My project looks at the intersection between Mobile Money (MM), a fintech application, the use and non-use of this application, and the overarching socio-techno-political trends that impact its adoption and success. I focus on Rwanda, having completed fieldwork there that included interviewing taxi-moto drivers and collecting data on advertising billboards, news media, internet ads, phone ad messages, all related to MM.

Preliminary data analysis has revealed themes relating to:

• MM as a tool for progress and financial independence;
• MM as a popular loan platform for daily wage workers despite high interest rates (credit-scoring through fintech and data);
• MM platformization and advertising shaping the visibility and access to indigenous socio-technical, financial, cultural and human infrastructures (for example, microfinances and SACCOs, MM agents).