Scholarship holder 2011
Michel Dahlberg Traore and Pontus Andersson, BSc students at Stockholm School of Economics in 2009, are the recipients of 2011 edition of the annual Gun and Einar Larsson Scholarship (GELS).
Michel and Pontus will use their grant to finance the project “Mobile Banking in Burkina Faso” – a project with the aim of investigating the possibility of and promoting mobile banking and money transferring services in the heart of the industry’s fastest growing regions, namely Western Africa.
The duo will travel to Burkina Faso and meet the private sector, in shape of telecom companies and banks, public decision makers such as cabinet ministers as well as performing a small market research with the local population. These meetings, together with extensive studies undertaken before departure, will lay the foundation of a plan on how to introduce an efficient mobile banking system in the country.
Pontus and Michel reveals that they have been inspired by the success story of a Kenyan system called M-Pesa which has given cellphone users the opportunity to safely transfer money between each other, buy basic goods and services and place their money in a virtual savings account.
- I questioned why these kinds of services were not nearly as widespread in Western Africa as the need certainly exists there as well, says Michel Dahlberg Traore and explains that the project, apart from the main goal of laying forward an implementation plan, also wishes to shed light on why mobile banking and money transferring services have not developed in western parts of the continent as its eastern counterparty.
Pontus Andersson adds that these services are a excellent tools for the individual to take control of his or hers own situation and highlights his personal interest in topics related to development and globalization.
Both recipient of the scholarship emphasizes this as an opportunity to apply the knowledge that they have gathered from their theoretical studies at SSE as well as the how planning and executing a project of this magnitude will influence both one’s personal development and career.
