Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:08:47.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Upliftment’, friends and finance: everyday exchange repertoires and mobile money transfer in Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2018

Susan Johnson  and
Froukje Krijtenburg
Susan Johnson*
Affiliation:
Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
Froukje Krijtenburg
Affiliation:
African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The rapid and massive adoption of mobile money transfer (MMT) services in East Africa, particularly in Kenya, stands in stark contrast to historically low use of formal financial systems on the continent. Its ‘fertile grounds’ therefore require in-depth analysis to understand the implications for African financial systems. This paper argues for the need to examine the underlying conceptual environment that enables low income and poor people's MMT adoption. It innovatively combines anthropological with ethnolinguistic analytical approaches to distinguish two repertoires around resource exchange. First, is a relational financial repertoire where relationships are developed and consolidated to create support and ‘upliftment’. A contrasting resource-focused repertoire is more like that of the formal financial sector. Identifying the conceptual features of relationality, the study offers a new perspective on the adoption and use of MMT in Africa and highlights the potential for disjunctures with policy efforts to increase financial inclusion.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 569 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The authors are grateful to the Financial Sector Deepening Trust, Kenya for funding this research. We are particularly indebted to those people and organisations who willingly contributed their experience and insights. We also thankfully acknowledge comments on previous drafts from James Copestake, Jason Hart, Amrik Heyer and Sibel Kusimba.

References

REFERENCES

Aker, J.C. & Mbiti, I.M.. 2010. ‘Mobile phones and economic development in Africa’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 24, 3: 207–32.Google Scholar
Astbury, B. & Leeuw, F.L.. 2010. ‘Unpacking black boxes: mechanisms and theory building in evaluation’, American Journal of Evaluation 31, 3: 363–81.Google Scholar
de Bruijn, M. & Butter, I.. 2017. ‘An ethnographic study on mobile money attitudes, perceptions and usages in Cameroon, Congo DRC, Senegal and Zambia: final ethnographic narrative report’. <http://www.ascleiden.nl/news/just-out-ethnographic-study-mobile-money-attitudes-perceptions-and-usages-cameroon-congo-drc>>Google Scholar
Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Klapper, L., Singer, D., Ansar, S. & Hess, J.. 2018. The Global Findex Database 2017: measuring financial inclusion and the Fintech revolution. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Evans, D.S. & Pirchio, A.. 2014. ‘An empirical examination of why mobile money schemes ignite in some developing countries but flounder in most’, Review of Network Economics 13, 4: 397–451.Google Scholar
Feather, N.T. 1996. ‘Values, deservingness, and attitudes toward high achievers: research in tall poppies’, in Seligman, C., Olson, J.M. & Zanna, M.P., eds. The Psychology of Values: the Ontario symposium Volume 8. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 215–51.Google Scholar
FSD Kenya & Central Bank of Kenya. 2016. FinAccess Household Survey on Financial Inclusion. Nairobi: FSD Kenya and Central Bank of Kenya.Google Scholar
GPFI. 2016. ‘G20 high-level principles for digital financial inclusion’. http://www.gpfi.org/news/new-g20-high-level-principles-digital-financial-inclusion.Google Scholar
Guyer, J.I. 2004. Marginal Gains: monetary transactions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Heyer, A. & Mas, I.. 2011. ‘Fertile grounds for mobile money: towards a framework for analysing enabling environments’, Enterprise Development and Microfinance 22, 1: 30–44.Google Scholar
Hughes, N. & Lonie, S.. 2007. ‘M-PESA: mobile money for the “unbanked”: turning cellphones into 24-hour tellers in Kenya’, Innovations Winter/Spring: 63–81.Google Scholar
Iazzolino, G. 2015. ‘Following Mobile Money in Somaliland’. Rift Valley Institute Research Paper 4. http://riftvalley.net/publication/following-mobile-money-somaliland#.WrI2xZcuBzkGoogle Scholar
Jack, W. & Suri, T.. 2014. ‘Risk sharing and transactions costs: evidence from Kenya's mobile money revolution’, American Economic Review 104, 1: 183–223.Google Scholar
Jack, W., Ray, A. & Suri, T.. 2013. ‘Transaction networks: evidence from mobile money in Kenya’, American Economic Review 103, 3: 356–61.Google Scholar
Johnson, S. 2016. ‘Competing visions of financial inclusion in Kenya: the rift revealed by mobile money transfer’, Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d'études du développement 37, 1: 83–100.Google Scholar
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. 2007. Basic Report on Well-Being in Kenya: based on Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey, 2005/06. Nairobi: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Kikulwe, E.M., Fischer, E. & Qaim, M.. 2014. ‘Mobile money, smallholder farmers, and household welfare in Kenya’, PLoS ONE 9, 10: e109804.Google Scholar
Kimuyu, P. 1999. ‘Rotating savings and credit associations in rural East Africa’, World Development 27, 7: 1299–308.Google Scholar
Krijtenburg, F. 2017. ‘The sociality of debt: a case study of Kamba (Kenya) conceptualisations of borrowing and lending’, in Mooney, A. & Sifaki, E., eds. The Language of Money and Debt: a multidisciplinary approach. London: Springer International.Google Scholar
Kusimba, S.B., Yang, Y. & Chawla, N.V.. 2015. ‘Family networks of mobile money in Kenya’, Information Technologies and International Development 11, 3: 1–21.Google Scholar
Kusimba, S., Yang, Y. & Chawla, N.. 2016. ‘Hearthholds of mobile money in western Kenya’, Economic Anthropology 3, 2: 266–79.Google Scholar
Maurer, B. 2012. ‘Mobile money: communication, consumption and change in the payments space’, Journal of Development Studies 48, 5: 589–604.Google Scholar
Morawczynski, O. 2009. ‘Exploring the usage and impact of “transformational” mobile financial services: the case of M-PESA in Kenya’, Journal of Eastern African Studies 3, 3: 509–25.Google Scholar
Munyegera, G.K. & Matsumoto, T.. 2016. ‘Mobile money, remittances, and household welfare: panel evidence from rural Uganda’, World Development 79: 127–37.Google Scholar
Mũtĩsya, R.M. & Ndũnda, S.. 2003. Kĩkamba-English Dictionary. Nairobi: Roma Publishers.Google Scholar
Nelson, N. 1995. ‘The Kiambu Group: a successful women's ROSCA in Mathare Valley, Nairobi (1971 to 1990)’, in Ardener, S. & Burman, S., eds. Money-Go-Rounds: the importance of rotating savings and credit associations for women. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Peeters, B. 2013. ‘Language and cultural values: towards an applied ethnolinguistics for the foreign language classroom’, in Peeters, B., Mullan, K. & Béal, C., eds. Cross-culturally Speaking, Speaking Cross-culturally. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 229–58.Google Scholar
Rea, S.C. & Nelms, T.C.. 2017. ‘Mobile money: the first decade’. Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion Working Paper 2017-1. https://www.imtfi.uci.edu/Google Scholar
Shipton, P. 2007. The Nature of Entrustment: intimacy, exchange and the sacred in Africa. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shipton, P. 2009. Credit Between Cultures: farmers, financiers and misunderstanding in Africa. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Suri, T. & Jack, W.. 2016. ‘The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money’, Science 354, 6317: 1288–92.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. 1997. Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German and Japanese. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2012. Information and Communications for Development 2012: maximizing mobile. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2017. Global Findex. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Zollmann, J. 2014. Kenya Financial Diaries: shilingi kwa shilingi – the financial lives of the poor. Nairobi: FSD Kenya.Google Scholar

Interviews

C., woman tea farmer, Nyamira, 13.11.2012.Google Scholar
C.W., woman, coffee farmer, Mathira, 30.10.12.Google Scholar
C.W.M., woman, retail shop owner, Mathira, 01.11.2012.Google Scholar
D., man, restaurant owner, Nyamira, 15.11.2012.Google Scholar
D.B., man, restaurant owner, Nyamira, 15.11.2012.Google Scholar
E., woman, casual labourer, Mathira, 31.10.2012.Google Scholar
H., man, motorbike taxi driver, Nyamira, 14.11.12.Google Scholar
H.M., woman, casual tea picker, Mathira, 31.11.2012.Google Scholar
J., man, shoe seller, Nyamira, 15.11.2012.Google Scholar
M., man, evangelist, Mathira, 31.10.2012.Google Scholar
N., young man, electrician, Mathira, 30.10.2012.Google Scholar
P., man, farmer, Kitui, 6.11.2012.Google Scholar
P.M., man, driver, Mathira, 1.11.2012.Google Scholar
R., young man, barber, Nyamira 13.11.2012.Google Scholar
Z., woman, tailor, Nyamira, 14.11.2012.Google Scholar