100m newly 'banked' people: What mobile money has done in a decade
It's pretty much accepted wisdom that Africa has been at the forefront of mobile payment tech for a while now. But how many of you knew that the first mobile financial service in an emerging market went live 10 years ago in Africa?
Celpay, which is powered by South African-based company Fundamo, launched in Zambia way back in 2002. That's a full five years before Kenya's mobile darling MPesa went live.
It was the first in a series of services aimed at banking the unbanked on the continent. In those 10 years, 100-million people have been newly 'banked' using mobile technology.
Back then Fundamo was an independent company. Today it's wholly owned by Visa after being bought out for US$110-million.
Read the full article on http://memeburn.com.