By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 2 --
Amid the Kenya
report released
under embargo
today by the
International
Monetary Fund
is a review of
financial
inclusion and
technology:
"Financial
inclusion
continues
progressing
with
mobile-banking
loans and
deposits
driven by
M-Shwari (7
million
customers in
its first year
of operations)
and higher SME
access to
credit.
"M-Pesa
was introduced
in 2007 as a
means to
transfer money
via mobile
phones. M-Pesa
users deposit
money into a
'cell phone
account,' and
use SMS
technology for
transfers and
'on demand'
payments.
Thanks to its
use of
low-cost
technology,
overall
transaction
costs have
declined as
bills can be
paid remotely.
Even more
importantly,
the poor have
benefited the
most: M-Pesa
reaches 84
percent of
population
earning less
than US$2 a
day.
M-Shwari, a
deposit-lending
facility
tailored to
the poor, has
7 million
active
customers in
over a year of
operations.
Kenyan farmers
benefit from
schemes to
acquire
equipment,
like water
pumps, with
repayments
being made
through
M-Pesa; M-Kopa
allows the use
of solar
panels in
areas not
served by the
power grid,
with
repayments in
small
installments."
Whether in
other contexts
the IMF is
promoting
financial
inclusion is
another
question. But
there is much
to be learned
from Kenya -
including for
lower income
parts of the
ostensibly
developed
world. We'll
have more on
this.
On October 1
at the UN,
Inner City
Press and the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
pushed for and
reported on a
briefing
about African
Regional
Economic
Communities,
here.
Back on September
25, with Ghana
hosting an
International
Monetary Fund
visit, Inner
City Press asked IMF
Spokesperson
Gerry Rice
about what
Ghana’s
President John
Mahama
said this week
at the New
York Stock
Exchange: "It
is my hope
that by
January we
should start a
three-year IMF
program to try
and stabilize
the
macroeconomic
environment.”
Rice
took the
question from
Inner City
Press and said "I
can tell you
we currently
have an IMF
team in Accra
to initiate
discussions on
a program. We
will have a
press release
at the end of
that mission.
The context
is, indeed,
that the Ghana
authorities
initiated
discussion on
an economic
program that
could be
supported by
the Fund.
Those are the
discussions
that are then
taking place.
So it's
premature to
have dates and
more details
on that
process
because the
team is in
Ghana. We’re
expecting it
to conclude
this week, and
we will
communicate at
the right
time."
Then
this,
concluding
that "discussions
on a possible
program that
could be
supported by
the IMF will
continue in
Washington
during the
Annual
Meetings."
Inner
City Press
also submitted
this question
on September
25: “Ukraine
PM Yatseniuk
yesterday
said, 'We do
understand
that we have
to readjust
the program.
Because when
we started the
program with
the IMF, it
was a peace
program. For
today, this is
a wartime
government and
a wartime
program.' What
is the IMF's
response to /
comment on
this?”
While
Rice said that
there was no
request for
any
“readjustment”
yet, that the
IMF will
combine two
reviews in
November with
an eye toward
its Executive
Board meeting
on Ukraine at
the end of the
year or early
2015. He said
the purpose of
such reviews,
generally, is
readjustment.
But
Rice did in
this answer
address the
appropriateness
of IMF lending
into what
Yatseniuk
called “a
wartime
government and
a wartime
program"
speaking at
the Council on
Foreign
Relations in
New York.
We'll have
more on this
as well.
, 
