it's been especially helpful to poor people like josphat. he came to nairobi from the countryside ten years ago, looking for work. life in the city is hard, but he found a job and even earns enough to money back home. but getting the money to his parents posed problems. >> it used to be difficult to send money. i either had to give it to a bus driver and hope he was reliable, or my mother had to travel all the way here to pick it up. >> now it's much easier. josphat just goes to an m-pesa kiosk and registers, deposits money and loads it onto his cellphone. then he sends the credit to his mother in a text message. 300 kilometres away and a few seconds later, his mother receives it. >> i'm very happy. my son has just sent me 1200 shillings. >> that's about 10 euros -- a lot of money. there isn't a bank anywhere near here, and without a regular income people are unable to open accounts anyway. but there are m-pesa agents all over, even here, every couple of metres. now the sms credit can be exchanged for cash. >> my life has improved a lot sinc