Mobile Money as an instrument of rural development in northern Mozambique

Abstract

This article analyses the role of mobile money in expanding financial inclusion in northern Mozambique in an extremely poor rural extremely region. In Niassa, a region disadvantaged in infrastructure, bank branches and fixed-line telecommunications, mobile phones offer windows of opportunities for development. In isolated regions the absence of fiat currency for peer-to-peer payment (P2P) payments is an important constraint to the creation and development of markets. The article suggests an increase in productivity derived from the occupational shift from subsistence agriculture to services, indications of saving creation and introduction of technology in production processes. The fragile knowledge of the concept of electronic money tends to mitigate the acceptance by women and older people (over 41 years) of new financial instruments. The phone when using mobile money in essential operations such as deposits, payments, transfers and financing becomes a relevant tool for monetizing the economy and consequent socio-economic development, and monitoring it.