Mobile payment systems are turning out to be a truly disruptive technology in Kenya. The great success of M-Pesa, the now prototypical example of mobile payments, has the banks frightened, at least according to an article in the Nairobi Star. But Kenyan blogger Bankele calls for a truce: "Banks need to change and embrace M-Pesa as it is able to do some things they can't or won't do." According to Bankele, the alternative is not pretty:
...take away m-pesa and people will go back to stuffing cash in tins, rolling them in blankets and mailing them in cartons on buses. They will not go back to open new bank accounts or queue at western union.
(Hat tip: Elia Varela Serra at Global Voices Online)
Join the Conversation