Connecting the World

Mobile Money for the Unbanked

The MMU programme is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Accelerating mobile money services for unbanked markets

The GSMA Development Fund has initiated the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme to accelerate the availability of mobile money services to the unbanked and those living on less than US$2 per day.

Bringing together mobile operators in developing countries, banks, microfinance institutions, governments, development organisations and the private sector, MMU has the goal of reaching 20 million previously unbanked people with mobile financial services by 2012.

MMU Fund
A US$5 million Fund is available over a period of two years to support commercially viable and sustainable mobile operator led projects that accelerate the speed at which mobile money services for the mass market in developing countries are deployed.

The focus of the Fund is upon:

  • Supporting commercially viable projects
  • Providing a quick response and straight forward grant process
  • Ensuring that mobile services are targeted at base of the pyramid customers
  • Knowledge sharing

MMU Working Group
A series of MMU Working Groups have been created to stimulate discussion and knowledge sharing around mobile money issues. There will be two primary MMU Working Group events, which will he held bi-annually, to share commercial experiences, workshop challenges identified by the industry and discuss potential solutions. The next one will take place in Rio de Janeiro on May 24th, 2010, collocated with the GSMA Mobile Money Summit.

In addition to the primary MMU Working Group events, the GSMA is also facilitating a series of smaller Working Groups which target specific industry segments and topics, for example, the MMU Grantee Working Group and the Regulatory Working Group, Membership of the MMU Working Group is open to members of the GSMA and other interested parties in the mobile money industry. If you are interested in participating, please contact mmu@gsm.org.

MMU and Regulation
In order to overcome the regulatory barriers associated with mobile money services, the programme involves a regulatory element that seeks to improve the capacity of mobile operators to address mobile money risks and to improve the dialogue between financial regulators, telecoms regulators and the mobile industry.