From Cowries to Mobile Money

Great ancient African empires were regional kingdoms where trade and commerce where striving before the advent of colonialism. The great kingdoms of Africa from the Ashanti Empire (Modern Ghana) to Zulu Land (Southern Africa), were striving strong economic centers serving local and regional communities. Commodity trading and services where exchanged at reasonable and stable rates to meet the expansionist drive of the kingdom. Money had always been used all across the old world and Bible even recorded that at some point, tax was demanded from Jesus Christ in form of a gold coin. Many forms of currencies were in use all across Africa, ranging from shells, salts, cloths, grains, goats to even, human slaves! Though all forms of money tokens were existing all across Africa but the cowry was one of the early currency standards. Value was judged based on how many Bags of cowries that is in possession. Bill Gates would have required ware houses filled with bags of cowries to be the richest man in the world by cowry standards and western Union would actually need the logistics of UPS and DHL, combined, to remit money across the globe by the cowry standards. By the cowry standards, value is hard to determine since all you will require to become rich is to live by the sea side and visit the coastline on a consistent basis. The acceptance of cowries was strongly supported by religious beliefs of having power of fertility and it was on that basis that the acceptance was universal across the West African region without a need for regulatory approvals. Metals were later to be adopted and used across many economies in Africa. Metalworking has ancient beginnings in Africa. Bracelets, anklets and collars that were cast or hammered from copper were widely used for transactions and also as a means to store wealth. Coins later emerge in many territories across Africa as colonial powers became strong business partners all across Africa. The Austrian Maria Theresea ‘Thaler’ was one of the most used coins in the early stages and It was so popular that the supply could not meet the demand. The British Royal Mint also made coins for overseas trade in Africa in 1937, followed by other European colonial powers all across Africa. Coins has its own intrinsic value, some were made with silver or gold. Money evolved very quickly from coins and other commodity based value systems to Paper currency in Africa by the mid 2Oth century. Most African nations, though pre-independence where issuing paper based currencies for local trade and international trade. Paper based currencies gave rise to the use and adoption of other monetary instruments that are also acceptable as a means of legal tender by Government decrees or fiat. Paper based Money was strongly promoted as Banks begin to reach more provinces and commercial cities / towns in Africa. Electronic money in forms of credit/Debit Cards which is an offshoot of paper based money could not gain wide spread use in Africa because of limited points of acceptance, huge cost of infrastructure roll out and literacy levels in Africa. Welcome to the future. Mobile Money is changing the way people transact Business and Banking in some countries on the continent. Africa is home to millions of Mobile phone users and it has reached more people in Africa than Internet, Banking, ATM, Television and radio, combined together. Though still not documented or legalized as a form of legal In some parts of Africa, Mobile money is already striving informally in some countries where more than 5 percent of Airtime top ups are actually exchanged for money at corner stores and street vendors. It is only a matter of months and years before the MPESA bug catches up all around Africa