Business
Mobile money gains traction in Haiti despite slow start
But many people didn’t understand how to use the technology and were leery of it, said Keith Chibafa, who oversees the project for World Vision. The nonprofit registered 6,000 subscribers for the service, but only 1,000 actually use it.
Confidence was undermined on one occasion when residents of a camp in the city of Croix-des-Bouquets, outside the capital, went to collect their payments and were told there was no money.
“We did have an agent running out of cash,” Chibafa said. “It was a problem, a serious problem.”
Cab driver Ernst Figaro said he doesn’t trust the new service any more than the banks, which are not known for their customer service.
“The electronic system in Haiti is not standing on its feet yet,” Figaro said while taking a break from work on a park bench. “I just don’t trust putting my money in this system.”
Others, such as Wilner Destina, have become converts. The 40-year-old street painter signed up six months ago because he was eager to avoid the frustrating hour-long lines at commercial banks. “It allows us to do money transfers with ease,” Destina said outside a Digicel store in downtown Port-au-Prince after sending the equivalent of US$50 to a friend in Gonaives, a port city 110 kilometers (68 miles) northwest of Haiti’s capital.
David Sharpe, Digicel’s director of products and services, hopes to find more people like Destina, attracting them with features such as a lottery played on the cellphone and, later, international wire transfers.
