I have posted a comment at the CGAP website which reads as follows:
Your saying that "Safaricom was not heavily involved in the [M-pesa]pilot" -- when, clearly, the pilot would never have been possible without Safaricom's network [of technology and people (ordinary Kenyans)] -- reminds me of a Tweet some 2-3 months ago which claimed that M-pesa's success was (solely?) thanks to a grant of some 2 million British Pounds from DFID. How many DFID grants have gone down the drain?
That particular grant would have had no effect were Safaricom not already succeeding on the ground with its mobile phone service. And Safaricom would not have been succeeding already were it not for millions of Kenyans who took to it as the answer to the technical and bureaucratic tyranny of the then fixed-line, monopoly operator.
To me, the most important passage in the above narrative is this:"Furthermore, the design of the application interface and entire system underwent several iterations. It began as a tool for the repayment of MFI loans. It was launched as a P2P transfer service. Such changes were made because the pilot team did their research, and closely monitored usage patterns. Their findings in the field were then fed back into the design of the application." That passage underscores the rather obvious fact that the M-pesa service as rolled out reflects ordinary ("unbanked") Kenyans' expressed preferences in the use of mobile telephony -- not to pay debts but to meet social capital obligations and other reciprocal duties and responsibilities.
Ordinary Kenyans were an integral partner in the initial success of M-pesa, and cotinue to power its growth. Some credit to them, please.
I invite any and all comments from you
