duplicate what Safaricom is doing in this space.

Why is this the case? Dr Maurer argues that, "There may also be one partnership in particular that could be hampering innovation-that with the banks. Historically, these two players have taken very different strategies for new product development, especially in resource poor countries."

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