Lessons from M-PESA – a conversation with Nick Hughes, Vodafone Head of International Mobile Payment Solutions

by Jim Rosenberg : Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Earlier today CGAP hosted Vodafone’s Nick Hughes, who leads the global mobile network operator’s mobile banking efforts.  Vodafone has some 269 million customers worldwide. Hear about Vodafone’s stake in M-PESA, the Kenya mobile banking service that after just 18 months has reached nearly four million people in a country that has only five million deposit accounts. Vodafone is looking to replicate that success in other markets, including Afghanistan and India. We discuss:
-What is driving customer uptake in mobile banking?
-Why has M-PESA been so successful at signing up customers?
-What does the regulatory climate look like going forward?

Webcast archive:

real media video

windows media video

TAGS: Access To Finance, Africa, Kenya, Microfinance, Mobile Banking

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6 Comments RSS 2.0

  1. October 29th, 2008 at 6:07 pm, M-PESA, why it works « Design in Africa ()

    [...] Ryan Hahn on Nick Hughes’ (head of Vodafone’s international mobile payment solutions) talk at CGAP regarding the success of M-PESA, a mobile banking [...]

  • October 30th, 2008 at 5:37 am, Gunnar Camner ()

    First, thanks for hosting this excellent presentation, and second, is it possible to somehow see the slides presented by Nick Hughes?

  • October 31st, 2008 at 11:34 am, Valuable Bits ()

    CGAP webinar with Nick Hughes…

    Nich Huges from Vodafone talked about M-PESA and his experiences from launching the service. The main message was that is important to make these kinds of services as simple as possible. In the beginning of M-PESA they considered a lot more functionali…

  • November 5th, 2008 at 10:21 am, Chirchir Emmanuel ()

    Dear Hughes,

    Sometime this year I was made an agency. I would wish highlight one thing. The money transfer concept made me find my old mother a job. The money transfer is making everyone come up with ideas from this simple.

    Is there a forum where we could come up with an idea and if it seams viable then am protected and innovations are protected in a simple way.

    I have an idea.

    Chirchir

  • January 11th, 2009 at 2:57 pm, Chipiliro Katundu - Head of Retail & SME Banking ()

    The fortune and future indeed lie in the Bottom end of the Pyramid (The worlds Poor) as highlighted by C.K Prahalad and Cellphones have proven clearly to be amongst the easier way to get this group most of which live below the Poverty line.

    The M- PESA initiative by Vodafone is a clear example on how a company can revolutionize how they do business in developing countries and use technology to create the capacity to consume even among the world poor.

    Looking at the numbers the worlds poor are clearly the Real engine but only require a “Right business model and a right combination of prdiucts and service…” (Prahalad, 2006 ; p50)

  • March 20th, 2009 at 12:33 pm, Lessons in Scaling Social Innovation and Enterprise « Compassion in Politics: Christian Social Entrepreneurship, Non-Profit Organizations, and Base of the Pyramid Design Solutions ()

    [...] compensating for the lack of national identification cards and low literacy; * In Kenya, Vodaphone is piloting the M-Pesa mobile phone banking system with MFI Faulu Kenya, exploring new avenues of distribution; * In [...]

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