Title

The Transformation Of East Africa'S Economy Using Mobile Phone Money Services: A Pragmatist Account Of Ict Use

Keywords

East-Africa; ICT; Mobile phone; Money transfer; Pragmatist approach

Abstract

A pragmatic approach is employed to account for the unique responses to the Mobile Money Transfer Services in four of the five East African Countries; Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda that are forging a regional common market ahead of a political federation by 2015. While different outcomes to the introduction of Mobile money transfer services are highlighted in the narratives on each country, similarities that are typical of developing countries with their populations struggling to cope with the various uses of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are also underlined. The paper underscores the radical transformation the Mobile Money Transfer Services is having on the social and economic lives of the people of East Africa especially in the rural areas where formal banking services have been absent. The paper notes that the cut throat competition among the telecom companies to fill the banking void in the rural areas of the prospective East African Community, and to tap into the lucrative international business of foreign currency remittance by East African citizens in the Diaspora, local populations have become the unintended beneficiaries from the ICT innovations.

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Publication Title

IMSCI 2010 - 4th International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics, Proceedings

Volume

2

Number of Pages

99-104

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Personal Identifier

scopus

Socpus ID

84896263711 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84896263711

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