M-PESA

This post concludes my report on my trip to Kenya to see M-PESA, the mobile phone--based money transfer service. Here's the full set. Iqbal Quadir may be the original visionary of mobile phones for the masses in developing countries. In this 100-second clip from his TED talk, he tells how the vis...

This post continues my previous report on my trip to Kenya to see M-PESA, the mobile phone--based money transfer service. Here's the full set. On our second day, last Tuesday, we flew to Kisumu, a town on Lake Victoria, that vast body of water straddling the borders between Kenya, Tanzania, and U...

When the now-dominant methods of microfinance were developed circa 1980, they were what economists call technological breakthroughs. Although they were low-tech in the everyday sense of the word---involving meeting in person, paying in cash, keeping records on paper---they were nevertheless new ways...