Development Experts Ring Up Kenya's Mobile Money Success Sto
时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(二月)
The success of the M-Pesa mobile money system in Kenya is attracting the attention of development experts, aid organizations and companies seeking to replicate 1 its effectiveness.
An award-winning advertisement for M-Pesa shows money flying from a smiling son's mobile phone, handled from his luxurious 2 city desk, into his mother's cell phone, which she keeps in a sash while toiling 3 at a field in the countryside.
"Now you can send M-Pesa fast and safe using Safaricom's new service M-Pesa," says the M-Pesa advertisement. It continues, "It is the new reliable way to send and receive money using your mobile phone. Visit your nearest M-Pesa agent today. Terms and conditions apply."
Safaricom
M-Pesa advertisements have convinced Kenyans they can trust a mobile phone operator for money transfers, February 2011
Mobile money
M stands for mobile and Pesa is Swahili for money. Safaricom, an affiliate 4 of British-based Vodafone, is Kenya's leading mobile network operator.
M-Pesa was initially 5 designed with help from the British Department for International Development as a tool for micro-finance. It was then developed and fine-tuned in Kenya as mobile money for the general population.
Another video circulating on the Internet, with sweeping 6 music and equally sweeping landscapes, is this documentary which praises M-Pesa, now in its fourth year of commercial existence. The movie also tells the story of goat seller Emmanuel Sironga.
"As pastoralists, we have to travel long distances in search of greener pasture," said Sironga. "M-Pesa has made our lives easier."
M-Pesa allows users to send money to others through their mobile phones, and pay more and more items, from bills, to groceries, school fees, hotel bookings and even salaries and taxi fares. Digital amounts are exchanged for cash at any of the 25,000 M-Pesa agents or at banks and ATMs.
Valuable services
Deposits are free, but there are fees attached to transfers and withdrawals 8. Person-to-person transfers and bill payments cost the equivalent of about 40 cents, while withdrawing money is on a sliding scale. A withdrawal 7 of $100 costs about $1.
But Kenyans have been willing to pay these services, as millions of M-Pesa transactions now take place on a daily basis.
"What has really been lacking are technologies created by Africans for Africans" said G. Pascal Zachary, who teaches a class about technology and development in Africa at Arizona State University. He calls M-Pesa a major success story.
"This is the first example in the digital age of a brand new service technology system being spawned 9 in an African country, so people need to spend a lot of time trying to understand how this happened in a supposedly backward place like Kenya and what does it mean for what other African countries can do to incubate appropriate solutions," said Zachary.
African entrepreneurship
One of those doing just that is William Jack 10, an associate professor in the Department of Economics at Georgetown University in Washington.
"It is really uplifting to go to Safaricom headquarters in Nairobi and see all these very, very professional, highly qualified 11 Kenyans running the place, many of whom are women by the way," said Jack.
Jack recently co-authored a detailed 12 research paper called "The Economics of M-Pesa."
While many other companies are trying to develop mobile money across Africa, Jack said several factors have helped Safaricom with M-Pesa, including having a dominant 13 position in
Kenya's voice market. Jack said this gave users confidence in the service.
The economist 14 said Safaricom also has been able to effectively integrate M-Pesa into Kenya's banking 15 system.
Success stories
He is not surprised the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has commissioned him to do more M-Pesa research.
"This looks like it might be a way to make people's lives better," said Jack. "I mean, the good thing about it is it is sustainable. People want this stuff. They are willing to pay for it. And so, there is no need for continuing subsidies 16 from outside to sustain it and that is the kind of thing we are looking for in development, sustainable innovations that are valued enough by people to pay for them."
Jack hopes to see similar success in other sectors 17 of Kenya's economy.
"One has the impression that the country does not produce anything else, that it is just mobile telephony. I think we have to remember that there are lots of other sectors of the economy in which a lot of people could be employed, that also need innovation like this."
In an increasingly competitive market for mobile money in Africa, M-Pesa has since been launched in other countries, including Tanzania and more recently, last September, in South Africa. It also now allows customers to transfer money internationally from their accounts to a Visa prepaid card, without needing a bank account. That lifts a barrier many Africans have long faced in making purchases without cash outside their own countries.
- The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
- It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样,它还可以被轻易的复制。
- This is a luxurious car complete with air conditioning and telephone.这是一辆附有空调设备和电话的豪华轿车。
- The rich man lives in luxurious surroundings.这位富人生活在奢侈的环境中。
- The fiery orator contrasted the idle rich with the toiling working classes. 这位激昂的演说家把无所事事的富人同终日辛劳的工人阶级进行了对比。
- She felt like a beetle toiling in the dust. She was filled with repulsion. 她觉得自己像只甲虫在地里挣扎,心中涌满愤恨。
- Our New York company has an affiliate in Los Angeles.我们的纽约公司在洛杉矶有一个下属企业。
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- The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
- Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。
- The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
- Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗?
- The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
- They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。
- He has made several withdrawals from his bank account. 他从银行账户上提了几次款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- It is not the bank's policy to deduct interest on withdrawals. 提款需扣除利息这并非是本银行的政策。 来自辞典例句
- The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
- The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展,许多新公司纷纷成立。
- I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
- He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。
- He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
- We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。
- He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
- A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。
- The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
- She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。
- He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
- He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家,自以为什么都懂。
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- He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。
- European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
- Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》