Haitian carriers hit major mobile money milestone
As U.S. consumers slowly adopt mobile financial services, emerging economies are leaping ahead. According to the U.S. embassy in Haiti, two of that country's mobile network operators, Digicel and Voilà, will share a $3.2 million award from the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI) for reaching the 5 million transaction milestone.
The award is the last to come from a $10 million incentive fund initiated in June 2010 by HMMI, a partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was created to encourage the deployment of mobile money services in Haiti following the devastating January 2010 earthquake.
"The Haiti Mobile Money Initiative has successfully contributed to spurring the launch of mobile money, and this progress is a significant accomplishment given the challenges faced on the ground in Haiti," said Rodger Voorhies, director of financial services for the poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "In the next phase of the project, we will focus on supporting the financial services industry to develop an active and growing customer base with the ultimate goal of helping the people in Haiti build financial security and better lives."
HMMI activities will now revolve around helping mobile money services achieve sustainability by expanding uptake in services and increasing the number of active users. Partnerships with other members of the mobile money ecosytem will address some remaining challenges such as customer education, agent and merchant network expansion, and product development. HMMI will also provide technical assistance, grants and market research.
Digicel's TchoTcho Mobile and Voilà's T-Cash, along with their bank partners, Scotia Bank and Unibank respectively, were both launched in Haiti in 2010 to let Haitians use mobile phones to make payments, send and receive funds, and manage their money.
"In the region, Haiti is at the mobile money development forefront," said U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten. "The Government of Haiti's dynamism in the use of information communications and technology allows us to believe in the sustainability of mobile financial services."
Merten said mobile financial services can contribute to the development of various key sectors such as agriculture, microfinance and commerce.
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