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Written by Wanjiru Kamau
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
I watched as a queue snaked outside the Kenya Revenue Authority and banks. What a waste of precious labor time, I thought to myself.
I was at the bank queueing up to withdraw money through the bank teller since the ATM was not working. There were about 30 0ther Kenyans, wasting valueable time, in the same predicament. A few hours later, I decided to use my M-PESA account and it only took less than 2 minutes.
Many of us have resorted to sending money via M-PESA as it is very efficient. It was about time that Kenyans found a service that is time saving. Kenyan companies, to remain global competitors, will need to invest in e-commerce. Why do I have to go to the bank to withdraw money from an account and then go to another bank to deposit the same, is it not possible to do that transaction online? Why can’t KRA adopt a system where people can file their returns online? This would not only save citizens valueable time, but would go a long way towards easing traffic jams during peak seasons allowing for savings that would allow investment in other services for Kenyans.
It is not a secret that M-PESA has made a lot of things possible for people in Kenya. A friend of mine whose mother lives in the country, before M-PESA could only access money after a day long travel. Thanks to M-PESA it only takes a few moments for people like her to receive money.
And these benefits extend to the world of business. Instead of working out complicated bank payment schedules for their employees, employers use M-PESA to pay wages and salaries in minutes. I have seen the incredible benefits of this with my father and his employees.
It is no surprise then that M-PESA has been recognised internationally for its efficiency, the first service of its kind. It is about time that companies looked more into technology to serve Kenyans.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 March 2008 )
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Infact even to enhance its disruptivity, would be the adoption of RFID technology by Safaricom on ATM machines. Where a mobile phone would sense the prescence of an ATM and allow you to make withdraws of the received credits. This would completed the value chain of 'money circualtion' almost leaving banks out of the loop. Visa has recognized this threat of Telcos substituting the 'credit card' providers and is adopting the technology. The problem is that VISA is looking at the wrong markets. The switching costs or even the cultural change for this who have always trusted bank-based transactions is more rigid than those who have never had even an account. An exemplary example is the time it took to get 1 million mobile telephnony users in African markets compared to the United states. For people who had never known voice solutions as a way to communicate, where the options to switch over to a Mobile phone was either to walk long distances looking for a public booth (most of the time just to find it was vandalized last night), send letters or pay high rates to use pay phones then adoption of a mobile phone proved a far better solution. Compare this to the West where land-lines were already business as usual in people's lives and you get a sense of the rigidity that saw slower adoption of cell phones there not withstanding technological improvements that brought down the costs.
The same will go with the services that will build around these devices. Mobile-banking will receive faster adoption where banking services have not existed before as long as the opportunity is shaped with in-line with the jobs to be done in that particular market.
With more competition on voice services, be sure to get more services around the mobile device.