Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

Existing and new trends indicate great promise for the next generation of financial-inclusion efforts given the boom in mobile technology that has found its way to the developing world and spread at an astonishing pace. Economists and other researchers of the social life of money have in recent years generated a much richer database on financial practices and inclusion from rigorous studies to inform future product offerings as is the case with this project, which focused on mobile money, mobility, conviviality and interdependency in the Cameroon Grassfields, within the context of electronic money transfer and new money technologies. Through a yearlong ethnographic research carried out by the principal researchers together with research assistants, the project mainly investigated the daily practices, transformative value and social implications of mobile money and electronic transfer services amongst poor rural farmers and gardeners in the Cameroon Grassfields.Characterised by very high unemployment rates due to the lack of industry, the North West Region of Cameroon is shaped by high labour migration to urban centres and across international borders by young people in search of opportunities and possibility. Pertaining to this high population mobility, there is high usage and reliance on mobile and electronic money services for remittances. With a predominantly subsistence and cash crop farming population, mobile technologies are perceived by economists and development advocacy mouthpieces as a tool to enhance market participation amongst poor rural farmers, with the aims to increase net returns from investments in agriculture. The project set out to answer several key questions: what perceived and lived transformative value do mobile money transfer services have on the livelihoods of poor rural farmers? What are the daily practices, uses and meanings of mobile money services amongst poor old rural farmers in the Cameroon Grassfields? How do mobile/electronic money services impact the social and economic networks/networking of poor rural farmers?

Read composite narrative with research analysis embedded, "Life is a njangi: A life history of social solidarity, trust and reciprocal obligations in the Cameroon Grassfields"- https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1246m61h