The video discusses the revolutionary adoption of mobile money technology in Kenya, specifically through a service called M-Pesa. Unlike other digital payment methods in the U.S. which require a link to a bank account, M-Pesa operates independently of traditional bank infrastructures, allowing Kenyans to use their mobile phones to send and receive money even without a bank account. The service is both accessible and practical, leveraging Kenya's high rate of mobile phone usage to provide financial services to the previously unbanked population.

The implementation of M-Pesa has significantly impacted the daily lives of Kenyans, enabling them to perform various transactions ranging from paying bills to purchasing farm equipment, and even receiving salaries directly to their phones. The service has particularly benefited people in rural areas and the urban poor by reducing dependency on cash and providing a secure platform for micro-transactions. M-Pesa also supports microfinancing, allowing small business owners, like farmers, to obtain loans and make payments simply via phone.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. newfangled [ˈnjuːˌfæŋɡəld] - (adjective) - Referring to something that is new or modern, often implying something unfamiliar or different. - Synonyms: (innovative, novel, modern)

Tech giants like Google, Facebook, and PayPal are all steadily rolling out newfangled services to turn our smartphones into digital wallets.

2. ubiquitous [juːˈbɪkwɪtəs] - (adjective) - Present, appearing, or found everywhere. - Synonyms: (omnipresent, pervasive, universal)

But the head of Safaricom thinks it's just a matter of time because mobile phones are becoming so much more ubiquitous

3. patriotism [ˈpeɪtriətɪzəm] - (noun) - The feeling of loving one’s country and being proud of it. - Synonyms: (nationalism, allegiance, loyalty)

We found among the Kenyans we met that M. Pesa is igniting a real sense of patriotism.

4. evaporates [ɪˈvæpəˌreɪts] - (verb) - Disappears or vanishes. - Synonyms: (disperse, vanish, fade)

Give the money to him. Guess what happens? The money evaporates.

5. micro-transaction [ˈmaɪkroʊ-ˌtrænˈzækʃən] - (noun) - A very small financial transaction that often occurs online or electronically. - Synonyms: (small-scale transaction, mini-payment, micropayment)

Their financial transactions were just too small. People don't buy a packet of cigarettes, they'll buy a cigarettes.

6. scams [skæmz] - (noun) - Dishonest schemes for obtaining money or assets by deception. - Synonyms: (frauds, swindles, cons)

M. Pesa does have drawbacks. There are real concerns of criminal enterprises, scams and money laundering.

7. impeded [ɪmˈpiːdɪd] - (verb) - Hindered or obstructed the progress or movement. - Synonyms: (hindered, obstructed, hampered)

Kenya's commercial banks implored the government to impose regulations to to impede its development.

8. overhead [ˈoʊvərˌhɛd] - (noun) - The ongoing expenses of operating a business that are not directly attributed to creating a product or service. - Synonyms: (expenses, costs, outgoings)

Since the loan transaction was by phone, there was hardly any overhead.

9. regulators [ˈrɛɡjəˌleɪtərz] - (noun) - People or bodies that supervise particular activities by setting rules and guidelines. - Synonyms: (supervisors, overseers, enforcers)

The banking regulators have been persuaded that this is a threat to the banking industry.

10. hands-off approach [hændz-ˈɔf əˈproʊtʃ] - (noun) - A policy or attitude of not getting directly involved in something. - Synonyms: (non-interference, laissez-faire, non-involvement)

But the government decided to take a hands off approach, which is pretty unusual.

"The Future of Money" - 60 Minutes Archive

Tech giants like Google, Facebook, and PayPal are all steadily rolling out newfangled services to turn our smartphones into digital wallets, replacing cash and checks. And it's been reported that Apple is working on a new payment option to let iPhone users send money directly to one another as easily as a text message. If this all seems cutting edge, you may be surprised to learn there's one country that adopted mobile money years ago. Kenya.

Here in the US, we can use smartphones to pay for things, but you typically need to be linked to a bank account or credit card. In Kenya, you don't need a bank account. You don't need a credit history or very much money, for that matter, making this country in East Africa, a giant experimental laboratory defining the future of money. At a bus station in Nairobi, buses were not only loaded with humans and cargo, but with cash. It used to be the only way for people working in the cities to get money to relatives back in their remote villages. You give the cash to the bus driver, and then you say, when you get up to the village in Kakamega, you will see someone at the crossroads. Give the money to him. Guess what happens? The money evaporates.

Bob Collymore, the CEO of Kenya's largest cell phone provider, Safaricom, says his company sought to solve the problem. While a majority of Kenyans don't have a bank account, 8 in 10 have access to a cell phone. So in 2007, Safaricom started offering a way to use that cell phone to send and receive cash. They call it M? Pesa. M stands for mobile. Pesa is money in Swahili. It is often referred to as Kenya's alternative currency, but safer and more secure. You're texting money. You are effectively texting money.

How sophisticated is the phone that you use for M? Pesa? Is it a smartphone? No, it's the cheapest phone you can have. It was designed to work at the lowest level of technology. Hello. Hi. How are you? I'm fine. To get this currency, you go to an M? Pesa kiosk. I give the agent 3,000 shillings, about $30 in cash, and she converts it to virtual currency on my account. This is pretty easy. It's not like opening a bank account. There are 85,000 agents like her across Kenya, creating a giant grid of human ATMs. For most, this is a side business. So a pharmacy will sell M? Pesa or a roadside spice shop. This barber will give you a shave and M? Pesa. And, yes, you can even buy M? Pesa here.

This is bankless banking. And you don't need all those branches. You don't need the branches. You don't need the ATM windows. Absolutely not. Scrolling down the options on the phone menu. You can send money, withdraw cash, pay a bill, or buy goods and services. And everyone uses a PIN number for security. But this is not like paying with your smartphone in the US because our devices are linked to a bank account or credit card. Most Kenyans who use M? Pesa don't have a bank account. The phone is it. That's it. Now you can spend that 3,000 shillings on anything.

Daniel, welcome in shopping in the name of journalism. I like this. Can I pay you an M? Pesa? If you have it on the phone, you just click the button and it goes. Daniel says Kenyans use it for everything from taxis to taxes. Is it safer for you and for me to use M? Pesa? Yeah, it's very safe. So do you use M? Pesa to buy gas for the car? Absolutely. Do you pay all your bills with M? Pesa? Most of my bills. In fact, I rarely go to the bank nowadays.

At my destination, I tried using the phone money. So, Daniel, I've never done this before. You're my very first M? Pesa customer. Yeah. Okay. I'll assist where necessary. I typed in his mobile phone number and the amount. The fare was 700 shillings or $7. I'm gonna give you a thousand. I thought, oh, you're tipping me 300. Thank you very much. God bless you. God bless you. There we go. Now my PIN number. Yeah, you'll have that. Don't tell me that. No, I'm not going to tell you. That is for your top secret. What do I do now? Accept. Accept. Okay. Yeah. It has come. It worked.

And now I'm going to go spend some more money. Hello. How are you? I'm great. I love these bags. How much is this one? Next I buy a bag at Angie's Curio Shop with M? Pesa. Do you use it a lot in the store? Yeah, it's like having bank in your pocket. This is really easy. Now that it's the second time I've done it, I've sent it. Wow. So wonderful. My shopping ended with animals. No, I'm not buying a giraffe. But you can use your phone to feed one.

While most transactions here are still in cash, M? Pesa is used by over 19 million Kenyans or 90% of the adults. From the well heeled to the shoe shiner. This technology was actually invented in England. But it is here in Kenya where innovation using M? Pesa is taking off. We visited the IHUB in Nairobi, where local technology startups are inventing new ways to use mobile money. And that mobile money system now acts as a terrific platform, which a lot of other innovations has used as a springboard.

And the new phrase around town is the Silicon Savannah. The Silicon Valley. Yeah. You have the Silicon Valley and here it's the Silicon Savannah. Today, with M? Pesa, Kenyans can get their salary sent directly to their cell phones, and they can open a savings account and earn interest on their cell phones. You're going to push M? Pesa? We met Mary Tonke, a Maasai dairy farmer who sells milk in M? Pesa, pays her farmhands in M? Pesa, and even got a loan to buy more cows in M? Pesa. And just a couple of buttons and then you buy a new cow. Yes. Actually, Mary was able to buy two new cows and she got a much better rate than she would have at a bank. Since the loan transaction was by phone, there was hardly any overhead.

So it sounds like you're rapidly increasing your business. Yes, I'm increasing my business. Business is good. Yes, it's good. We were surprised at how much M? Pesa has changed life for the poor. In a slum called Kanani, south of Nairobi, we met a pig farmer, Steven Waina. Wainana. Before M? Pesa, like most Kenyans, he had no electricity. He used to rely on a kerosene lamp for light. It gives smokes here. It emitted toxic fumes, could cause fires. And at $200 a year, kerosene wasn't cheap.

But Steven recently upgraded. He got solar power and his first light bulb. Pretty good. It's lighting your room? Yes, it lights the room all over. A company called M? Kopa Solar invented a way to provide inexpensive power to the slums using M? Pesa. So where is the panel? Is it up here? Yeah, the panel is up there. Can you show it to me? Yeah, I can. Okay. See up. Let me show you. Here it is. Oh, my goodness. It's little.

The unit costs about $180 less than kerosene, but still out of Steven's price range for a single purchase. But he paid only $35 up front and then 40 cents a day in M? Pesa for a year. And he to leave the farm, all he does is click his phone, which activates a chip attached to the panel to turn it on. When you're finished paying it off, it will be mine. No more Cost. The solar panel has changed his life. He can tend to his pigs at night and his children can study indoors without breathing toxic kerosene fumes.

Past efforts to introduce solar panels to the slums failed in part because they were stolen. This has been solved because the same chip that turns the panel on can also disable it. So if you don't pay up, they turn your lights off. They have the ability to. This guy, they are excellent, madam, because once I don't pay, they don't have to come to me. The light just goes off.

Providing drinking water is another way M. Pesa is making a difference. Nearly a third of Kenyans do not have access to clean water, often relying on a river or water trucked in by donkey. But the village of Jowini got a new pump for its well. Villagers pay for clean water by texting M. Pesa to this meter box, which unlocks the pump. A villager can get a full month's worth of water for around $6.

For decades, development advocates implored banks to open branches in remote places. But it made little business sense. Nearly half of Kenyans live on just $2 a day or less. Their financial transactions were just too small. People don't buy a packet of cigarettes, they'll buy a cigarettes. So we need to be operating at that level. People don't buy a tube of toothpaste. If you go into the slums, you'll see people buy a squeeze of toothpaste. So you have to operate at that micro level.

Now how can that be viable for you as a company? It's like they have no money. Because we believe that if we have now 19 million people transacting small amounts, making small amounts, it will add up. For each transaction there's a small fee.

How much money annually does Safaricom make from M. Pesa in Kenya? A quarter of a billion dollars. A quarter of a billion dollars? Yeah. You don't have to be greedy to be successful. And you can be successful if you don't have to build thousands of branches and pay thousands of tellers.

Actually, when M. Pesa started, Kenya's commercial banks implored the government to impose regulations to to impede its development. But the government decided to take a hands off approach, which is pretty unusual. The most effective barrier for the success of mobile money around the world is the banking lobby. The banking lobby in most parts of the world is a very strong lobby. And banks have looked at what's happened in Kenya and have decided that they don't want to see that happening in their own countries, not in my backyard. Exactly. The banking regulators have been persuaded that this is a threat to the banking industry.

And it is, isn't it? Well, you know, it's. We live in a disruptive world. Uber came along and completely disrupted a number of things, not just the taxi industry. Airbnb has come along and is disrupted. And so we are in a disruptive world. We just need to. This is another one like that. Yes, it is. It is. And so the banking industry isn't crazy? No, no.

M. Pesa does have drawbacks. There are real concerns of criminal enterprises, scams and money laundering. And while it has been introduced in other countries like India, Egypt, Afghanistan and Romania, it has stubbornly refused to catch on, as it has in Kenya. But the head of Safaricom thinks it's just a matter of time because mobile phones are becoming so much more ubiquitous. Every adult in the world will have a mobile phone. And if you have that tool in your hands, imagine the things you can do.

We found among the Kenyans we met that M. Pesa is igniting a real sense of patriotism. Just ask my cab driver, Daniel. It is one of the best things that has happened to our country. But that makes you feel proud. And now you feel you are Kenyan now. Yeah. You think of Kenya, you don't think of high tech innovation, you know, that tells you now, in the new world order, anything is possible.

TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, FINANCE, MOBILE MONEY, KENYA, DISRUPTION, 60 MINUTES