ABSTRACT
The development of mobile money actually came from research about emerging behaviours associated with mobile phone use in Africa. The market research concluded that the ownership of mobile phones was low, but Africans had accepted telephones into their communication behaviours. Innovations in East Africa in new mobile phone technology have been expanding for the last decade. Safaricom started their pilot project in Kenya in 2005, and in 2007, they launched their new mobile phone-based payment and money transfer service: M-Pesa. M-Pesa was not regarded as a bank and could in that way grow without restrictions and regulations from the bank sector. The M-Pesa system was from the beginning locked into the system of Vodafone, and customers could transfer money only between their customers' accounts. Vodafone has expanded the M-Pesa concept to Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan, India, Romania, Albania, Mozambique, Lesotho, Egypt, Ghana, and Democratic Republic of Congo.
