Google, Gates Foundation starting digital payments for poor, rivaling Facebook Libra
09 May, 2020
A fresh nonprofit charity unveiled plans Wednesday to market digital payments for folks outside the financial system, with support from Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Mojaloop Foundation said it could focus on free and open-source software that can be used by disadvantaged communities and the unbanked all over the world.
The initiative aims to serve around 1.7 billion persons who lack usage of digital financial services, according to a statement by the organization, which can be backed by Omidyar Network and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Mojaloop executive director Paula Hunter said the aim was to provide “more affordable, accessible digital financial services” to persons outside the bank operating system.
The move comes amid an effort by the Facebook-backed Libra Association to produce a new digital payments system to help make financial transfers easier and less expensive for people outside the financial system.
The announcement Wednesday aims to create an inter-operable system predicated on the Mojaloop software project.
Named following the Swahili word for “one,” Mojaloop is a reference model for payment inter-operability to barriers to money transfers large or small, the business said.
The open source software was first established by the Gates Foundation in 2017.
“Our vision of universal financial inclusion is a global where everyone, everywhere, can access and utilize the digital financial services they need to build economical security and resilience,” said Kosta Peric, the chairman of the Mojaloop Foundation and deputy director of financial services for the indegent at the Gates Foundation.
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