Mobile Payments Today recently featured a piece by Megan Oxman from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Financial Services for the Poor (FSP) program. She really hit some hit points on the how the poorest people in the developing world are using mobile money, and how the right financial tools can help those individuals improve their lives, or get through challenging circumstances.

She rightly points out how mobile is a “bright spot”when it comes to accessibility, yet more opportunities are needed to get access to financial services for the poor. To help the industry come up with solutions, FSP has partnered with the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) to launch a competition to “find the most innovative electronic payments technology with the potential to make a profound impact on the global market, particularly to unbanked or under-banked consumers in the developing world.”

Here’s the prizes up for grabs:

There will be two types of awards issued in conjunction with the 2013 ETA Annual Meeting and Expo in New Orleans from April 30 to May 2. First, FSP is supporting complimentary turnkey exhibit space in the Expo’s inaugural Payments Next Zone for up to six startup companies – innovators with great ideas for serving the under-served who may lack the resources to show their products to the world. Second is the E-Pay Innovation Award, a $10,000 prize to be awarded to the most innovative exhibiting startup.

You can learn more about the awards on the ETA web site.