NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

In a country without a well-developed financial infrastructure—where mobile phone airtime has often been used as some form of currency—the launch of mobile money services by Zain has come as a huge blessing for millions of South Sudanese.

Zain launched the first mobile money service in the country after persistent reports made a case for it, noting that it is the most plausible way to bridge financial inclusion gaps. A negligible number of the country’s population own bank accounts.

The service dubbed M-Gurush (M for mobile and Gurush for money in Arabic) went live on July 12 across all the 32 states of South Sudan, signalling a move to copy regional peers Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, where mobile money has operated for years, easing payment systems.

Photo courtesy of Anaya Katlego.