*"Informal Value Transfers," or, Favela Chic banking. Coming soon to an unlicensed street trader near you.
*Via @vanderbeeken (of course)
http://technology.cgap.org/2009/08/04/dispatch-from-tanzania-informal-value-transfers-via-mobile/
(...)
"there is one way of sending money via the mobile phone that is very popular in the country. That is by using airtime top-up vouchers. The most common way to do this is to buy an airtime voucher, scratch it in order to get the code and then text the code in an SMS to the person you want to send money to. It is then up to the recipient to go out and sell the code to people who want to buy airtime, or resellers and shops that in turn will sell it to people wanting airtime. The value of the voucher is reduced when selling it the second time, in most cases by about 10% but sometimes it is reduced by up to 40%. M-PESA and Zap are much cheaper and charge about 2-5% of the value sent.
"We found that most often it is the sender that chooses which way to transfer the money. Because of the extensive network of airtime resellers throughout the country, sending vouchers is convenient for the sender. Almost regardless of any shop’s main business, they will also sell airtime vouchers and on every street corner you can find people selling them, as well.
"So there are “voucher agents” everywhere (((Otherwise known as "guys hanging around willing to bet that some long string of numbers they got off a phone is honest"))) and no registration or identification is required. More importantly, the sender does not need to find a banking branch or m-banking agent, but can send the money from almost any location. However, the convenience for the sender is associated with an inconvenience for the receiver, who has to find a buyer for the vouchers. This means a process which can take quite some time, even weeks for larger amounts, and includes a substantial reduction in the value in order to get the cash..." (((Somewhat clumsy, but it's an instant money laundry with no paper trail, and a hands-off, cut-off, dropbox-with-cellphone transaction ought to be just about the niftiest way yet invented to buy an ounce of marijuana.)))
