Kenya: Safaricom’s M-Pesa goes global with Western Union

Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest mobile operator, has announced a deal with Western Union, the international money transfer company, to enable its M-Pesa mobile money service subscribers to receive direct cash transfers from Western Union agents worldwide.

Consumers can now send money directly to the mobile ‘wallets’ of Safaricom M-PESA subscribers in Kenya from 45 countries and territories,” explains Karen Jordaan, East and Southern Africa Director at Western Union.

The service taps into Africa’s huge remittances flows, which the World Bank estimates to have totalled $40bn in 2010. 

See full piece here and related posts here.

Ghana Reaches World Bank Middle Income Status

Interesting...

On July 1, 2011 Ghana moved from low-income to lower middle-income status, according to World Bank country classifications. 

Projections from the Bank’s Global Economic Prospects position Ghana as the fastest growing economy in Sub-Saharan Africa for 2011, with a forecast GDP growth of 13.4 percent. Authorities are now anxious to see that the oil windfall has a positive, lasting impact on the lives of all Ghanaians. In particular, Ghana hopes to steer clear of the so-called “Dutch disease”—the unique paradox where resource-rich countries grow too heavily dependent on oil at the expense of other productive sectors.

On another note, Ghana’s largest and most important creditor for the past three decades has been the International Development Association (IDA), the soft loan window of the World Bank. That will soon come to an end given the country's middle income status. The combination of Ghana’s rapid economic growth and the recent GDP rebasing exercise means that Ghana suddenly finds itself above the income limit for IDA eligibility. Formal graduation is imminent and comes with significant implications for access to concessional finance, debt, and relations with other creditors. 

See related article here.

Kenya Launches Government Data Portal

On transparency...

Kenya is the first developing country to have an open government data portal. This brings into focus the supply and demands sides of government information that other countries may take for granted. 

The Kenya government data portal makes public data which includes national census, government expenditure, parliamentary proceedings, education, health, poverty, water, sanitation, energy and public services. The goal of opendata.go.ke is to make core government developmental, demographic, statistical and expenditure data available in a useful digital format for researchers, policymakers, ICT developers and the general public and enhancement of universal access to information..