Hummus and African Mobile Money
Joining us for our next Geek Finance Dinner (brought to you in association with Geek Dinners) will be Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion.
David G.W. Birch is a Director of Consult Hyperion, a global IT management consultancy that specialises in electronic transactions,. Before helping to found Consult Hyperion in 1986, he spent several years working as a consultant in Europe, the Far East and North America. Described by The Independent as a ‘grade-A geek’, and by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation as ‘one of the most user-friendly of the UK’s uber-techies’; he is well-known for his “Second Sight” columns in The Guardian’s Online supplement.
Dave will talking about Consult Hyperion’s work on M-Pesa. (Featured on the BBC and all good news outlets.) The M-Pesa payments service is used by 17% of Kenyans [5.5m users], with over 10,000 still signing up every day. Despite objections by mainstream Kenyan banks, M-Pesa’s growth not only avoided regulatory issues, but helped triggered legal reforms to open Kenya’s money transfer market.
Dinner will be upstairs at the Holborn Hummus Bros. It’s buy your own dinner (about £15 a head) and book early as it’s not a large venue! (We’ve split the spaces between us, so 12 will be available here, and 12 through Geek Dinner’s booking system.)