Obopay, a provider of money transfer service via mobile phones, and Grameen Solutions, a company dedicated to promoting economic and social development through innovative business and information technology solutions, announced a joint partnership to deliver banking services to one billion of the world’s poorest people by 2018.

 

The “Grameen-Obopay Bank a Billion Initiative” aims to leverage the mobile technology that is prevalent even in the most impoverished and rural areas of the world to provide banking services to the underprivileged in the world. The joint initiative plans to provide affordable financial services such as cross-border money remittance, savings and credit accounts to the rural population that is devoid of these services at present, company officials said. 

 

Bank a Billion Initiative will launch its initial services in Mumbai, India, and in Bangladesh. The companies plan to deliver the services from October 2008.

 

Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay, said, “I was inspired to found Obopay when I was volunteering in Africa and saw that while people in remote corners of the world often lacked access to the most basic financial services, they almost all had mobile phones. We are thrilled to embark on a partnership with Grameen Solutions, and look forward to working with them to bring truly powerful mobile banking services to people everywhere.”

 

According to Global System of Mobile Communications Association (GSMA (News - Alert)), there are more than 3 billion active GSM connections worldwide. Emerging markets alone contribute for almost 85 percent of the new mobile phone connections. These facts indicate that mobile technology can be effectively used to deliver financial services to billions of underprivileged in various continents, the companies said.

 

Because of the geographical and economical restrictions, even the basic banking services were denied to millions of people in every continent. The use of mobile technology overcomes the limiting restrictions of space, time and money. It can leverage the existing infrastructure to provide the additional financial services.

 

“We carefully evaluated globally available mobile money service providers with a view to identifying a partner that fits with our vision and mission. Obopay is clearly that partner, and we look forward to maximizing the global potential of mobile financial services with them. By using a technology that is already pervasive — the mobile phone — we will clearly be able to have a dramatic impact on global poverty,” said Kazi Islam, CEO, Grameen Solutions, in a statement.

 

 Aditya Menon, executive director and CTO, Obopay India, said, “Obopay’s partnership with Grameen Solutions is a clear and powerful validation of Obopay’s ability to have a dramatic and transformational global impact on personal finance.”

 

Muhammed Yunus, the man behind the microfinance movement and recipient of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, is the founder of Grameen solutions. “Mobile based financial services will bring more power to poor people. I'm excited about the partnership that Grameen Solutions and Obopay have created,” Yunus said.