Project description
Huawei’s Mobile Money solution is able to provide innovative, asset-light, and reliable mobile banking services to people who need it most. It utilizes existing communication network capabilities and these services are transacted seamlessly using feature or smartphones.
Impact description
Globally, two billion, mostly poor adults, do not have bank accounts and 200 million small businesses in emerging economies lack access to formal savings and credit. Their financial transactions are in cash and they have no safe way to save and invest their money. Instead they rely on informal lenders and personal networks for credit. In other words they have no access to safe, secure and affordable financial services. However, 1.6 billion of these people do have mobile phones. Mobile technology can provide access to savings accounts, credit, and loans, which can strengthen emerging middle-class populations and stimulate further economic growth. Mobile money is one of the most exciting innovations to address financial inclusion because it can operate at enormous scale. According to the GSMA, there are more than 690 million registered mobile money accounts and they transact around a billion dollars a day. To give an indication of the “digital disruption” underway, approximately 70% of these accounts are provided by mobile operators rather than traditional banks. The Mobile Money solution has so far been commercially deployed in 19 countries and serves over 152 million users, accounting for 22% of the world’s registered accounts. Approximately 50% of all mobile money transactions now take place on Huawei’s platform; project partners include Safaricom, Vodafone, Vodacom and Teasy Mobile in ten African countries, including big markets like Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. In 2017, the service expanded and joined forces with Xpress Money, one of the world’s most dependable money transfer brands. The new partnership will help to further reduce the cost of remittance services and drive financial inclusion for millions of more mobile money users.