Author: Lucy

Mobile banking has become a highly desirable market in Africa

| August 19, 2014

Banks are now vying for a top spot in this marketplace where the potential for growth is astronomical.

The African marketplace is providing a rather unique mobile banking opportunity to financial institutions that are looking into new areas of considerable potential, as the majority of people there have cell phones, but do not have bank accounts.

This provides the opportunity to use mobile technology to bring services to a fresh banking market.

This concept is far from simply being theoretical. Mobile banking is already seeing explosive growth in many countries throughout Africa and now banks are hoping to be able to step into these economies in order to make sure that they don’t miss out on this new revenue stream. At the moment, many of these services are currently dominated by telecom companies, as is the case in Kenya. However, in that country, one of the largest banks in the country – Equity Bank – is entering into the battle in order to reclaim some of the turf that it has traditionally called its own.

Currently, M-Pesa holds the top spot as the most popular mobile banking service in Kenya.

Mobile Banking - AfricaM-Pesa gives an individual in Kenya the ability to use a mobile wallet for receiving payments, sending funds to other users of the service, or even withdrawing cash from agents at roadside stands and convenience stores located throughout the country. The company, itself, is owned by Safaricom, which is a Vodafone Group subsidiary in Kenya.

This service is providing banking services to individuals and business owners who have previously been unbanked. That said, it offers them a range of service that are highly useful to them. For example, it means that their funds can be kept in digital form so that their risk if they are robbed is considerably lower. Furthermore, individuals who live in rural areas but who migrate to the city to work there for weeks or months at a time can send funds back to their families without having to make the physical trip.

The M-Pesa mobile banking service first launched in 2007, and now it is handling an estimated $18 billion in annual transactions. This from individuals ranging from the pedicab drivers in Mombasa to the cattle herders in the distant villages of the Rift Valley, and everybody in between; nearly all of whom have previously been unbanked despite the fact that they make up approximately 43 percent of the economic output of the country.

Technology news buzzes as UK drivers are prosecuted for using mobiles to photograph accident

| August 15, 2014

Motorists that were behind the wheel and used their smartphones to snap images of a massive crash can find themselves in hot water.

While there are times in which technology news reveals many ways in which to improve our lives and make things easier, a recent situation in the United Kingdom has caused four drivers to be prosecuted for having taken photographs of a freeway accident using their mobile phones.

The Gloucestershire Police said that the activity of snapping the photos caused dangerous driving situations.

The police stated that the drivers in this technology news who took the photos of the traffic accident were so focused on taking the pictures that other drivers were required to hit the brakes or take other evasive action to avoid crashing into them. The drivers, who should have been focused on making sure that they were proceeding safely past the area of the crash, instead chose to take out their mobile phones and try to either photograph or take video footage of an RV that had collided with the center barrier of the M5 freeway, near Michaelwood services.

A police officer reported in this technology news that there were dozens of motorists trying to take pictures.

Technology News - car crashThe accident blocked the third lane of the freeway on the afternoon of July 28 and the many drivers who decided to focus on using their mobile devices to take pictures instead of concentrating on their own driving risked making the situation considerably worse. That said, among all of the motorists who failed to progress legally past the crash, only four were apprehended.

Those four will be prosecuted for having driven without due care and attention, or without consideration to the other road users. That said, there were eight other drivers who were identified in this technology news story, and who will be sent letters of warning with regards to the way that they were using their mobile devices while behind the wheel.

According to a technology news statement released by PC Shelley Holloway, “The actions of several motorists who drove through the scene showed no regard for their own or of other people’s safety, as they used their mobile phones to record or video the wreckage as they passed.”