Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
In a global population of 7 billion people, about two and half billion
people remain unbanked, without access to finance. Now without
access to finance, they may steal and cheat to feed the family.
They may sell their organs or sell family members into trafficking
so that little siblings can still go to school or family members can
get treated in hospital. But this same two and a half billion people
have access to mobile phones. In fact, mobile phone subscriptions
grew from 2 billion in 2005 to over 5 billion in 2010. So offering
financial services using mobile phone technology called Mobile
Money can potentially transform the lives of two and a half billion
people, by providing convenient access to finance.
For example, here’s Mr Fish Farmer who lives far out at sea
without access to finance. But with Mr Banker offering Mobile
Money services, he can easily take out a bank loan to start a
floating mini mart business and can easily repay back the loan. He
can easily pay the supplier. He can easily receive payments from
the customer and he can so easily send money back to support his
family and relatives. While Mobile Money is making significant
progress, there is little research on the social impacts of this
innovation. Research into the social effects of Mobile Money will
provide invaluable insights for banks and technology service
providers. So my research aims to evaluate the social impacts of
Mobile Money services and its effects on the lives of residents in
rural Cambodia. So research data from interviews with Mobile
Money customers who analyse personal perceptions and experiences
from payment, delivery, ease of use and social cultural
changes moving from physical to electronic cash. This research
is not just adding new knowledge to literature and it’s not iPhone
4S, Android or Steve Jobs. But this research hopes to bring industry
practitioners one step closer to lay the foundation to effectively
identify a global response for societal transformation to improve
the livelihoods of the unbanked and poor by providing convenient
access to finance, thank you.