InstitutionClaim Cited
Kenya's M-Pesa ecosystem
M-Pesa turned basic mobile phones and neighborhood cash agents into national payment infrastructure by joining Safaricom's platform, customer trust, agent liquidity, bank-held funds, and regulatory experimentation. Its reach improved resilience and financial access, while concentrating extraordinary infrastructural power in a dominant private operator and making everyday exchange dependent on fees, agents, networks, and rules users do not control.
How can electronic money become trustworthy and usable where cash is local, bank branches are scarce, and most transactions still begin or end with a person?