Despite the best efforts of the development community, resource-dependent developing countries continue to be plagued by economic stagnation and political corruption.  The solution rests in the palm of our hand.  By utilizing the existing mobile phone infrastructure to establish a nation-wide m-banking system, these countries will be able to use digital direct transfers to solve the resource curse.

Direct transfers have limited corruption in extractive industries in developed countries, but many policy analysts believe that this approach is not a viable option in the developing world.  However, the m-banking movement is demonstrating that mobile technology can make financial systems possible even in the poorest settings.  Therefore, by using M-banking on a national scale to implement a digital direct transfer system, resource-dependent developing countries will be able to harness the benefits of the developed world’s solution to extractive industry and in so doing, promote good governance and guard against corruption.     

Though complex in implementation, this project is simple in design.  The establishment of a national m-banking system will be part of the negotiated resource contract.  Using national identity numbers, an individual bank account will be created for each registered citizen, and then a proportional share of the nation’s resource revenue will be electronically transferred into each one of these accounts on a regular and predictable basis with market prices and transfer amounts announced on the radio, newspaper and on an accompanying SMS.  These deposits, like those in M-banking, will be accessible with any cell phone and will be able to be easily transferred to another account or converted into cash at trading centers. In addition: Despite the best efforts of the development community, resource-dependent developing countries continue to be plagued by economic stagnation and political corruption.  The solution rests in the palm of our hand.  By utilizing the existing mobile phone infrastructure to establish a nation-wide m-banking system, these countries will be able to use digital direct transfers to solve the resource curse.   
Direct transfers have limited corruption in extractive industries in developed countries, but many policy analysts believe that this approach is not a viable option in the developing world.  However, the m-banking movement is demonstrating that mobile technology can make financial systems possible even in the poorest settings.  Therefore, by using M-banking on a national scale to implement a digital direct transfer system, resource-dependent developing countries will be able to harness the benefits of the developed world’s solution to extractive industry and in so doing, promote good governance and guard against corruption.      
Though complex in implementation, this project is simple in design.  The establishment of a national m-banking system will be part of the negotiated resource contract.  Using national identity numbers, an individual bank account will be created for each registered citizen, and then a proportional share of the nation’s resource revenue will be electronically transferred into each one of these accounts on a regular and predictable basis with market prices and transfer amounts announced on the radio, newspaper and on an accompanying SMS.  These deposits, like those in M-banking, will be accessible with any cell phone and will be able to be easily transferred to another account or converted into cash at trading centers.  
This project will harness personal incentives through the promise of cash transfers to maximize civil participation and ensure public accountability.  It will be best suited for a head of government committed to beginning an anticorruption campaign or in those countries that are only now discovering resource riches.  Finally, by providing each citizen with a new electronic bank account, the government will be moving the vast majority of the population into the formal banking sector thus harnessing the full potential of economic growth.  

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