Sharing Nicely

It seems (excuse my ignorance) one big issue with remittances is that the financial transaction costs are too high, because sending small amounts of money is very expensive (comparably) and some of the intended recipients live in remote places…. so rather than focus on local loans and saving, the could consider their potential role in the global flow of remittances.Also, mobile telephones are emerging as a new financial transaction instrument.

The project facilitators from afrISPa just presented some of the impact their work has had over the past 3 years, and they used the decreasing cost of access (more than 50% reduction of international traffic via the SAT-3 cable as well as end-user prices) and the increase in local traffic (up to 400% in some countries)…. Bottom line is that the Internet is still too expensive for most Africans, but it’s good to see that some initiatives are able to convince policy makers of the wide benefits that bringing down cost and increasing access can have for local development.