FLORIS STEENKAMP: Can Bangladesh’s mobile money service repeat M-Pesa’s boom?
bKash has vast scope to grow in a populous nation and parent looks like a good investment
There are few clearer signs that a business has really entrenched itself than when its brand becomes a verb — think Google or Uber. In Kenya, "Should I just M-Pesa you the money?" has now entered common usage. At Coronation, we have followed M-Pesa’s parent, Safaricom, closely since we participated in its listing in 2008. Safaricom operates an attractive telecommunications business. But what excites us is the potential of M-Pesa, a business started in 2007 as a service to transfer money using a cellphone that specifically targets people without bank accounts. Low banking penetration and supportive regulations, particularly at the time when M-Pesa was launched, resulted in a rapid uptake. M-Pesa now accounts for 27% of Safaricom’s revenue and has grown to 26-million customers, 19-million of whom were active in the past 30 days. This means two out of every five Kenyans have used M-Pesa in the past month. M-Pesa has a phenomenal ecosystem with a strong moat of agents and satisfied cust...
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