Abstract The adoption of mobile telephony to provide financial services in Africa has become instrumental in integrating the hitherto unbanked segments of the population to the mainstream financial systems. This study sought to establish this linkage by examining whether the pervasive use of mobile telephony to provide financial services is a boon for savings mobilization in selected countries in sub Saharan Africa. The findings show that availability and usage of mobile phones to provide financial services promotes the likelihood of saving at the household level. Not only does access to mobile financial services boost the likelihood to save, but also has a significant impact on the amounts saved, perhaps due to the frequency and convenience with which such transactions can be undertaken using a mobile phone. Both forms of savings, that is, basic mobile phone savings stored in the phone and bank integrated mobile savings are likely to be promoted by use of mobile phones. Thus, growing and deepening the scope for mobile phone financial services is an avenue for promoting savings mobilization, especially among the poor and low income groups with constrained access to formal financial services.

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移动金融服务和金融普惠性：这是储蓄动员的福音吗？

摘要在非洲，采用移动电话来提供金融服务已成为将迄今没有银行账户的人群纳入主流金融系统的工具。这项研究试图通过检查普遍使用移动电话来提供金融服务来建立这种联系，这在撒哈拉以南非洲的某些国家为储蓄动员带来了福音。研究结果表明，提供金融服务的移动电话的可用性和使用率提高了家庭储蓄的可能性。可能由于使用移动电话进行此类交易的频率和便利性，不仅获得移动金融服务的机会不仅增加了储蓄的可能性，而且对节省的金额产生了重大影响。两种形式的储蓄，即 手机中存储的基本手机储蓄和银行集成的手机储蓄很可能会通过使用手机来促进。因此，扩大和深化手机金融服务的范围是促进储蓄动员的途径，特别是在正规金融服务的获取受到限制的贫困和低收入群体中。