The advent of 'mobile money' via cellphones and other handheld devices has had a significant effect on the economy of Kenya. (Science Daily: Mobile money lifts Kenyan households out of poverty)
A new study estimates that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services -- which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone -- increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day).
Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
A new study estimates that, since 2008, access to mobile-money services -- which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone -- increased daily per capita consumption levels of 194,000, or roughly 2 percent, of Kenyan households, lifting them out of extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 per day).
Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
When the mobiles have a substantive and positive effect on the lives of real people, we start gaining respect for the devices of which the regulars know we have zero now.
Since 2008, MIT economist Tavneet Suri has studied the financial and social impacts of Kenyan mobile-money services, which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone. Her work has shown that these services have helped Kenyans save more money and weather financial storms, among other benefits.
- Science Daily
The capacity for mobile money is thought to be equalizing to some extent for women.
The researchers also think mobile money could give women in male-headed households, who are also usually secondary income earners, more financial independence, which could help them start their own businesses. "As a woman, sometimes you're not able to save on your own, because cash gets used by the whole house. [Mobile money] allows you to keep separate cash and ... manage a source of income on your own," Suri says.
- Science Daily
The article contains considerably more detail about the economics of this and it may interest you to review further.
Note: I love that blouse. Such spectacular use of color isn't only in Africa as you will see that all over the Caribbean and middle- and central America as well. Those aren't the only places and we don't want to review which places are more subdued than that; it's much more colorful to see the people and places which are not.
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