Even though there has been a significant increase in mobile device usage among residents of India, mobile banking will not be coming anytime soon. The country has plans to improve financial inclusion through a new set of mobile banking services. Unfortunately for them, that project failed miserably. This leaves the door wide open for Bitcoin adoption in the country, as cryptocurrency allows anyone to be their own bank. Mobile Banking In India Is Not A Success
It has to be said, the plan by the Indian government seemed very solid on paper. In an attempt to recreate the success of M-Pesa -like services in India, the infrastructure was built to provide basic mobile banking services in the country. After many years of hard work and planning, the experiment seemed ready for take-off.
However, things took a turn for the worse, as the average consumer on the street was not all that interested. The government expected a rapid growth of the user base for this mobile banking initiative. However, since launching in August 2014, there has been far less interest in this initiative than projected.
This may seem rather strange, considering India’s billion mobile device users. Since access to basic financial services in rural areas is a struggle, this project could have filled the gap. Government officials believed they held all of the trump cards to make this project a success. But even the best efforts can fall flat sometimes.
As of May 2016, a total of 3.7 million mobile transactions were recorded since the launch nearly two years prior. That number is incredibly disappointing, although it is not difficult to see where things went wrong. One hurdle is how maintaining this service is very expensive, and those costs are passed on to the consumer. The fees for this mobile banking initiative […]
