Call me crazy, but there’s got to be a way for the guys in Africa who are setting up the various forms of mobile banking to go online. If the African Despora in UK, US, etc. could get online and send money into the mobile banking system in Africa, you’ve got one more huge piece of the pie fixed. Not sure exactly how this would work, but the mobile banks could set up partnerships with the US banks or maybe the AMB (African mobile bank) could set up a western union office in major towns in the US to transfer cash/checks into the mobile system in Africa.
Maybe there’s a whole system in place that I’m just ignorant of that has already solved this problem, but I don’t see anyone talking about it. This is the perfect place for a Western investor business man to step in and create an equal relationship with an Africa company. Not for charity, but for profit (nothing wrong with that) for everyone.
A UK friend of mine serving short-term in Sudan lamented the insane rates that Western Union charged in the rural areas of Uganda. Hash, as you described the simple risks and volumes scale of business, my friend, and I fear MANY more, do not understand the basic economic and business principles that drive the cost of doing business, visa-vi, the cost of using a service. Just a little soap box at the end 🙂
PS. Hash: Amazing post! It really shows that you a handle on the issues you write about.
]]>I think it would be safe to say that many companies would be happy to access and make a small cut of that $50 transaction. Think of the long tail here. You’re talking smaller margins, but greater volume.
]]>So, really it makes very little of a difference in the overall economy.
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