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M-Pesa (M for mobile, ''pesa'' is Swahili for money) is a mobile phone-based money transfer and microfinancing service, launched in 2007 by Vodafone for Safaricom and Vodacom, the largest mobile network operators in Kenya and Tanzania.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=CCK releases 2nd quarter ICT sector statistics for 2011/2012 )〕 It has since expanded to Afghanistan, South Africa, India and in 2014 to Eastern Europe. M-Pesa allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money and pay for goods and services (Lipa na M-Pesa) easily with a mobile device. The service allows users to deposit money into an account stored on their cell phones, to send balances using PIN-secured SMS text messages to other users, including sellers of goods and services, and to redeem deposits for regular money. Users are charged a small fee for sending and withdrawing money using the service.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.safaricom.co.ke/personal/m-pesa/tariffs )〕 M-Pesa is a branchless banking service; M-Pesa customers can deposit and withdraw money from a network of agents that includes airtime resellers and retail outlets acting as banking agents. M-Pesa has spread quickly, and by 2010 had become the most successful mobile-phone-based financial service in the developing world.〔 By 2012, a stock of about 17 million M-Pesa accounts had been registered in Kenya.〔 The service has been lauded for giving millions of people access to the formal financial system and for reducing crime in an otherwise largely cash-based society. ==History== In 2002, researchers at Gamos and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, funded by Department for International Development UK (DFID), documented that in Uganda, Botswana and Ghana, people were spontaneously using airtime as a proxy for money transfer. Kenyans were transferring airtime to their relatives or friends who were then using it or reselling it. Gamos researchers approached MCel〔http://www.mcel.co.mz/〕 in Mozambique, and in 2004 MCel introduced the first authorised airtime credit swapping – a precursor step towards M-Pesa. The idea was discussed by the Commission for Africa〔Scott N, Batchelor S, Ridley J and Jorgensen B 2004 The impact of mobile phones in. Africa, background paper prepared for the Commission for Africa, London.〕 and DFID introduced the researchers to Vodafone who had been discussing supporting microfinance and back office banking with Mobile phones. S Batchelor (Gamos) and N Hughes (Vodafone CSR) discussed how a system of money transfer could be created in Kenya. DFID amended the terms of reference for its grant to Vodafone, and piloting began in 2005. In April 2007, following a student software development project from Kenya,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.financialdeepening.org/default.asp?id=712&ver=1 )〕 Safaricom launched a new mobile phone based payment and money transfer service, known as M-Pesa. The initial work of developing the product was given to a product and technology development company known as Sagentia. Development and second line support responsibilities were transferred to IBM in September 2009, where most of the original Sagentia team transferred to. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「M-Pesa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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