The level of poverty is at an unacceptable level, too many of our people remain unemployed, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic is raising many new social and economic problems. Fortunately, the outside world has recognised Botswana’s efforts in economic development, and this has resulted in the country acquiring an international reputation for good governance, transparency and negligible corruption.
The President of the Global Development Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said that by “… supporting pilots with new technologies that have the power to dramatically change the business model of delivering financial services, we can help expand access to financial services for hundreds of millions of poor people.” As proposed, the mobile phone banking applications will convert mobile phones into “virtual wallets” for receiving and paying loans, depositing and withdrawing money, sending and receiving remittances, purchasing and selling goods and services and making bills payments.