After Haiti’s devastating earthquake in January, people around the world whipped out their mobile phones to send millions of dollars in aid via text message to charities including the Red Cross. Now a new $10m fund aims to help Haitians use their own mobile phones to send, receive and store money - services known as “mobile money” or “mobile banking”.

The fund, a partnership between the Gates Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), will award cash to companies that set up mobile banking services in Haiti. More than a third of the island nation’s banks, ATMs, and money transfer locations were destroyed in the quake, according to the Gates Foundation - and few Haitians had access to traditional banking in the first place.

“Before the earthquake, fewer than 10 per cent of Haitians had ever used a commercial bank”, said Rajiv Shah, USAID administrator. “A mobile money system can restore and remake banking in Haiti and serve as an engine of inclusive growth.”