IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/5988.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Kenya's mobile revolution and the promise of mobile savings

Author

Listed:
  • Demombynes, Gabriel
  • Thegeya, Aaron

Abstract

The mobile revolution has transformed the lives of Kenyans, providing not just communications but also basic financial access in the form of phone-based money transfer and storage, led by the M-PESA system introduced in 2007. Currently, 93 percent of Kenyans are mobile phone users and 73 percent are mobile money customers. Additionally, 23 percent use mobile money at least once a day. New potential for mobile money has come with the rise of interest-earning bank-integrated mobile savings systems, beginning with the launch of the M-KESHO system in March 2010. 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. However, what the authors term"basic mobile savings"-- the use of simple mobile money systems as a repository for funds -- is widespread, including among those who are otherwise unlikely to have any savings. Holding other characteristics constant, those who are registered for M-PESA are 32 percent more likely to report having some savings.

Suggested Citation

  • Demombynes, Gabriel & Thegeya, Aaron, 2012. "Kenya's mobile revolution and the promise of mobile savings," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5988, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5988
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/03/06/000158349_20120306084347/Rendered/PDF/WPS5988.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jenny C. Aker & Isaac M. Mbiti, 2010. "Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(3), pages 207-232, Summer.
    2. Pascaline Dupas & Jonathan Robinson, 2013. "Why Don't the Poor Save More? Evidence from Health Savings Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(4), pages 1138-1171, June.
    3. William Jack & Tavneet Suri, 2011. "Mobile Money: The Economics of M-PESA," NBER Working Papers 16721, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Ignacio Mas & Olga Morawczynski, 2009. "Designing Mobile Money Services Lessons from M-PESA," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 4(2), pages 77-91, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Catia Batista & Pedro C. Vicente, 2018. "Is mobile money changing rural Africa? Evidence from a field experiment," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp1805, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    2. Tut, Daniel, 2023. "FinTech and the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from electronic payment systems," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    3. Lashitew, Addisu A. & van Tulder, Rob & Liasse, Yann, 2019. "Mobile phones for financial inclusion: What explains the diffusion of mobile money innovations?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1201-1215.
    4. Fakir Md Yunus & Safayet Khan & Tanjilut Tasnuba & Paroma Afsara Husain & Amanda Joy Misiti, 2016. "Are we ready to adopt mobile money in non-profit sector?," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Enoch M Kikulwe & Elisabeth Fischer & Matin Qaim, 2014. "Mobile Money, Smallholder Farmers, and Household Welfare in Kenya," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-13, October.
    6. Kikulwe, Enoch M. & Fischer, Elisabeth & Qaim, Matin, 2013. "Mobile money, market transactions, and household income in rural Kenya," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 155847, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    7. Pascaline Dupas & Sarah Green & Anthony Keats & Jonathan Robinson, 2014. "Challenges in Banking the Rural Poor: Evidence from Kenya's Western Province," NBER Chapters, in: African Successes, Volume III: Modernization and Development, pages 63-101, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Maëlle Della Peruta, 2015. "Mobile Money Adoption and Financial Inclusion Objectives: A Macroeconomic Approach through a Cluster Analysis," GREDEG Working Papers 2015-49, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    9. Ahmad, Ahmad Hassan & Green, Christopher J. & Jiang, Fei & Murinde, Victor, 2023. "Mobile money, ICT, financial inclusion and growth: How different is Africa?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    10. Aron, Janine, "undated". "'Leapfrogging': a Survey of the Nature and Economic Implications of Mobile Money," INET Oxford Working Papers 2017-02, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, revised Jan 2017.
    11. Ahmed, Haseeb & Cowan, Benjamin, 2021. "Mobile money and healthcare use: Evidence from East Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    12. Gonzalez, Robert & Maffioli, Elisa M., 2024. "Is the phone mightier than the virus? Cellphone access and epidemic containment efforts," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    13. Jenny C. Aker & Rachid Boumnijel & Amanda McClelland & Niall Tierney, 2016. "Payment Mechanisms and Antipoverty Programs: Evidence from a Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(1), pages 1-37.
    14. Catia Batista & Pedro C. Vicente, 2020. "Adopting Mobile Money: Evidence from an Experiment in Rural Africa," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 594-598, May.
    15. Howell, Rachel & van Beers, Cees & Doorn, Neelke, 2018. "Value capture and value creation: The role of information technology in business models for frugal innovations in Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 227-239.
    16. Seng, Kimty, 2021. "The mobile money’s poverty-reducing promise: Evidence from Cambodia," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    17. Jenny Aker & David A Carroll, 2022. "The State of Digital Financial Services in Francophone West Africa," Working Papers hal-03642499, HAL.
    18. Leo Van Hove & Antoine Dubus, 2019. "M-PESA and Financial Inclusion in Kenya: Of Paying Comes Saving?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-26, January.
    19. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Nicola Limodio & Lorenzo Spadavecchia, 2023. "Mobile Money, Interoperability and Financial Inclusion," Working Papers 696, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    20. Anthea Paelo & Simon Roberts, 2022. "Competition and Regulation of Mobile Money Platforms in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Kenya and Uganda," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 60(3), pages 463-489, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Banks&Banking Reform; Emerging Markets; E-Business; Economic Theory&Research; E-Finance and E-Security;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5988. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.