Most of you will recall the catastrophic earthquake that struck Haiti on the 12th January 2010, an earthquake that threw Haiti’s already fragile economy into total chaos and left eighty percent of it’s people living in poverty. Haiti’s infrastructure was left devastated with banks and bussinesses turned to rubble. People could not get to their money to buy food, medicine and water – so they started to become dependent on a cash based economy to survive. But in the midst of all this chaos, Haiti’s cellular service continued to function. (Eighty five percent of it’s population own a mobile phone) Cell phones saved peoples lives, a number of people that where trapped under the ruble either called for help or text-ed their exact positions so that rescue workers could come to their aid.
Now Haitians living in this cash-based economy have been turning to mobile phones for safe banking to facilitate business transactions within it’s borders and internationally, and with only two bank branches open in the country today, it’s no longer a luxury but a basic need of survival and seeing that the mobile devices are in the hands of most Haitians, Mobile banking has become evident as a result of the earthquake.
The technology exists and to help Haiti become a cashless society once again, Haitian mobile operator Digicel have been distributing mobile phones and educating people over the last year on how to make the most of these mobile financial services.
An initiative that has just won them a $2.5 Million Prize from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the US Government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for transforming the banking sector in Haiti.
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