[ti:In Kenya, a Better Life Through Mobile Money] [ar:Bob Doughty] [al:Development Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:03.17]Development Report. [00:05.01]Mobile phones have revolutionized [00:08.32]the way people connect not only [00:10.51]with family and friends [00:12.51]but also business services. [00:15.28]A good example: [00:17.12]services that let people [00:19.16]use their phones [00:20.10]to send and receive money. [00:22.81]Two companies, Safaricom and Vodafone, [00:27.56]launched the M-Pesa mobile money service [00:30.64]in Kenya in two thousand seven. [00:33.19]Pesa means money in Swahili. [00:37.23]The service operates [00:39.22]much like a savings bank [00:41.16]-- which is important, [00:42.85]because plenty of Kenyans [00:44.89]do not have bank accounts. [00:47.19]Most of the early users [00:49.93]were young men who worked [00:52.28]in cities and wanted [00:54.17]to send money home to rural areas. [00:57.60]Now customers can also use [01:00.81]their M-Pesa accounts to pay bills, [01:03.65]make purchases or pay [01:06.25]for services like taxis. [01:09.09]Users pay a small amount [01:11.98]for each transaction. [01:13.93]Stephen Mbugua has a farm [01:17.40]a half-hour's drive from the capital. [01:19.99]He uses M-Pesa to receive money [01:23.52]from his son and to pay bills. [01:26.78]Stephen Mbugua: "I used to go [01:27.58]to Nairobi or to any bank [01:29.78] to pay my bill. But now, right now, [01:31.77]I don't go to Nairobi, [01:33.86] I just pay my bill from here." [01:35.96]Some businesses use the service [01:38.10]to pay their employees. [01:39.99]All across Kenya, there are stores [01:43.68]and automated teller machines [01:45.87]where M-Pesa users can add [01:48.51]and withdraw money from their accounts. [01:51.53]People can also transfer money [01:56.94]to other mobile phone users, [02:00.78]even those without an M-Pesa account. [02:01.33]The other person receives a text message [02:04.96]with a code to take to the [02:07.40]local M-Pesa agent to get the money. [02:10.09]All this pleases twenty-two [02:13.42]year old Phelister Omari. [02:15.47]Phelister Omari: "It's very fast. [02:16.52]The M-Pesa, they're available everywhere. [02:18.96]So once you are going somewhere, [02:20.81]you can drop, get some cash and proceed." [02:23.45]M-Pesa is improving economic conditions [02:26.60]for many Kenyan families. [02:28.95]British-based Vodaphone has also teamed [02:33.12]with local companies to offer the service [02:36.11]in Uganda and Afghanistan. [02:38.95]Safaricom says nearly eight million people [02:43.40]in Kenya now use M-Pesa. [02:46.73]That number is expected [02:49.12]to grow as more people use mobile phones. [02:52.52]A recent report predicted [02:55.81]that the number of mobile phone [02:58.10]accounts worldwide will reach [03:00.84]almost four and a half billion this year. [03:04.22]That is twelve percent more than last year, [03:08.45]and equal to two-thirds of the world's population. [03:12.73]The report was from the [03:15.27]European Information Technology Observatory. [03:19.76]The group says the strongest growth [03:23.44]in mobile phone use now comes [03:25.94]from newly industrialized [03:28.28]and developing countries. [03:30.84]And that's the VOA Special English [03:34.37]Development Report, written by June Simms. [03:38.26]You can find transcripts and podcasts [03:42.00]of our reports at 51voa.com. [03:47.03]And you can find us on Twitter [03:50.28]and YouTube at VOA Learning English. [03:54.98]I'm Bob Doughty.