How Mobile Money Could Help Alleviate Poverty

Research has it that more than 600 million people are living in adept poverty(thats about 8 % of the world's population). This is actually appalling, due to the fact that most continents of the world are endowed and gifted with some natural resources that when well utilised should generate a lot of revenue that will guarantee better standard of living and that should atleast reduce the poverty level of the world to 3.5% 2050. The World Poverty Clock has helped to give in details the poverty statistics of the world. Africa being the poorest continent and has 34 of its 54 Federations among the poorest countries in the world has 33% of its population in poverty, followed by Asia which has 3.6% of its population in poverty, North America  has 1.8% of its population in poverty, South America  has 4.5% of its population in poverty, Australia(Oceania) has 6.5% of its population in poverty and Europe has 0.4% of its population in poverty. 

HOW DIGITAL CASH HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF POVERTY

HOW DIGITAL CASH HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF POVERTY

Its widely known that being poor can cost you alot of money, but with the rise of digital money from PayPal, MasterCard and Crypto Currency start ups, there has been an hope for the poor, poverty will be broken, if no completely, majority of it will be. With about 2 billion people in the world without access to a bank account or a financial institution, it has become risky and difficult to save due to "unbanked" adults getting their wages and bills in cash. Thats one of the major reason why the Gates Foundation views digital currency as the tool to break the poverty cycle using even the simplest phones and electronic devices to transfer and receive money.

An awareness has to be created by the Tech companies to the public, such has remembering a PIN, and how deposit, withdrawal, and transfer can be made without difficulty, the World Bank says.
In as much as the companies will shell out the upfront costs so as to be used by all, they will also have to ensure safety and honesty of their platform and also make people feel comfortable with it.
Safaricom's mobile money system, M-Pesa launched 11 years ago in Kenya shows every possibility of a success in digital cash.

The only hiccoughs that Tech companies might face with digital cash is because of the familiarity of people with cash, people don't wake up and tend to pickup their phones to make transfers or deposits, they prefer going to the bank. Last year, Samsung gave it a shot, they launched the Contactless Companion Platform, or CCP. The system uses NEC technology that lets a phone, wearable or key fob make small digital payments. Having ran a pilot program in East Africa, they have opted to create two more, one in the Bahamas dubbed "Island Pay", and another Central America

Another digital cash that has been backed to alleviate poverty is the Cryptocurrency. A lot of them has surfaced in few years, with bitcoin being the first and the most popular and expensive of all. And its also seem to be another option for serving the world's unbanked. C.E.O and Co-founder of Ripio in Argentina, Sebastian Serrano says Ripio is on the forefront of this effort. He said his company offer a mobile bitcoin wallet and a cryptocurrency-based loan network in Argentina and Brazil, due to the high interest rates in credit and banking.

So people are more advised to get involved in financial institutions, especially the mobile money, it should be prioritised more