Vodafone is looking to Michael Joseph (pictured), the former CEO of Safaricom, to boost the usage of mobile money services across the markets where it operates. As Vodafone's director of mobile payments Joseph is in charge of introducing versions of M-Pesa, the operator’s m-payment service, in African markets and India. While in charge of Safaricom, Joseph drove the highly successful adoption of the same service in Kenya. He retired as the operator’s CEO last year and took up a position as a Fellow with the World Bank whose remit was to promote mobile payments. Vodafone holds a 40-per-cent stake in Safaricom, which is the leading mobile operator in Kenya.

The most recent mobile money move by Vodafone was the launch of the M-Paisa service in India in partnership with HDFC Bank.  The Indian service is also based on M-Pesa concept which is owned by Vodafone.  M-Pesa is already available in a number of other African countries in addition to Kenya. Other markets ripe for m-payments include Egypt, Ghana and Mozambique, according to an article in the The Telegraph. However the same article quotes Joseph as saying India “will be the biggest market” for mobile payments.