It is evident now that developing countries will benefit greatly from embracing mobile technology. Mobile financial services will be the most powerful tool for economic and social development in these emerging economies. Improved access to finance fostered entrepreneurship, new business creation and new jobs – these are consequences of using mobile phones that will help two billion people by 2020, according to Boston Consulting Group study.

Let’s not forget about public health and education areas. Speaking of education, some believe that low level of literacy can be the obstacle to using mobile technology in Africa. There will be no situation, however, when a number of mobile subscribers will be more than people who are literate. As a result of economic growth, uneducated people will quickly find a way to count and read. Mobile phones simply will become an opportunity to earn money and that is a good stimulus to learn how to use a cell phone.

The new skill of using mobile phones will, in turn, bring basic education and increase access to healthcare with the help of special services. However, these bonuses will come after expanding of mobile financial services. They will bring in more people who don’t have mobile phones and those who have, but still unbanked. They will be that catalyst for the development of the whole continent.

The key to creating successful mobile financial services is understanding the needs of developing countries. The main function that people of rural areas of Africa need is simply transferring money. For a typical worker in Africa it is much more convenient to press a couple of buttons than travel for hours to give money to his/her family. These unbanked people don’t need the same services provided by banks of Western World, as their economic situation is totally different.

To help people of Africa embrace mobile world, service creators should not over-complicate simple things. If people need to transfer money, then a mobile service needs to meet this task in the most easy and reliable way. This is also true for any mobile service, especially if we are talking about countries where people use mobile phones for the first time (this brings us back to the post where we discussed user experience).

If you want to create a mobile financial service, have a look at Eyeline Financial Service Delivery Platform. It helps easily create and safely deliver mobile payment services with a top-class user experience. Write to us at info@eyeline.mobi to learn more.

Stay tuned.

[photo: flickr/larskflem]