The Globe and Mail uses next month’s World Cup as a good reason to talk about Africa’s economic growth:

For the first time, Africa is becoming a bigger lure for investors than for aid donors. Africa’s poverty rate has been declining by 1 per cent annually since the 1990s, and investment is growing dramatically. A decade ago, Africa was receiving less than $5-billion (U.S.) in foreign investment annually. By 2008, it was attracting nearly $40-billion in direct foreign investment – more than it received in foreign aid. One survey found that 40 per cent of emerging-market equity investors are putting money into Africa today, compared with 4 per cent in 2006.

Accompanying the piece is a great blog post exploring how Africa’s mobile phone and internet revolution will define the continent’s future:

Since mobiles first went mainstream in Africa at the turn of the century, mobile penetration has exploded to approximately 450 million subscribers. Put in perspective, there are more mobile subscriptions on the continent than the population of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Combined! This subscriber base is expect to maintain a 12 per cent annual growth rate through 2013.

VODACOM Tanzania’ managing director spoke with Reuters and said M-PESA hasn’t been a big hit for unbanked clients.

In Tanzania, the service has been largely for the banked population although it was designed to help cater for those without access to simple financial services.

Only 500,000 people are actively transferring cash using their mobiles although a total 3.4 million were registered.

“More of the banked sector is taking it up. We should move away from that, and I believe that will come through with education, and as people start understanding how the product works they will start taking it up,” he said.

In Pakistan, the EasyPaisa service (hat tip, CGAP partner Tameer/Telenor) was the focus of an Al Jazeera story recently. The piece does a good job explaining mobile banking for the unbanked and the attendant issues that providers and policymakers deal with. The video is embedded here:

If the video doesn’t display, you can see it here.

And finally, some recent reports that you might find useful. The World Bank has released a new report on Pakistan’s payment systems and the GSMA has pulled together a handbook on agent banking for mobile operators:
http://mmublog.org/agent-networks/

-Jim Rosenberg