Sambaza cash from the UK to Kenya

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 1:11 PM

From The Guardian:

A trial will kick off later this year enabling UK Vodafone customers to send money to people in Kenya. This should appeal particularly to the estimated half million Kenyans living in the UK who between them send home some £78m each year. The service will expand to allow cash transfers to countries in Eastern Europe and Asia such as Poland and India …

In the case of Kenya, recipients will be able to get their money from one of a network of 400 outlets, including the offices of Kenyan mobile network provider Safaricom (an affiliate of Vodafone) and branches of state bank Postbank.

A Safaricom pilot that allows people to send payments by mobile within Kenya has proved hugely popular in a country where few people have bank accounts or plastic money. A global rollout will be targeted mainly at migrant workers, but it should also be useful to Britons sending money abroad, such as parents transferring funds to children on gap year travels.

Vodafone will charge users a fee based on the amount of money they send, expected to be half the cost of the equivalent services from Western Union or Moneygram. For example, sending £50 to Kenya for instant collection now costs £12 at both services while sending £500 sets you back £37 at Western Union and £36 at Moneygram.

Exciting news indeed, perhaps mobile phones not plastic cards will mean we finally have a quick, secure, reliable global payment system.

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