FOR Western consumers, the ability to transfer money from one place to another is just one way technology has made our lives easier.

However, perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of the advances in mobile banking are in emerging economies.

In Nigeria, for example, only 19 million of the 149 million population have bank accounts, but 75 million have mobile phones. Therefore the ability to use a phone as a conduit for funds is crucial, whether it’s for buying products or sending cash to the family.

It’s down to companies like UK-based mobile money firm Monitise to make this a reality.

The company has been granted a provisional license by the Central Bank of Nigeria to introduce payments by mobile phone, allowing users to add money to their “mobile wallet” or make withdrawals through a network of processing agents.

They will soon be receiving services such as savings, pensions and insurance.

Group strategy director Richard Johnson says: “In places like the UK, we have the luxury of choice in how we manage our money. In emerging countries, a lot of people aren’t going to get access to the internet and no one is going to build ATMs.

“If I needed to send cash from the city to my parents in a rural area I’d normally have to get on a bus and travel for hours or days.

“Now I can effectively text the money and they can exchange it for cash in the local community.”

The firm’s work saw it recognised as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2006, but it has also been working on several mobile financial management projects in developed economies.

It developed the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest apps, provides services to more than 200 financial institutions in the United States and has a global partnership with Visa International.

Its platform deals with more than 100m transactions per year on more than 3,000 different handsets. Monitise has offices in the UK, the US and Hong Kong and employs 150 staff.

Johnson says: “Successful mobile apps aren’t about squeezing the internet into a small screen, but making use of what mobile can do.

“There’s a whole generation coming through that doesn’t really use the internet as much. It’s all happening on mobile. Soon it will all just be seamless.

“You won’t need to go to a PC and print out a voucher, or remember a website to look at it later. In time, your handset will be your wallet.”