Comments on: Moving from Prepay to Subscription

By: ICT4D.at / Prepay versus Subscription

ICT4D.at / Prepay versus Subscription — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:47:59 +0000

[...] is asking the question: Why is there no solid payment system available in Africa? Check out his recent blog post. He is picking up this interesting fact: Credit cards are normally not accepted in rural areas and [...]

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:27:48 +0000

@bankelele It’s not a matter of what works now or practicality, it’s a matter of scale. And currently the financial systems in place in Africa don’t leave much room for scale…across more areas than just the mobile space.

By: bankelele

bankelele — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:31:27 +0000

Is there really something wrong with the pre-pay model? It works for the mobile (companies) and the millions of ’subscribers’ who only pay for what they need/can afford at any given time.

Once a subscriber attains a certain level of progress (e.g her business booms, she needs more services) she will convert to subscriber or sign up for more complex services e.g m-pesa, internet

By: BethP

BethP — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:27:29 +0000

I was recently in Uganda doing some microfinance capacity building and development. Microfinance is powerful and a worthy sector of finance in which to invest, but it is only part of the financial services story in Africa. Your questions are good ones to ask. Why is the financial sector in Africa lagging so far behind? Is this situation paralleled in other developing regions?

By: Erik

Erik — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:31:52 +0000

Ahh, you've just hit on one of my favorite dead horses to kick. Every time I think of this topic, I come to the same conclusion: "it just doesn't make sense." Here are a couple of my thoughts on it: African micro-banking Mobile eCommerce problems in Africa A mobile banking system for Africa On Remittances