Robert Matau




Have you ever stood in a bank in downtown Honiara and thought – will I ever get my withdrawal transaction completed.
Or when a sudden emergency crops up, did you panic because you did not have the cash to pay for a taxi ride to your local bank in Suva.
With new generation technology and efforts by the Asian Development Bank to rope in as many potential money makers in remote Pacific Islands regions, SMS banking should soon put to rest these concerns.
This is where they can save cost of transporting the cash to the bank and then losing it on the way.
ADB’s private sector development specialist Jeremy Cleaver said for countries like Papua New Guinea where coffee thrives, they normally look for two basic things.
“First, market data and second, the ability to transfer value in a secure way,” he said.
In nations like PNG where violent robbery is quite high, SMS banking can help you evade the hassle of even entering the bank’s doors. All banking transactions are done by text.
“So the system they are setting up allows them to use a Short Message System to access market data so they know how much they can sell the coffee for,” Cleaver said.
“So when the buyer comes to the farm, they know how much they can sell it for and the buyer does not need to hand over cash.The buyer can buy 10 kg of coffee for $100 and send an SMS to the grower.”
He said these things start off quite small amongst coffee growers but then they can also involve the local shop, so the coffee grower can pay the local shop.
So as you grow you also have a lot of opportunities for the cashless system.
It is what he describes as a much safer, faster and more effective way of doing business particularly with small businesses.
He said with mobile phone banking systems, people can transfer loan payments from their phone rather than getting on a bus to get to the bank to pay for transport.
“If I have an account with a microfinance bank for example and I sign up for mobile phone banking in my village, you will have what is known as an agent network.
“The local shop signs up as an agent and becomes the cash in cash out point, so regardless of these technologies you need a cash in cash out point. 
“So if I have signed up with mobile banking from the microfinance institution I go to my local shop pay them $100 and they load it on my phone and I can then transfer those funds to either my savings account with the bank or towards my loan repayment.
The ADB conducts microfinance projects in nations like PNG, East Timor, Vanuatu and Tonga.
He said the mobile banking system was popular in nations like Kenya where they conduct hundreds of thousands of dollars in transactions and was very successful around the world.
Cleaver said in PNG with a few businesses like Bank South Pacific using SMS banking and Datanet, other opportunities are anticipated.
A telecommunications expert in Suva said with the current technology you may not need a bank anymore.