Here’s your Daily Brief for October 26th:

M-commerce and its Impact on Africa (via Africa Business Source) – Mobile banking is one of the fastest growing industries right now, catching the attention of many — with multiple firms vying to be the industry leader. This article by Alex Twinomugisha is one of the best intros to mobile banking I’ve read. In it, he discusses how mobile banking is changing the economic framework in Africa:

The mobile phone eliminates two of the main challenges to e-commerce in Africa: it provides both a widely available electronic network and a payment mechanism…Already, mobile based “market places” are springing up as in Google’s Google trader in Uganda which is an SMS based market place.

He also notes several other key roles in which mobile banking is playing a key role, including bill-payment and fundraising capabilities.

New SMS Services in Uganda from Grameen, Google & MTN (via WhiteAfrican) – After reading the previous article, I did a little digging into the Google Trader program and found this post by Eric Hersman. His post announced the introduction of a suite of mobile tools released by the Grameen Foundation’s AppLab using Google SMS Search delivering the following services:

• Farmer’s Friend: a searchable database with both agricultural advice and targeted weather forecasts
• Health Tips: provides sexual and reproductive health information
• Clinic Finder: helps locate nearby health clinics and their services
• Google Trader: matches buyers and sellers of agricultural produce and commodities as well as other products. Local buyers and sellers, such as small-holder farmers, are able to broaden their trading networks and reduce their transaction costs. (known locally as “Akatale SMS”)

This is a great video explaining many of the services and the growing significance of mobile technology in Ghana, but really across sub-Saharan Africa and the developing world as a whole: