We've known about Vodafone's M-Pesa project for some time now.? The money-transfer via mobile phone service has been active in Kenya for a few months now, first as a pilot and growing steadily throughout the country.

The New York Times and the Economist both have articles on M-Pesa today.? Vodafone's partner, Kenyan telco Safaricom, has signed up over 175,000 customers in just three months, and more than 2,500 are signing up every day.Al Hammond just spent a few days with Vodafone in London, including some time with Nick Hughes, the executive in charge of M-Pesa.? He's secured a promise from Nick to post a guest blog on the program here at NextBillion.net - hopefully later today.

In the mean time, brush up on your background reading - either via the Newsroom or direct link.