The conversion of cash into electronic value (and vice versa) happens at retail stores (or agents).
All transactions are authorised and recorded in real-time using SMS.
In 2008, a Ugandan software developer named Ronald Egesa of Mobitrix Uganda Ltd was reported by the leading newspapers to have developed the country's first mobile phone bank that he called SmartCash [1] It was reported to be a network independent service.
In 2009, GSMA made a grant to Safaricom to support the development of a social transfer payment project via M-Pesa.
[2] M-PESA was developed by Vodafone and first deployed by its Kenyan affiliate Safaricom.