Bill Gates and GSMA care for unbanked?

The worldwide mobile communications industry organization GSMA in association with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made an announcement about their new project to provide wider access to unbanked people in developing countries through mobile phones. The program titled Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) was granted a US$12.5 million financing from the foundation.

The program will be working with mobile operators, banks, microfinance institutions, government and development organizations to encourage the expansion of reliable, affordable mobile financial services to the unbanked. The MMU will finance regulatory and market research necessary to eliminate some barriers of providing these services thus creating an example for businesses how this market can be served. US$5 million will be invested in catalyzing a new wave of mobile money innovation to encourage mobile network operators to create new services for previously unbanked people in emerging markets.

Under the program 20 projects are scheduled to be supported in developing markets with a focus on Africa, Asia and Latin America. The program targets to reach 20 million previously unbanked people with mobile financial services by 2012.