Mobile Money is the fastest and cheapest way to connect the poor to a savings account. It can also help the innovation and marketing of products.
Savings are an integral component of financial inclusion – it not only helps people lower the risks posed by events like medical emergencies or crop failures, but also lets manage their own resources and take the giant leap from reacting to planning.
Below are useful articles, blog posts and other resources.
1. WHY ARE SAVINGS IMPORTANT?
Safe Places to Save
Author: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
2.5 billion people live on less than $2 per day. Most have no access to a savings account. But now, new technologies are offering life-changing services to escape poverty.
A Penny Saved: How Do Savings Accounts Help the Poor?
Author: Jake Kendall, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Discover the experimental evidence regarding the impact of improved access to savings. The few rigorous studies available that examine the impact of account access on poor families show that savings accounts improve the ability to save up, invest and protect against financial crises.
2. HOW CAN MOBILE MONEY HELP CONNECT THE POOR TO SAVINGS?
It’s time to address the microsavings challenge
Author: Bob Christen and Ignacio Mas, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
This article shows why savings are so important and describes how the microsavings model might work in practice.
Kenya’s Mobile Revolution and the Promise of Mobile Savings
Author: Gabriel Demombynes & Aaron Thegeya
In this article, the authors examine the mobile savings phenomenon, using data collected in a special survey in late 2010. They show that the usage of bank-integrated mobile savings systems like M-KESHO remains limited and largely restricted to better-off Kenyans.
3. OTHER RESOURCES
Commitments to Save: A Field Experiment in Rural Malawi
Author: Lasse Brune et al., The University of Michigan
Results of a field experiment in Malawi that allocated smallholder cash crop farmers to treatments facilitating savings in formal savings accounts.
Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor live on $2/day
Author: Collins, Daryl, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford & O.Ruthven
This book tackles the fundamental question of how the poor make ends meet. Over 250 families in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa participated in this unprecedented study of the financial practices of the world’s poor.
Related BLOG POSTS
- Mobile Money for the Unbanked
M-Shwari: Mobile Money Savings & Loans
Safaricom and Commercial Bank of Africa launched M-Shwari last week, a credit and savings product for M-PESA customers. Customers can apply for a quick approval loan, open a bank account and move funds from the wallet over to an interest bearing bank account. ... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Mobile-Enabled Savings via the Business Correspondent Model in India
This is a guest post written by Debbie Dean (Project Director, Micro savings Initiative) and Camilla Nestor (Vice President, Financial Services) from Grameen Foundation. When we launched our microsavings initiative – a three-year project funded by the Bil... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
The Advent of Mobile Financial Services in Agriculture
As the global population continues to grow – it is expected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050. It will require a 70% increase in food production above current levels. Most of this increased yield will have to be achieved in less developed countries (LDC... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Informal Pension Schemes powered by Mobile Money
Paying into a pension plan is an important part of financial planning for any of us. In developing countries where social safety nets are less developed, and in some cases do not exist, mobile money can be used as a tool for governments or the informal s... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
FrontlineSMS:Credit: Targeting MFIs and SMEs to maximise the social impact of mobile money
We’ve written previously in our blog about the intersection of mobile money and Microfinance and about innovative microfinance products riding on the rails of mobile money. Last week, Nathan Wyeth, Project Director of FrontlineSMS:Credit, visited our offic... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Next: Mobile Savings for the Unbanked
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Ignacio Mas, consultant associated with Bankable Frontier Mobile money providers are increasingly pondering the path from payments to savings. If people were comfortable keeping higher e-money balanc... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Interview with Esther Duflo, co-author of “Poor Economics” Part 2.
In light of the recent publication of “Poor Economics”, the new book by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, MMU caught up with Dr. Duflo to discuss some relevant themes to help our readers understand the broader impact of mobile financial services in the... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Interview with Dr. Esther Duflo, co-author of “Poor Economics”
In light of the recent publication of “Poor Economics”, the new book by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, MMU caught up with Dr. Duflo to discuss some relevant themes to help our readers understand the broader impact of mobile financial services in the... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Getting the word out: The Global Savings Forum and new research from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Ignacio Mas and Sheila Miller from the FSP program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Financial Services for the Poor team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sees as its core... - Mobile Money for the Unbanked
Meeting the Microsavings Challenge
n December, we shared an article by Ignacio Mas that described how microfinance is being ‘reframed’. That is, until now microfinance has implied micro ‘funding’ of poor clients with loans, whereas many now recognize that going forward, microsavings wil...
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