Mobile Money - Haiti Observer Blog

Mobile banking has played an important role in rebuilding after the earthquake. Called the 'mobile wallet' the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI) got its jumpstart in June 2010. Though it was initially met with distrust by some who had trouble investing in a purely electronic system it soon caught on with the more than 85% of mobile users in Haiti after the temporary but immobilizing devastation of many traditional banks. Fast forward a few years and Haiti is leading in mobile phone payments in the region.

The mobile banking services include deposits, withdrawals, enumerated records of accounts and funds transfers all done over phone. And the statistics given from one service, TchoTcho Mobile, made available by Scotiabank, Digicel and YellowPepper show 6 million transactions for 2011 alone. Other mobile wallet providers show promising gains as well. Voila, through Mercy Corps, has served over 6,000 Haitians living in rural communities.

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Haiti's aim for socio-economic development has paved way for both local and international bodies and institutions to cooperate in providing the country and its people different means to attain this. Through technology, these entities have found various innovative ways to assist most especially the poor sector of Haitian society. The Mobile Money initiative, which was launched in the country last 2010 by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), continues to offer promising results.

The Haiti Mobile Money Initiative organized by the Gates Foundation has recently reached a five-million worth of transactions. This resulted in Digicel and Voila, two of the country's mobile network companies, sharing an award worth 3.2 million dollars for this milestone, which marks the final award of the initiative's ten-million-dollar incentive fund. The growing success of mobile money assists Haitians with a more practical and easier way through their mobile phones in taking care of monetary transactions as ninety percent of them do not have bank accounts. Aside from the HMMI, the government has launched two projects involving mobile money called "Aba Grangou" and "Ti Manman Cheri". The "Ti Manman Cheri", otherwise known as "Dear Little Mother", aims to help Haitian youth that are facing extreme poverty.

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