[governance] Web payments

[Carlos A. Afonso]

Yes, this is a good sign that a significant amount of money is being 
transacted via mobile, but this does not imply a corresponding 
significant amount of people are doing so.

All this to keep in mind that mobile is not a magic wand which will 
solve all connectivity issues and will be the answer to true universal 
broadband access -- as the telecom cartel in Brazil for instance tries 
to sell us, and unfortunately the Ministry of Communications endorses. 
According to them, more than 70% of the people in Brazil are on the 
Internet just because they have phones *capable* of connecting to the 
Net (but less than 20% are connected via real broadband).

--c.a.

On 04/16/2013 08:02 PM, McTim wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 5:44 PM, Carlos A. Afonso <ca at cafonso.ca> wrote:
>> McT, paying electronically without a bank, credit card or similar account is
>> impossible, unless billing is done against a postpaid cell phone account.
>
> It's all pre-paid in Africa (over 90+ %).
>
> As
>> Lavoisier suggested, money, like energy, is not created out of the blue
>> (except by govs :)). This "enormous success" might be referring to a
>> minority of people.
>
>
> Well a year ago when I left Kenya, a sum =20% of Kenya's GDP had already been
> transferred using one platform (M-Pesa).
>

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