美国国家公共电台 NPR Dial M For Money: Can Mobile Banking Lift People Out Of Poverty?

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: 

People in Kenya see this kind of commercial a lot.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR²: (Singing in foreign language).

SHAPIRO: They're singing, things are now modern. The jingle³ is for a new type of banking⁴ service run entirely⁵ through a customer's mobile phone. They send and receive money with a simple text. The service was launched nine years ago. And today, almost every household in Kenya uses it.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: 

Prior to that, there were some Kenyans who didn't have access to traditional banks. Mobile banking is a game changer. And a study published in the journal Science says there could be an extra benefit for poor customers. Mobile banking could lift people out of poverty. NPR's Nurith Aizenman reports.

NURITH AIZENMAN, BYLINE⁶: Kenya's mobile banking service is called M-PESA, and 32-year-old Geoffrey Ombati says it changed his life.

GEOFFREY OMBATI: I grew up in a rural area.

AIZENMAN: There weren't any banks nearby, so he never had an account. He was making a tiny bit of money working in the general store of his village. But as soon as he'd get the cash in his pocket, he'd end up frittering it away - stuff like picking up sweets for his kids on his way home from work - couldn't help it.

OMBATI: I can't resist, yes.

AIZENMAN: But once he started uploading his wages directly to his M-PESA savings⁷ account, it created a sort of psychological barrier.

OMBATI: In a way, it was hindering me from accessing it easily.

AIZENMAN: You're protecting yourself against yourself (laughter).

OMBATI: (Laughter) I'm protecting my money against myself.

AIZENMAN: All over Kenya, people were noticing effects like this. It caught the attention of a Kenyan-born economist⁸ at MIT named Tavneet Suri. She focuses on poverty issues. And the sudden expansion of mobile banking made her wonder.

TAVNEET SURI: Is this like a new toy for people or, does it actually fundamentally change their lives? Does it solve poverty?

AIZENMAN: And so Suri set up an experiment. While the mobile phone company was still rolling out M-PESA across Kenya, Suri and her collaborator⁹, Georgetown University economist William Jack¹⁰, started a multiyear series of surveys to track people's finances essentially¹¹ to see how mobile banking was affecting people's economic well-being¹² over the long term. When the results came in...

SURI: I was blown away.

AIZENMAN: It turns out mobile banking made a big dent¹ in poverty. The impact was particularly strong for households led by women. The ones that got access to M-PESA set aside 22 percent more in savings, and they bought a lot more basic goods.

What's more, among the poorest families - those who'd been living on less than a $1.25 a day - nearly 1 in 10 got enough of a boost to lift them out of that extreme poverty. Suri says that's a better track record than a lot of aid programs.

SURI: And we didn't give them anything, right? We just gave them an app.

AIZENMAN: She says more research is needed to determine if this works in other countries and what's driving it. Maybe mobile banking lets people be more entrepreneurial by making it easier to run a business. Maybe they're more willing to take risks because they've got more of a safety net. In a pinch, relatives far away can send you cash now. Or maybe it comes down to putting away more money, which brings us back to Geoffrey Ombati.

OMBATI: Yeah, I actually managed to save a lot of money.

AIZENMAN: About $215 - he used it to move to Kenya's capital Nairobi where he's found better paying work in construction. He bought two goats for his wife to raise back in the village. Now he's saving for the next step - cows.

OMBATI: I'm looking at buying two cows. I want to start selling milk because there is a short supply of milk in our area.

AIZENMAN: And maybe one day, he says, I'll save enough to go to college. Nurith Aizenman, NPR News.

1 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

2 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

3 jingle   

n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵

参考例句：

• The key fell on the ground with a jingle.钥匙叮当落地。
• The knives and forks set up their regular jingle.刀叉发出常有的叮当声。

4 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

5 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

8 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

9 collaborator   

n.合作者，协作者

参考例句：

• I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作，帮我的忙。
• His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。

10 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。