they bypass some of the major constraints that smes face when applying for traditional finance tools and expand sme access to finance in general this includes access to trade finance through mobile phonebased money box it was launched in by vodafone for safaricom and vodacom the two largest mobile network operators in kenya and the united republic of tanzania respectively it has since expanded to afghanistan albania india romania and south africa it is estimated to have contributed to a drop of two percentage points in poverty rates in kenya with larger reductions among womenheaded households