There are few better case studies of the success of free-market solutions to the burden of banking and the danger of carrying cash than the M-Pesa system established by Safaricom in Kenya. Nearly 15 million people in that country and neighbouring Tanzania have adopted this mobile money solution as a convenient and inexpensive way to transact.

And there are few better case studies of the failure of government intervention and bureaucratic regulation than the utter failure of M-Pesa and other mobile money products in South Africa. Although there is a potential market of 13 million people who are economically active but unbanked, it was recently described as a `flop’ and an `unmitigated commercial failure’ on ITWeb.