Last Day at Davos

“I know first-hand in Kenya, where farmers have seen their income grow by as much as 30% since they started using mobile banking technology and one World Bank study found that a typical developing country, a 10% increase in the penetration rate for mobile phones led to an almost 1% increase in per capita GDP. Put this into context, that would for India translate into almost $10Billion a year.”

Hillary Clinton, Sec of State

The last day has been good. Wrap up with the technology pioneer WEF team. We gave them feedback on how they could improve the program. Mostly about communications and preparation before the event. They have a buddy system but some buddy's were more helpful than others. It is essential that you prepare for the event ahead of time since once you are here there is too much going on to set up all the meetings you want on the spot.

We also recommended trying to get the technology pioneers a little more involved in the larger events. We discussed the value of that to WEF and to the pioneers. It was clear that making that happen was non-trivial. They coached us on how to get ourselves more engaged with WEF and an indirect result could be more involvement with sessions.

I went to two sessions - one was a CNBC live broadcast on Gender equality in the workforce. The picture above is the CEO of Coke talking about how Coke is aggressively pursuing more women at all levels. He seemed genuine and committed. That being said there are many complex issues with workplace, culture, and home. Others on the panel were COO of Facebook, CEO of Booz. Good job for traditional global inc. issues, not as great on international issues or SME issues. Nothing about access to capital.

The other was the Global Economic Outlook. What follows are my notes. Very brief and may be of interest. I am sure you can go online and get more comments from WEF. Larry Summers was articulate but talk about unemployment of MEN in the US. They should get someone to media train this guy. It was embarrassing that someone that high up in the US government was so politically incorrect.

A good day. I am very tired from a long week but this was the best conference I have ever been to. All the technology pioneers felt the same.

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Notes from Global Economic Outlook session.

India. Growth is strong. need policies to bring down deficite - slowly. Complex. Investment needs to be increased. Financial reform.

Japan. Change structure of economy. Lehman shock gives us the opportunity. More focus on local consumer. Capitalism needs reform to prevent these speculation drivers of growth (subprime crisis). International regulation.

China. 8.7 percent. Consumption growth is strong. Regional disparity getting better. Structure change and deal with over capacity. 33 percent investment growth. 15 percent consumption growth - need this to get larger - closer to 33. Overcapacity big issue. Pure export driven has to change. Structural issue. Need international cooperation.

DB CEO - legacy assets - still may be an issue. Regulatory issues - have to deal with these. Regulators part of the solution.

US - Summers. Statistical recovery, human recession. Moderate gdp growth rate expected. Unemployment is a Big issue. 1 in 5 not working. Recovery will mean 1 in 7 or 8. Job creation and credit access esp for med size business is key. Optimistic about US commitment to global economy (immigrants implied here)

Strauss - Kahn. Improving re-balancing. Growth - now looking at india and china to fuel growth. US will not. Corporate cross border banking.

More From Davos

"Obopay, founded by Carol Realini, particularly struck my imagination, and was enthusiastically explained by Tom Standage ...the opportunity was clear enough, without Standage's endorsement. Obopay offered people who had never had a credit or cheque card the means to send money to relatives, or pay for utilities or food using their phones.

"Half of the world's adults [or 2.5 billion people] have no access to banking," Realini said. Obopay, and companies like it, could empower those people, making them more economically productive, and overturn banking. That's the kind of thing I look to technology to achieve." - Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief and Publisher of Technology Review

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This has been a great event for mobile banking and Obopay. Mobile Banking is discussed in many sessions and conversations. Yesterday I attended a private workgroup on Mobile Banking. Since it is private I am not allowed to discuss it but I believe the WEF will write a report that I will hopefully be able to share with all of you.

The Technology Pioneers program is a dream come true for a entrepreneur; recognition and a chance to build a very broad and deep network around the world.

It is hard to get into a rhythm at Davos. The day starts early and ends when participant just can't stay awake any longer. I have not yet made it past 11PM - but the evening activities go way later - until around 2 PM. On the first few days I wanted to do everything. Then I realized that was impossible so I have now settled into an approach that is 1/3 sessions, 1/3 preset 1-1 meetings, 1/3 general networking.

I can't say enough how full every day has been. And how amazing. Almost all of the corporate attendees are CEO's. I have had an opportunity to talk to CEO's of 3 major Mobile Operators, 2 of the world's biggest banks, and many others. Not only do you meet them, you connect with them. We are all here as "equals" so the normal barriers between people breakdown. It is a unique gathering.

I am not sure what I was thinking but at one technical pioneer event there was an "incident". There was a journalist - who will go unnamed - who was berating a technical pioneer. This journalist didn't understand or appreciate the value of the tech pioneers business. So I got up and told the journalist that he was out of line and to back off. He really was out of line and also I think he didn't understand the business because he couldn't even imaging the environment of an emerging market. His context was so stuck in Silicon Valley. Time for Silicon Valley to open up its view of the world and understand the emerging markets and the next 3 B consumers.

(If someone from Obopay's PR agency was at this meeting they would have wanted to put duck tape over my mouth. This is not the kind of thing a entrepreneur and CEO should be doing with a major journalist. I just couldn't sit by and let this go on without speaking up.)

At that same meeting there was a process where the attendees selected those tech pioneers whose companies were the "best". The criteria was subjective - but I think the most important factors were - was this going to be a large global successful business and was this business going to change the world. I'll am happy to report the results - Obopay was selected as one of the top pioneers.

Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief and Publisher of Technology Review, wrote an article about this - check it out.

Davos Day 2: OboPay Is One of the Fairest

The attendees of the World Economic Forum chose the startups they like most.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/pontin/24732/?ref=rss

More From Davos - by Guest Blogger Joe Tumminaro

Joe's Session Notes

Will India Live Up to Global Expectations

This session was a debate moderated by Indian TV at the WEF for the first time. Questions were taken from the audience and opinions were registered from facebook users worldwide during the debate. There were some testy words about and with Pakistani members of the panel and audience.

India must provide growth and a leadership role achieving stability and peace in the region. A growth that's based on trust and a democratic process.

India has the potential to have the largest middle class in the world. It must focus on developing all of it's own people. This has been an issue in the past. Poverty is a huge issue in India. 500 million people in India lack access to commercial energy. Infrastructure projects are many but urbanization still produces many city slums.

The panel did not want to compare India's growth with that of China and for good reasons. The growth is fundamentally different. However, they are the 2 fastest growing regions and it's hard not to notice some differences. The region around China has benefited from the growth in China while the region around India has not seen the same multipliers. This is an issue because one country in a region cannot sustain growth without including its neighbors.

The expectation is that India should have an external responsibility to the rest of the world, not just for trade but for leadership in the region and the world.

A permanent seat on the UN security counsel is a high expectation of India.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Getting to Zero

This session covered current efforts to reduce nuclear weapons to zero. Policies have failed big time in the last 10 years and it seems that we have new players emerging (North Korea and Iran) from the confusion.

Gerath Evans (leader)
Dr. Yan Xuetong
Larry Brilliant
Dr. Amano - New Head of IEA/EA
Dr. Allison

Lightly attended. Evans upset that there is only one session scheduled on the topic and that the one session is at 9am late in the week.

NPT meeting this year to focus on getting agreement of something by 100 countries. Weak and modest goals which do not point to action very soon.

US has been incompetent for quite some time but high hopes with the new administration. All looking to March meeting in DC for a real change in policy.

China (which has 250) will not reduce weapons until the US and Russia reduce to less than 1000 weapons (currently they have 21,000) This is a ridiculous GAP. It seems to me that with 95% of the Nuclear Weapons, the US and Russia are the actual players in this game who could make a difference and that the continued dragging of feet is unproductive. The delay actually gives time for non-nuclear nations to go nuclear.

The issue is how secure nations feel. If a nation feels secure, they are less likely to need to arm. Dr. Amano, speaking as a Japanese National (Japan has no nuclear weapons), indicated that he feels confident that nuclear weapons are not needed in this world. Dr. Yan (China, 250 nuks) answered that it's easy to take that view when you are guaranteed security by the US. Quite an exchange.

The North Korea crisis was completely screwed up. All powers changed position after the second nuclear test. Focus on security guarantees for countries not economic carrots and sticks. Stick with the security issue, don't cloud it by combining NNP and economic issues. China is upset about having to side with the US on the North Korea issue. Now that it failed, Iran sees that it's strategy is good and is emboldened.

The Global Zero movement and the movie, Countdown to Zero were both mentioned by Larry Brilliant.

It seems to me that the US and Russia must make drastic cuts in order to make progress on getting to ZERO. It seems like this head to head negotiation is only making modest impact. The Russian elite seem to need a security threat in order to stay in power. The US has the same issue. Why are we still negotiating at the same levels and topics that existed during the cold war? Why not just invite Russia to join NATO and make them part of the solution.

The US has got to stop bumbling along on this issue.

Rethinking E-Governance

Very lite turnout.
At least one speaker no-showed

Good table discussion on the need for governments to make all data available in a common form and online. Issues were brought up about who should be trusted to slice and dice the data into meaningful information. In the US we have many people shoving information at us telling us different things from the same data. Most of these are News organizations or think tanks representing certain points of view. Its hard to know who to trust.

For developing nations, having the government make all of the data available is not enough. In many of the developing nations, NGO's are doing much of the governmental work and they are not required to make their data available. Indeed they may have 90% of the useful data and they would protect it because it might get in the way of additional funding or mission expansion.

Davos Post - Joe Tumminaro's notes from Wednesday at WEF

These Notes were contributed by Joe Tumminaro

Rethinking Values

(Panelist Dr. Yunus, Allaire, Glocer, Hasegawa, Ostrowski, Wallis, - Chaired by Quigley the CEO of Deloitte)

The Global Financial Crisis is causing us to question our values. The incentives and motivations have warped our values from “having all I need is enough” to “You can never have enough”. The question is not when will it end but how will the crisis change us. Fools learn from their own experiences, wise men learn from other peoples experiences.

Fewer than 20% of people in US or EU believe that CEO's are credible sources of information.

95% of companies are owned by large fund managers, surrounded by speculators and run by independent directors and executives motivated by stock options.

Government has fallen into the same trap of for profit (moving the party agenda by getting reelected)

Individual responsibility is the ultimate issue.

We have to move the metrics of success for businesses to a Common Good Economy. Social businesses need to be paired with traditional for profit businesses with common good goals. All it takes is to change the metrics of success and make social businesses a reality. A social business has a social goal and makes a profit but the profit is folded back into the company to achieve a broader reach. (Dr. Yunus)

Rethinking Security

(President Abdullah, Shevsova, Sehgal, Moussa, Allison, discussion leader Chipman)

The definition of security was freedom from the fear of being harmed by another country. This definition was relevant until 1991 or the end of the cold war. All the wars of the 20th century before 1991 killed 80 million people. Since 1991, wars have killed 1 million people. Putting things in perspective, 11 million children under 5 years of age have died from preventable diseases since 1991.

Clearly the definition of security needs to change because fear from harm is no longer limited or defined by country boundaries. Also, we have many things to fear that are not related to war such as fear from a pandemic or harm by preventable diseases because of inadequate health care.

Fundamentally the theory that aggression is brought about by the clash of different civilizations is invalid. Most civilizations agree on the basic tenants of life. Aggression comes from the fringe elements of civilizations, the radical right and left elements.

Peace in the Middle East will be achieved only after the Israeli / Palestinian conflict is resolved. A 2 state solution has been in the works for quite some time but has not been achieved. An interesting question was raised whether a shock treatment of a UN imposed mandatory Palestinian state is in order.

Mobile Banking and Davos

“I know first-hand in Kenya, where farmers have seen their income grow by as much as 30% since they started using mobile banking technology and one World Bank study found that a typical developing country, a 10% increase in the penetration rate for mobile phones led to an almost 1% increase in per capita GDP. Put this into context, that would for India translate into almost $10Billion a year.”

Hillary Clinton, Sec of State

The quote from Hillary came out last week so I am expecting a growing awareness of the potential of mobile banking among the Davos crowd. That being said it is not a topic of any Davos session except for a private workgroup on Thursday. I have found last night at the opening reception and the technology awards dinner a growing acknowledgement that mobile banking has potential in emerging markets.

The opening reception was packed. Mingling was easy since it was so crowded people were physically too close not to talk to one another. The group is truly international and eclectic combination of roles; civil society leaders, politicians, business leaders, academics, top journalist, technologist, non-profit leaders. The first time attendees aren’t exactly sure what to expect, the return attendees are glad to be back and enthusiastic about the week.

The technology pioneers awards dinner was attended by corporates that fund the program and the technology pioneers. The picture above I took of our table at the awards dinner. Each business was very interesting. Except for the Twitter CEO, the CEO’s I spoke to discussed their recent fundraising challenges. Most were involved in long cycles to raise money – but acknowledged that they also needed to find short term approaches to their business that required less capital. Fundraising is always an entrepreneur’s challenge – but in 2009 it was especially painful.

The sponsors of the technology pioneers awards were interesting. I sat with the Chief Scientist from BT. He made it clear that BT knows that they need to look outside of their corporation for innovation. He saw this program as a way to have innovation insights and select companies to partner with. I was struck by the fact that innovation and research has changed dramatically from the old Bell Labs, IBM research phase. Then the big companies saw innovation coming from within, and funded it heavily. Now companies know the world is changing quickly and that some of the most valuable innovations will come from outside their companies and their current business models.

Busy day ahead, first session is the Growing Influence of Social Networks. I am going to get there early to make sure I get a seat. I wasn’t able to get a place at the Rise of Asia dinner.

Less time to blog now, so I expect this will get shorter and less refined but I will try to blog at least once a day. Will also be tweeting (carolrealini).

Anticipating Davos - last blog before the conference begins

“We live in a world where human problems do not come permanently attached to national passports” – Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. In this rapidly changing world we need moments where we pause, step outside our traditional paths, try to connect the dots. This is the essence of the Spirit of Davos.

In the last ten years I have had the privilege to meet with top management from mobile and financial industry players, meet with Dr. Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize winner), interact with political and government leaders in various forums. This rubbing shoulders with powerful and influential people has prepared me somewhat for Davos.

That being said, I am anxious about how to best contribute as well as leverage this type of event. I have been told it is non-stop sessions from 7 AM until late hours of the evening. My objective is to orient myself quickly once I am on the ground and determine how to best engage. I have a “Davos Buddy”, Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Brightcove, who I meet with at the beginning of the conference. His role is to help me quickly orient and understand how to get the most out of Davos.

My companion at Davos

Attendees can’t bring other people from their company – the invitation is to the individual only; others won’t get passes for access to the sessions and even physical access into the area where the event takes place. Attendees can bring their spouses and spouses are full participants at the conference. My husband, Joe Tumminaro, doesn’t normally accompany me on business trips. He loves to travel but doesn’t want to be in interesting places but have me work and he then has to enjoy those places by himself. Not to mention he hates being called Mr. Realini.

Joe made an exception to his rule for WEF. He has many passions and is interested in environmental, security, and humanitarian issues – and of course he is passionate about Obopay. He will not only attend some of the sessions with me but also he plans to go to some I cannot. I have asked him to help me with this blog once we get to the conference so our blog followers can benefit. He has agreed.

Joe and I came to Switzerland a few days early so we could sightsee and get over jetlag. We are in St. Moritz now where the weather is incredible. Sunday we skied and on Monday we will visit a few surrounding towns and a sledge run from Preda to Bergun (over 6 kilometers) - what a treat.

Goals for Davos.

Learn new things; especially gain insights on how to best address the world’s most challenging problems.

Contribute to the dialogue; this includes making sure the attendees understand the power of mobile banking and payments and how that might be applied to some of the challenges we face.

Build relationships; especially interested in establishing connections with attendees who are potential distribution partners and government allies.

Build awareness; Make sure attendees are aware of mobile money and its potential role in addressing world challenges.

Schedule for the First 24 Hours

Tuesday

• Welcome reception
• Tech Pioneers Welcome Dinner and Awards Ceremony.

Wednesday

• Rethinking Security in the 21st Century - Joe
• Growing influence of Social Networks - Carol
• Business Solutions to Rural Poverty - Carol and Joe
• Rise of Asia - Carol and Joe

If we can fit them in

• Who is the new consumer?
• Rethinking Values

My Self-Assigned Role

World Economic Forum - Davos 2010

My blog for the WEF - Day 1, Part 2 .
My self-assigned role is to represent the technologist, entrepreneur and mobile money communities.


“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffective, concerning all acts of initiative and creation…Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now” - Goethe

Klaus Schwab sent me a book and a note to provide more background on the World Economic Forum. He invited me to review the survey of the key issues which preoccupied humanity over the last 40 years. As I fly to the World Economic Forum, I read this review and think about what I look forward to and who I look forward to meeting in Davos. I am a technologist, entrepreneur, mobile money evangelist – and my self-assigned role is to represent those communities well as I engage with world leaders at the 2010 World Economic Forum (WEF).

This meeting marks the 40th year of the forum founded in 1971 as the European Management Forum, renamed in 1987 the World Economic Forum reflecting the Forum’s expanded scope. From its modest beginnings of bringing European corporate managers together to discuss business strategies, it is now the world’s foremost multi-stakeholder event addressing the most pressing global issues.

This Forum, with the realities of the after effects of the global economic crisis and the disaster in Haiti, will focus on rebuilding. For the economic crisis – the Global Redesign Initiative is a key platform of discussion - reviewing institutions and practices of global governance and corporate activity to better tackle the challenges of globalization. Although not a part of the original agenda, they have recently added Haiti relief and recovery to the key topics for this meeting.

I look forward to the many dialogues and want to understand how mobile financial services and technology can play a role in both the global economic recovery and the specific challenges of Haiti. This is already happening on a small scale – mobile money in Asia and Africa has already begun to provide banking to millions of underserved people. Also in Haiti, “mobile text giving” (text to a short code to donate $10 to the Red Cross for Haiti – charges show up on your phone bill) has helped ease mass-individual giving to the Red Cross in the US. How can regulators, governments, and corporations help these solutions quickly scale to increase their global impact? Awareness is key since many important stakeholders are still not aware of the full potential.

The Power of Convening.

When I retired in 2000, I moved to Aspen Colorado , home to the Aspen Institute. It is a convening organization which year round hosts events that bring together people from around the world to study and discuss world topics. I experienced first hand the power of convening. It fosters education about the most important issues, trends, and questions of our time. It fosters creation – since the people and relationships have indirect impacts since they were changed by the dialogue and the relationships that developed during their time at the Aspen Institute. These connections may not ever occur without this opportunity to come together in a safe open discussion. The fact is, without these types of forums these people would not normally be connecting – building relationships, crossing traditional boundaries, developing greater understanding.

I imagine Davos as the Aspen Institute on steroids. I looked at the attendee list – CEO’s of fortune 100 companies, senators, presidents, heads of central banks, heads of major foundations, nobel peace prize winners, great social entrepreneurs. I look forward to meeting many of these people in person.

Hello Mr/Ms. President – have you heard about the potential of Mobile Banking?

Here are a few of the Presidents/CEO’s that I hope to meet personally . As you can see from this list – this is a great networking opportunity but also intimidating even to a seasoned networker like me 
AT&T INC. Randall L. Stephenson
BARCLAYS PLC Robert E. Diamond Jr
BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED Manoj Kohli
BHARTI ENTERPRISES Sunil Bharti Mittal
DEUTSCHE BANK AG Anshu Jain
FACEBOOK INC. Sheryl Sandberg
FACEBOOK INC. Mark Zuckerberg
GOLDMAN SACHS Peter D. Sutherland
ICICI BANK LTD Chanda Kochhar
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. James Dimon


Anyone have any great ideas on how to break the ice with world leaders, please send me your thoughts. I have a WEF buddy who I meet with on day 1 of the event. Maybe he can make some suggestions. On my next blog I’ll talk more about my agenda and the session topics, also Joe Tumminaro’s (my husband, pictured below) thoughts about attending the Forum with me.

Off to the World Economic Forum

Q: Tell us about Obopay and why are you, the CEO of Obopay attending the World Economic Forum

Obopay is a mobile banking and payments provider. We are based in the US and India. We are recognized as a early leader in the rapidly expanding financial services sector delivering services via the mobile phone. The opportunity is massive – 4B phones but only 1.6 B bank accounts. Obopay gives those with bank accounts added convenience and those traditionally underserved access to affordable secure banking and electronic payments.

I am attending the World Economic Forum because they have recognized Obopay as a technology pioneer. Obopay is receiving an award at this annual event in Davos.

Q: What is the World Economic Forum?

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world including health and the environment. The World Economic Forum was founded in 1971 by Klaus M. Schwab, a business professor in Switzerland. Beyond meetings, the Forum produces a series of research reports and engages its members in sector specific initiatives. Regular attendees at annual meeting include Bill and Melinda Gates.

Q: What happens at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting?

It is non-stop sessions on a variety of key global topics. In the evenings there are private events hosted by Presidents of countries and CEO’s of Fortune 50 companies. The convening of such a top level global group – spanning government, corporate, thinkers/academics, and entrepreneurs - is unique and powerful
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Q: What is the theme of this year’s Annual Meeting?

The 40th anniversary of the Annual Meeting is a defining moment for world leaders as they meet under the theme "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild". Over 2,500 leaders from over 90 countries representing business, government and civil society will work together on pressing challenges. "We must look at the Meeting in the context of what's happening in the world and we see that the present system of global cooperation is not working sufficiently," said Klaus Schwab. Haiti will feature on the agenda: "We hope we can present a major common effort to the world community showing true corporate global citizenship in Davos," he said.

Q: Who attends?

This is a very exclusive event. It is by invitation only and even the most powerful and influential people in the world may not be invited every year. - must be a member or invited to attend. All attendees have security checks and there is no dropping by Davos. I went in 2003 to help with a Global Giving private evening event. I thought that I would be allowed to listen into a few sessions – no way. If you were not an official attendee you were not allowed to participate.

Q. Why is Obopay going to the WEF?

Every year WEF recognizes approximately 20 technology pioneers and asks them to attend Davos. This year there were 26 companies recognized – of those 11 were IT companies, the rest were health, energy, or other. We were the only financial services company recognized this year.

Q: What are some of the sessions Obopay will be attending.

We are invited to most of the sessions at WEF – There are about 5 different sessions going on at anytime during the 4 day conference. I haven’t decided all the sessions I will attend. Below are ones I am committed to attending so far. My husband, Joe Tumminaro, is attending and he can attend sessions also.

With all the compelling topics, we plan on splitting up frequently so we can cover 2 sessions at once and then brief each other. In future blogs we will give more details about our plans and then our experiences.

My agenda so far is ...

Tuesday 26 January
20.00 - 22.00 Private Dinner entitled Technology Pioneers Welcome Dinner and Awards Ceremony 2010 (Technology Pioneers meeting for Annual Meeting)

Thursday 28 January
8.30 - 10.15 Interactive Session entitled From Pioneers to Champions (Technology Pioneers meeting for Annual Meeting)

14.30 - 16.30 Workshop entitled Redesigning with Technology Pioneers

19.00 - 20.00 Your Private Session entitled Schwab Foundation 10-Year Anniversary Reception (Private Events for Annual Meeting)

Friday 29 January
8.00 - 10.15 Interactive Session entitled The Dynamic Duo (Technology Pioneers meeting for Annual Meeting)

14.30 - 16.45 WorkSpace entitled Advancing Models for Mobile Financial Services (Industry Partnership Meeting for Telecommunications)

Saturday 30 January
14.30 - 15.30 Session entitled Technology Pioneers Wrap-Up (Technology Pioneers meeting for Annual Meeting)

Obopay in Kenya

What excites you about having Obopay’s mobile payment services operational in Kenya?


As many people know my experience while traveling in Africa was key to the founding of Obopay. While on a social-action mission I saw people with bags of devalued currency buying prepaid minutes in a mobile phone store – it looked exactly like an image you would expect to see in a bank.

So I asked why mobile phones couldn’t become defacto banks, allowing people to move money around in ways they never could before. This was especially exciting since only about 5% of all people in Africa are banked.

So from that beginning in Africa, the big idea of Obopay was to leverage the growing ubiquity of mobile phones to deliver financial services to all people.
This launch in Kenya is especially exciting since we with Essar Telecom are delivering on that promise. We are now operational in three countries on three continents – US, India, and Kenya.

Why did Obopay partner with Essar to deliver yuCash by Obopay?

As you may know, Essar Communications Holdings Limited, the telecom subsidiary of Essar Global Limited, invested in Obopay in 2008. They share our vision for financial inclusion, and delivering advanced mobile banking and payment services. Although yu is new to Kenya, they are the fastest growing mobile operator in East Africa.

How do you imagine yuCash by Obopay changing people’s lives and small businesses in Africa?

I can image a lot. In some ways, Kenya is one of the most advanced mobile banking and payments market in the world. Already in Kenya, consumers know mobile banking changes things. Money can safely be stored on their phone, sending and receiving money can be done reliably, securely and instantly via their mobile phone, and now consumers are beginning to look for solutions to do even more with mobile money.

With our initial launch, we have already included new features and capabilities consumers are asking for. YuCash by Obopay displays a host of unique features which enhance the subscriber’s experience over and above just sending and receiving money. One very useful feature is the ability of a consumer to get a complete record of their transactions of the past 30 days – enabling them to keep a clear track on their transactions, eliminating the need to keep a manual record.

Banking empowers people in their life and work. Mobile Money brings banking to millions of people in Africa that have for so long been unserved by traditional bank methods. In the long term, I can image mobile money being the most important currency in Kenya – more important than cash, check or cards. Obopay is very excited about being there and teaming with such innovative partners as Essar Telecom, yu and Equity Bank.

What is different about yuCash by Obopay mobile payment services?

Already the service has unique features for Kenya; transaction history, invitations for family and friends, on the mobile phone help, short messages with transactions, and the ability to request money. Request money is a unique feature that enables the recipient of the money to initiate the transaction and request the sender to send a certain amount of money. The sender only has to confirm and have sufficient funds to send and the transaction gets concluded.

And this is just the beginning. The Obopay platform is the leading global mobile payment platform – and the number of great partners is growing.
You can tell I am really excited about the partnership with Essar Telecom, Equity Bank, and the launch of yuCash by Obopay. This is the realization of my dream of Obopay in Africa