This conference brings together the institute's fifth-year award recipients who will present their preliminary findings. As more and more philanthropic, industry and development actors ask whether mobile technology can help provide access to needed financial services like savings and money transfer, these projects look to the experience on the ground of existing, traditional money systems and financial practices, as well as the potential and real impact of new technology in providing access to finance for the world's poor.

Blog of 2013 Conference by Liz Losh

Video of sessions

Day 1: Wednesday, December 4

8:15-8:30am      Check-in and Registration

8:45am    Welcome and Introductions by Director Bill Maurer

9:00–10:30am  Session 1: Cash/Cashlessness
                                 Discussant: Scott Mainwaring, IMTFI External Advisory Board Chair

• "Cashless or Cashlite? Mobile Money Use and Currency Redenomination in Zambia" (Zambia) by Vivian Dzokoto and Mwiya Imasiku

• "Exploring the Nature, Scope and Feasibility of Existing Technological Infrastructure of India's National e-Governance Plan's Customer Service Scheme Towards Converting In-cash Transactions into Cashless Transactions" (India) by Amulya Krishna Champatiray and Parul Agarwal

• "Investing in Indigeneity: Big Bills, Fungibility, and Mobile" (Peru) by Eric Hirsch

10:30-11:00am Break

11:00am-12:30pm  Session 2: Accounting, Monetary Practices and Financial Flows
                         Discussant: Olufunmilayo B. Arewa, UC Irvine

• "Njangi Sociality: Mobility, ICTs, and Mobile Money Usages and Practics amongst Poor Rural Farmers in the Cameroon Grasslands" (Cameroon) by Francis B. Nyamnjoh and Divine Fuh

• "How 'the Poor' Account: Financial Reckoning and its Cosmoeconomics in Assam, India" (India) by Sean Dowdy

• "Contingency Routes: Somali Financial Flows and Transnational Spaces between Kenya and Uganda" (Kenya/Uganda) by Gianluca Iazzolino and Thomas Molony

12:30-2:00pm  Lunch (provided with registration)

2:00-3:30 pm  Session 3: Women, Transformation and Inclusion
                          Discussant: Elizabeth Berthe, Mercy Corps

• "Understanding the Transformative Value of Tongan Women's Kau Tou Lalanga: Mobile Mats, Mobile Phones, and Money Transfer Agents" (Tonga) by Charmaine 'Ilaiu Talei

• "Mobile Value-added Services for Inclusive Growth: A Study of Women Micro-entrepreneuers in Fiji" (Fiji) by Milind Sathye and Biman Prasad

• "A Participatory Look at Women Traders' Cognitive Understanding and Perceptions of the Use of Mobile Money Systems in Northern Ghana" (Ghana) by Dennis Chirwaurah, Seidu Al-hassan and Deborah Elzie

3:30-4:00pm Break

4:00-5:30pm  Session 4: Financial Inclusion and Mobile Money Uptake
                                Discussant: Carol Benson, Glenbrook Partners

• "Mobile Money Utility and Financial Inclusion: Insights from Unbanked Poor End-Users" (Nigeria/Ghana) by Lite Nartey, J. Adtunji Adegbesan and Olayinka David-West

• "The Use and Impact of Mobile Money in the Delivery of Conditional Cash Transfers in the Philippines" (Philippines) by Erwin Alampay and Charle Cabotaje

• "Understanding the Movement of Cash of the Privately Led Enterprises in Dharavi and Scope for Electronic or Mobile Payments" (India) by Deepti KC and Mudita Tiwari

5:30-7:00pm  Cocktail reception with dinner (provided with registration)

 

Day 2: Thursday, December 5

8:30am      Check-in and Registration

8:45-10:30am  Session 5: Social Organization, Power & Hierarchy
                                Discussant: David Pedersen, UC San Diego

• "Silk Societies, Gold Stories: Using Gold-Based Life Stories to Study Gender, Financial Inclusion and Work Vulnerability in South Indian Sericulture" (India) by Nithya Joseph

• "Banking with the Patron: the Case of Patron-Client in Makassar, Indonesia" (Indonesia) by Tiar Mutiara Shantiuli and Salmah Said

• "Mobilizing Religion as Value Storage: Islamic Microfinance in Bangladesh as a Model for Poverty Alleviation?" (Bangladesh) by Bridget Kustin

•  " How does Mobile Money Affect Adopters' Social Networks?" (Tanzania) by Alfredo Burlando, Cynthia Kinnan and Silvia Prina

10:30-11:00 am Break

11:00am-12:30pm  Session 6: Chance, Risk and Fraud
                                 Discussant: Jan Chipchase, frog design

• "Gambling and Mobile Money Payments: A Case Study of Sports Betting in Uganda" (Uganda) by Bruno Yawe and Kizito Ssengooba

• "Challenges Facing the Uptake of M-Insurance Loyalty Based Life Insurance Schemes: A Case Study of the yuCover Microinsurance scheme in Kenya" (Kenya) by Nelson Karani Nyachiro and Cyrus Isaboke

• "Automated Teller Machine Fraud in South-West Nigeria: The Shoe-Wearer's Perspective" (Nigeria) by Oludayo Tade and Oluwatosin Adeniyi

12:30-2:00pm  Lunch (provided with registration)

2:00-3:30pm   Session 7: Corridors, Networks and Agents (the Indian Case)

   Discussant: Abhishek Sinha, Eko India Financial Services Private Limited

• "One Among Many? Examining the Efficacy of Mobile Money in India's Remittance Corridors" by Amrit Pal

• "The New Information Ecosystem Being Developed Around Mobile Money: A Behavioral Analysis of Mobile Money Users in India" by Lakshmi Kumar

• "Spatial Complementarity of Mobile Financial Services, Business Correspondents and Banking Infrastructures: Accounting for Mobile Financial Services Ecosystems in India" by K.V. Nithyanada and Cyril Fouillet

3:30-4:00pm Break

4:00-5:00pm  Closing Remarks