HAITI Media and Telecoms Landscape Guide - Infoasaid

162However, Haitel went into receivership in March 2012, owing debts of more thanUS$80 million.The company, which once had 100,000 subscribers, ceased operations shortlyafterwardsMobile moneyTransfering money to individuals by mobile phone is rapidly becoming popular inHaiti.This is not surprising, since a large number of people depend on remittances fromrelatives to survive. Most of the recipients do not have bank accounts, but they dohave mobile phones.Digicel launched Haiti’s first mobile money transfer service, called Tchotcho Mobilein November 2010.It allows a registered user to send up to US$240 at a time to a designated recipient.Digicel automatically deducts a commission for each transaction.The person receiving the money is notified by an SMS message. He or she is thenable to withdraw the cash at any of the phone company’s paying agents.A month after Digicel inaugurated TchoTcho Mobile, Voilà, launched a rival moneytransfer service called M-Cash.Following the acquisition of Voilà by Digicel the two systems were merged.TchoTcho Mobile and T-Cash both received financial support from the Haiti MobileMoney Initiative, a partnership between USAID and and the Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation.The initiative pledged US$10 million to promote the use of mobile technology toprovide basic financial services for Haiti’s poor.Digicel said in July 2012 that TchoTcho Mobile had signed up 500,000 registeredusers during its first 20 months of operation.These had made a total of five million money transfer transactions.Digicel said that over the same period TchTcho Mobile had also created a network of900 paying agents across Haiti. These are shops and other small businesses whererecipients of money transfers can receive their cash.162