As the recession continues to have an impact and the number of people with access to financial institutions drops, mobile phones are already reaching the unbanked poor. In South Africa and Botswana, one third of people who do not have a bank account, do own a mobile phone or have access to one, according to recent surveys by FinMark Trust.

As mobile phone usage continues to expand, so do opportunities to bank the unbanked. With mobile banking, low-income South Africans no longer need to use scarce time and financial resources to travel to distant bank branches. They can simply use their cellphones.