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It used to take Solomon Islander Donald Beto a week-long round trip by boat to collect his pay, but now it takes him less than an hour thanks to a new mobile banking initiative by ANZ in the Pacific.
Where Donald lives on the Marovo Lagoon in the Solomon Islands’ Western Province life moves at a slower pace, and the infrastructure many of us take for granted is still catching up to demand there. He used to spend a large portion of his salary just to get to a bank . “I used to travel sixteen hours in a passenger boat to reach the port at Gizo to do my banking,” Donald says. The distances involved also meant that Donald was away from work for an entire week, and being a school teacher, the impact was felt not just by Donald, but by his students too.
Since ANZ introduced mobile banking to the Solomon Islands and many parts of the Pacific in September 2013, managing his finances has been a dream in comparison. It uses mobile phone networks rather than the internet to transform lives in remote rural communities like Donald’s by giving customers access to deposits, withdrawals and person-to-person (P2P) transfers through selected merchants, who are often existing shopkeepers. “It’s much easier now,” he says.