| 研究実績の概要 |
The primary finding of this research was that mobile phone money exchange technology is helping lift people out of poverty by promoting small and medium enterprises and creating expanded democratic spaces. Testimonials from M-Pesa adopters that were used for this study revealed a radical expansion of sources of income. M-Pesa has fostered homegrown economic growth at the household level, and provided paths for inclusion into formal financial services to the poor, who are without banking services. This mode of empowerment is not merely focused on enabling the poor to accumulate savings to cushion against unexpected expenses, rather an expansion of their entrepreneurial activities through building credibility with the banking institutions to access small scale loans.
This study carried out an exposition of a cultural framework of the poor as well, which is necessary for designing policy that would encourage entrepreneurship and an effective administration of funding entrepreneurial activities as measures for poverty mitigation. This research claimed that the old adage of nation building in Kenya called Harambee inhibits a framework that can facilitate distribution at the institutional level as well as at the grassroots.
Finally, this study expanded from its original scope to encompass newly emerging trends produced by ICT, namely digital democracy. Through digital platforms, most of which sprout out of M-Pesa success, mobile phones are becoming essential tools for political participation in rural Africa, especially as platforms for contesting and claiming political rights.
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