Image via WikipediaOf all the technologies that I see that can be put to use for microfinance - and I see a lot - the one that most stands out is mobile phone banking, the m-Pesa kind like has spread like wildfire across Kenya. It is because the last mile is the most complex in the business. And mobile phone banking comes across as this gold standard that can help cut through the thick of all sorts of social, cultural, and bureaucratic issues. This is a case of simple technology beating human flailings to the dust.
Mobile phone banking reduces banking to simple transactions. You do it one simple transaction at a time. And the chips fall in place just fine. Mobile phone banking is like a machete with which you cut through the green thicks as you wade through a tropical forest.
The mobile phone is in a unique position to deliver all sorts of other goodies that will help transform the business. This decade belongs to the mobile phone.
