M-Peas has a multitude of economic benefits as it facilitates safe storage and transfer of money at lower transaction costs. It simply facilitates trade, making it easier for people to pay for, and to receive payment for, goods and services. Payment of electricity bills can be paid without waiting in a long queue; consumers can purchase cell phone credit without moving; and taxi drivers can operate more safely, without carrying large amounts of cash.
By providing a safe storage mechanism, M- Peas could increase household savings and reduce losses due to theft. By making transfers across large distances at a trivial cost, households may be more likely to send members to high-paying Jobs in distant locations either on a permanent or emperors basis, and to invest in skills that are likely to earn a return in such places but not necessarily at home. Safari based its launch of the M-Peas service on the brief but powerful phrase “send money home’.
It capitalized on the fact that demand for domestic remittance services is greater in locations where migration has occurred, separating families, particularly where the bread-earner moves to an urban centre and the rest of the family remain home. This was certainly the case in Kenya, where 17 percent of households depended on remittances as their primary income source. Remittances were seen to be the strongest when there is cultural pressure to retain a connection with one’s ancestral village.
In Kenya, migrant’ ties with rural homes are reinforced by an ethnic concept of citizenship. These links are expressed through burial, inheritance, cross-generational, social insurance, and other ties, even in cases where migrants reside more of less permanently in cities. Mobile phone technology is becoming ubiquitous across all segments of the Kenya population. Mobile penetration in Africa has increased from 3 percent in 2002 to 48 recent 2010, and is expected to reach 72 percent by 2014, according to Wireless M Peas PEST Analysis IV By Snapper Intelligence.
The mobile device mimics some to the key ingredients needed to otter banking services. The SIMI card inside GSM phones are used for authentication purposes while the phone is used as a POS terminal to initiate financial transactions securely. M-Pea’s success has contributed at portraying Kenya as the new CIT hub of East Africa. LEGAL Safari had a good working relationship with the Central Bank of Kenya. The central bank required that customer funds be deposited in a regulated financial institution and reviewed the security features of the technology platform.
It also allowed Safari to operate M-Peas as a payment system outside the provisions of the banking law and agreed that all interest earned on deposited balances must go to a not-for-profit trust only. To address anti-money-laundering concerns, there are also limits on the size of M-Peas transactions. ECOLOGICAL Owing to recent food shortages in developing countries, developing sustainable solutions to ensure food security, have become a priority. M-Pea’s features facilitate quick, easy and safe money transfers, which at the household level, could help implies with farming needs to pay for inputs.
Due to the ease of sending and receiving remittances, there is more casual labor in the market, and because more money is circulating faster locally, many vendors order more food in advance and pay on time, facilitating higher agricultural productivity, food availability and variety. Studies also caution that food-insecurity will increase due to competition over limited water resources. The Swastika Water Project (KIP) was initiated on 4th September, 2009, as a collaborative project between Safari and Ground’s in Swastika. The
