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Airtels’ mMoney Market for Ghanaian: An ICT4D Model

Photo Credit: Airtel

The Sales Director of Airtel Telecommunications Mr. Luck Ochieng ‘outdoored’ an advanced form of mobile banking in Ghana on Wednesday by stating that “this innovative mobile service would help customers to overcome many challenges the public go through when transacting business in their daily lives.”

The mobile money service in Ghana will allow customers to pay their postpaid and DStv bills; pay for goods and services; contribute to their loans and savings; send airtime to themselves, to friends and to family on Airtel or other networks; send money from their Airtel Money account to other Airtel money customers; send money from their Airtel Money account to people on other networks; receive money on their Airtel Money account; and perform Cash-in and Cash-out activities i.e. buy or sell Airtel Money and much more.

This is a huge move in the area of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) in Ghana, which is expected to impact lives from the ordinary citizen through the corporate sector to the national government. With an estimated 80% of Ghanaian being “unbanked”, this opportunity could not have come at any other better time than this. The caption of the news at the Ghanaweb site tells it all “Airtel subscribers can pay ‘trotro’ fares with phones.”

Mr Ochieng emphasized the importance of the service to enhance public safety through a ‘cashless society’ where one could make direct purchases with e-money instead of the actual exchange of cash from one source to another. The Ghanaian society is on high alert in recent years with the rise in attack by armed robbers on market women who carry huge sum of money across the regions for payment of goods and services. In addition to the cost of human lives that are lost in some of these attacks, the indirect consequences on businesses, primary producers, and the transport sector is unbelievable.

Ghana has gone through the various stages of information and communication technology development (ICTD) over the years. This is seen in the significant progress being made in terms of i) developing national ICTs policy to guide the deployment of the technology across the country; ii) the setting-up of an independent regulatory body that is overseeing the overall process to ensure free and fair competitive market; iii) the presence of multiple telecommunication operating companies in the Ghanaian market; iv) revolving funds such as the universal service and access fund (USAF) and other private-public-partnership activities that are in place for financing broadband extension to remote area; v) the development of the physical infrastructure of ICTs in Ghana ahead of a number of its neighboring countries; and vi) the sound environment for developing the technologies associated with the infrastructure for effective functioning are being created.

It is time to look more into information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) – the application of the technologies to improve lives and reduce poverty. So is is time for the implementation of services such as e-governance (connecting all local and central government departments with functioning websites and email addresses); e-agriculture (connecting rural farming communities, empowering them to use the technologies and linking them to market); e-education (connecting scientific and research centers universities, colleges, secondary schools and primary schools with ICTs); e-health (connecting health centers and hospitals with ICTs, especially the rural ones with the urban centers), e-democracy (enabling ordinary citizens to have their voices heard through community access points, connected public libraries, cultural centers, museums, and post offices); and the m-banking services.

Juniper Research predicts that active users of mobile money services will double in the next two years, exceeding 200 million worldwide by 2013. This is an opportunity that no one would like to miss. Airtel is in the right position to take the mobile money industry in Ghana with their “Best Mobile Money Product or Solution” award during the 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

October 20, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Money Service: An Innovation for Rural Women

Photo Credit: Africa News

I remember vividly carrying bundles of millions of Cedis (Ghanaian Currency) in my car about 9-10 years ago, and driving from Tamale (the Regional Capital) to the remote rural communities to pay local farmers for their seed cotton during marketing. You can imagine all the risks involved in carrying such a huge sum of money across districts with no security – the danger of being attacked by armed robbers, the chance of loosing the money, the risk involved in counting and paying individual farmers accordingly without over or under-payment, the challenge with safe handling of these money by the local farmers themselves, the temptation of overspending the money by the rural farmers immediately after receiving their payments, and the risk associated with “banking” the money in their thatched houses.

Don’t forget about my earlier view of a typical ‘rural’ community – lack of basic social facilities such as credit union or banks. I saw my own mother ‘banking’ her money in some special plastic bags and hiding it from us (the children) and later discovering that the value of the money has depreciated such that she could not use it – don’t forget about the skyrocketing inflation rates in Ghana in the mid-late 80’ after the military coup. I also remember interesting stories of my cotton farmers about ‘banking’ their money in the home under mattresses and being discovered by their children; hidden in a pots and being destroyed by red ants and other insects; buried in the ground and forgotten or swept away by a flood; kept under the roof of their building and being destroyed by fire, among others.

Basically, rural women who are mainly farmers, have the challenge of banking or storing the money they obtain at the end of the farming season safely and inaccessible from others as well as from themselves. These rural women also at some point of their life, need to either send some of this income to their relatives outside their village or receive money from their children in the cities. This ability of transferring money to others, or location-shift one’s own money is also an issue. It is also important for the rural women to have sufficient money (or credit) available in the right format or currency when it is required, especially at the start of a new farming season or the beginning of school year where they have to spend on their kids. Finally, the challenge of actually making saving for future use and for purchases of more expensive farm equipments cannot be ignored.

How did the story change with Mobile Money Services?

Mobile money service is seen as one of the world’s fastest growing industries, following the success of the growth of the ‘mobile’ industry over the past two decades where billions of transactions are done using mobile devices. With leadership from M-PESA in Kenya, innovative mobile payment solutions that enable customers to complete simple financial transactions including person-to-person money transfer have been emerging and transforming rural lives. Mobile money services has its presence already in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, Guinea Bissau, Swaziland, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa in addition to Kenya with Liberia being one of the newest countries across Africa to adopt this innovation.

Rural women all over the world are now using mobile money services to facilitate their work. When asked about the mobile money service being provided to her by Lonestar Cell MTN and Ecobank Liberia Limited, a market woman has this to say:

“In trying out the Mobile Money service, I have been able to send money to my son in Buchanan to pay his fees at the Grand Bassa Community College where he is a student and not worry whether the money I sent would reach him. I found the service very effective, convenient and affordable. Clearly, this is better than any other money transfer service I have ever used” (Woman from Liberian Rural Community).

Within the mobile health sector, the application of mobile money service is seen in the use of Medical Smart Cards that allow people who have no access to medical plans or insurance cover to save money through the use of M-PESA transfers. Savings are used to pay for primary health care, specified laboratory tests and drugs at pre-contracted prices. A combination of mobile banking, public information, and free treatment are used in Kenya to give women access to fistula repair. Women can call a free hotline, and if money is needed for transport to a fistula unit this is transferred via M-PESA. Using mobile money services make treatment a reality for women who otherwise would not have been in the socio-economic position to get an operation.

A study conducted on the use of mobile money services in “Kenya Case Study: Who Is Using Mobile Money?” shows that slightly more than half of the mobile money market (56%) live in rural areas and 51% of the users of mobile money services are women. Another study conducted in Kenya in 2009 about the impact of mobile money on the rural people revealed that M-PESA is boosting their income through cheaper, more accessible, and safer money transfer options. The research also shows M-PESA is empowering rural women because it makes it easier for them to solicit and receive money from their husbands and other contacts in Kenyan cities. Remittances through M-PESA relieve many women in rural areas of the burden of traveling by bus to cities to receive money from their husbands, a process that for some could take as long as one week. Also the M-PESA mobile money transfer system is used in Tanzania for example to pay for the transport of women suffering from fistula, children with cleft palates and other disabilities.

The potential of mobile money in the Ghanaian market is so huge with an estimated 80% of Ghanaian being “unbanked” – meaning they conduct their transactions outside the banking sector with no access to financial services. Mobile money is reducing the transaction costs of financial services for Ghanaian in rural areas, saving the cost of travel and time spent visiting the nearest town to access financial services, providing people with a way to transfer money safely and keep (or even increase) their savings.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the USAID-funded project in Haiti, Integrated Finance for Value Chains and Enterprises (HIFIVE) announced the launch of the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI) to stimulate the development of mobile money services in Haiti in 2010. The following two stories show the outcome of this project:

In a cybercafé in downtown Port-au-Prince, Jean Yves deposits money into his TchoTcho Mobile account. Michel, his brother who owns the business, recommended that he register for this mobile money service so that he doesn’t have to carry money across town and risk being robbed. Taking his brother’s ad-vice, Jean Yves deposits cash at the cybercafé and withdraws it via his phone when he arrives at his final destination.

One hour away in the busy port town of Saint Marc, Carmen receives a text message saying that Mercy Corps has deposited US$40 of food aid into her T-Cash account. She picks up her bag and heads off to her local merchant to purchase rice and beans using her phone.

The USAID’s Fostering Agriculture Competitiveness Employing Information Communication Technologies (FACET) project which helps USAID missions and their implementing partners in sub-Saharan Africa to use information and communications technology (ICT) more successfully — via sustainable and scalable approaches — to improve the impact of their agriculture related development projects including Feed the Future projects, shares its experience with the use of mobile money in agriculture in “Using Mobile Money, Mobile Banking to Enhance Agriculture in Africa”. Also with the setting up of the mFarmer Initiative Fund, there is the hope that more rural women will have access to mobile phones and be able to utilize mobile money services to improve their lives.

A recent report “Mobile Money Transfers & Remittances: Markets, Forecasts & Vendor Strategies 2011-2015” by Juniper Research predicts active users of mobile money services to double in the next two years, exceeding 200 million worldwide by 2013. The principle behind mobile services including mobile phones and mobile banking with the structural support from information communication technologies is something that has come to change lives in rural communities in particular. Mobile money services have come to stay. Different models, applications, and innovations will evolve over the years for simplicity, ease of use, less costly, and more compatible to a variety of mobile devices across the developing world.

October 14, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Climate Change, Food Security, Irrigation and Water, Land Management, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

IFAD President: Africa can ensure its own food security

Photo Credit: Zunia

The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Mr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, hosted a virtual press conference from his Rome office yesterday, September 29 to discuss why he believes Africa can ensure its own food security through investment in agriculture, with particular focus on West Africa.

The interactive press briefing touched on a number of pressing and interesting issues relating to African agriculture. According to Mr. Nwanze, reducing rural poverty in Africa is a high priority for IFAD, and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains IFAD’s highest priority, absorbing as much as 40% of new commitments. IFAD investment in Africa and SSA is more than 50% of IFAD’s total investment worldwide. With years of investment and working relations with African experts and governments, IFAD has accumulated a rich experience of what works and doesn’t work in Africa.

The agency has identified with the great challenges facing African agriculture including volatile food prices, changing climate, the challenge of feeding its populace, land grabbing, among others. But at the same time, sees great promise for Africa in the face of all these challenges. Africa has the highest share of the world’s arable land for agriculture, with West Africa alone holding about 284 million hectares of arable land available for investment. Out of this, only 60 million are currently in use. In addition, the region has more than 10 million hectares of land that could be irrigated, but it barely uses 10% of this to its full value. About 60% of Sub-Sahara African is under 25 years of age with high skills and training to be tapped for agricultural growth.

I asked Mr Nwanze what IFAD’s view is on policies that ensure investment in ICTs for agricultural development in Africa. He referenced the on-going Agricultural Knowledge Share Fair (AgShareFair) in Rome with support from IFAD and other UN agencies that brought together people from all over the world including Africa with innovative information and communication technologies for knowledge sharing. IFAD is also supporting many projects in the area of mobile telephony, mobile banking, last mile etc. that are helping in the advancement of agriculture in Africa. Also the use of this virtual press briefing by the President, which made possible for people to participate remotely attests to IFAD’s recognition and commitment to ICTs for development. On policies guiding the creation and administration of Universal Service and Access Funds (USAF) in African countries, Mr. Nwanze recalled a recent meeting by ITU that brought together telecom regulators together to deliberate on its application for development.

Responding to another question from the press as to why Africa is starving, the President stated that Africa is not starving. He cited booming economies in Africa such as Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia where African governments are pursuing sound economic policies thereby enabling the growth of their economies. He cited Ghana as an example that made enormous stride and has great promise for growth with the possibility of transitioning into middle-income country in the near future. He was quick to state, however, that he is ‘no prophet of the future’ to tell how things will turn in these countries. Referring to the crises at the Horn of Africa, the President said agriculture must be made a priority in Africa by all who are interested in reducing poverty and ensuring food security. He called on African leaders to “act now: investing in agriculture is the best way to prevent famines.” African leaders must take the lead and invest in agriculture – no people or nation can make progress with sole external support, the President stated.

On the possibility of investing in green energy for Africa’s agriculture, Mr. Nwanze said it depends on how one defines green energy. According to him, African farmers are already practicing green energy in their farm practices through good soil management practices to prevent erosion and the like.

My main take of the press briefing applies to the question of Mr Nwanze’s view on ICTs investments by African people for agricultural development in Africa. Mr. Nwanze pointed some interesting initiatives by IFAD to expand access to ICTs in rural Africa but it is not clear how much of this is being spearheaded by Africans themselves. On the issue of availability of vast arable lands, huge youth population, and skills in Africa for investment, it is difficult to see how that translate into food security and prevention of future famine in Africa. In this era where Africa is experiencing more and more rural-urban migrations, not only the youth but also the older generations, as a result of declining opportunities and lack of incentives for farming, policies should go beyond mere recognition of ‘rich resources’ on the continent. The President did not mince his words by calling on African leaders to act now, but I also think that there is so much to explore outside African governments and political leaders. The call for investing in low-cost and simple technologies such as information and communication technologies for example should be a fertile ground for Africa’s young entrepreneurs. By creating a conducive environment for investment, Africa could see a wave of young investors especially in the ICTs sector.

Mr. Nwanze also responded to questions from the press covering areas of good governance for agricultural development, south-south collaborations for knowledge transfer to Africa, investment in post-conflict countries such as Liberia, the use of subsidies, and examples of successful models of agricultural development in Africa. The session was covered by over 25 different media outlets across the world in the area of radio, TV, magazine, blogs, multimedia press such as Voice of America, Voice of Nigeria, Deutsche Welle (DW), the Organic Farmer, Think Africa Press, and the Global Broadband for Innovation Program of USAID.

September 30, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Extension Service, Food Security, Livestock, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

ICT4Ag ShareFair Next Week!

Credit: ShareFair

Agriculture professionals will converge at the Headquarters of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) next week in Rome for the 2nd Global Agricultural Knowledge Share Fair.

As I write this, it is days away from kick-off of the 4-day event in Rome from the 26-29 September. With all the excitements that ShareFair brings, participants will be expecting to discover and share new creative and innovative learning and sharing opportunities; and equipping themselves with tools to better influence future agricultural development activities. With the advent of the new information and communication technologies (ICTs), the approach to agricultural knowledge sharing has evolved enabling people of all background to participate and contribute. ShareFairs present unique opportunity for participants to share and discuss the ways in which they have applied new methods of communication and knowledge sharing to improve the effectiveness and impact of their work.

Being the fourth ShareFair and the second of its kind with global focus, participants are expected from all regions of the world with over 160 presenters. This includes farmers, students, academicians, researchers, practitioners, journalists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and policy makers. They will be sharing their knowledge on a variety of rural development and agriculture related topics such as food security, climate change and green innovations, gender, ICTs, mobile technology and social media, new technologies and innovative agricultural and farming practices, markets and private sector, water, livestock, young people, networks and communities of practice. These presentations will take forms such as TedTalks, market place, world café, chat shows, peer assist, fish bowls, and open space.

Knowledge fairs are face-to-face events in which participants set up displays to share their undertakings. Share fairs are interactive events that employ various knowledge sharing formats such as market stalls and booths, and workshops and presentations designed to encourage discussions. They are “free-flowing,” open, flexible, and non-hierarchical. The aims of knowledge share fairs are to provide opportunities for multiple parties to broadcast their achievements, exhibit their products, and market new programs to donors, policymakers, other institutes and potential partners; facilitate face-to-face networking and promote South-North exchange on common agendas; help people benefit from each other’s experiences; and stimulate interest in future collaboration and the development of new programs. ShareFairs can be internal to an organization or open to partners and the public.

Since 2009, the ICT-KM Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has helped organize three Share Fairs: ShareFair 09, Rome; ShareFair Cali, Colombia in May 2010; and AgKnowledge Africa Share Fair, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia October 2010. This fair is being jointly organized by Bioversity International, FAO, IFAD, WFP, CGIAR, and CTA.

To follow events:

Live webcast of the keynote addresses, plenary sessions and sessions to be held in the Italian Conference room and Oval room via: http://sharefair.ifad.org/

Other social media channels include:

Conference hashtag: #sfrome

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sharefairs, http://twitter.com/ifadnews, http://twitter.com/faonews

Blog: http://blog.sharefair.net/ and http://ifad-un.blogspot.com

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/sharefair

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/sharefair09/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KnowledgeShareFair

“Daily Corriere” – the Share Fair daily newspaper – will feature blogposts, tweets and stories from the event.

September 21, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Operators as Clinical Service Providers?

Mobile Health Live recently held a live broadcast webinar from Kuala Lumpur to examine the role of mobile operators in the delivery of mobile health services.

The webinar was moderated by Richard Cockle of the GSMA and featured contributions from Claire Margaret Featherstone of Maxis, Irfan Goandal from Qtel, Dr Mubbashir Iftikhar from KPJ Healthcare and Craig Friedrichs from the GSMA.

The panel discussed the opportunities open to operators working within the mobile health sector, and highlighted a number of specific areas of interest where operators can provide tangible benefits to healthcare partners and their patients. According to the panel, support for a stretched public sector and the remote monitoring of patients with lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, are two key services that mobile operators can provide for the mobile health sector

The panel recognised the complex nature of the healthcare industry with multiple stakeholders and country specific regulation affecting local markets and discussed some of the work being undertaken to help facilitate the integration of mobile services into existing value chains.

If you weren’t able to tune in live to the webinar, you can now watch it on demand.

September 21, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Tobacco control and mHealth

A decade ago, around half of the people in the world’s richest countries had a mobile phone. Mobile penetration in Africa was under 2%. Today there are more than 5.3 billion mobile phone subscriptions globally. Penetration in a number of African countries is now over 40%. More than half of households in majority of developing countries including in rural areas – have a mobile phone. Despite the vast outreach of this technology, the potential has not been fully tapped by the public health or tobacco control community.This is due to a number of reasons, the most notable being an absence of well documented studies/demonstration projects to show the population wide impact in a cost effective and sustainable fashion.

For the last six months WHO has been researching the mhealth tobacco control market and looking for possibilities to leverage m health and tobacco control. The challenge we see are few studies or projects that are currently using mobile phones and tobacco.

The few studies we have found have focused on sms for cessation in developed countries but the results are impressive. From the sms cessation projects in the UK, New Zealand and now the US, we see that using sms for cessation is highly effective. As we know, the spread of tobacco use is moving to the developing world and we could have the same impact in developing countries.

Of course it is not just about individual smoking behaviour and cessation. Our research and outreach has pointed to the possibility of using mobiles for individuals to access quit services, raise awareness and communicate about the dangers of smoking. Mobile networks can give WHO and our partners access to the largest market in the world, this is very important for anti smoking messages which can have a far greater reach than through TV, print or other media campaigns. Mobile phones can be used as a geotagging mechanisms to provide advice on smoke free places and to improve compliance of smoke free laws, to provide a platform for social networking, gaming and competition, and to monitor and collect data on the tobacco epidemic.

With approximately 6 million tobacco attributable deaths very year it is critical that we move quickly, leveraging technology such as mhealth, to build awareness, improve enforcement/compliance of tobacco control laws and to help existing tobacco users to quit.

As the space for tobacco control and mHealth is relatively empty we have a unique opportunity to bring together tobacco control and mHealth players to develop successful interventions that can be used both by developed and developing countries in their tobacco control work. WHO is looking to engage with interested organizations and foundations to partner with us such as mobile associations, telcos, academics, application developers, foundations etc.This is a public health intervention where there is an opportunity for you to develop appropriate public-private partnerships with governments.

We hope that we can connect through this HUB – form new partnerships, share lessons learnt and best practices, validate what works and what doesn’t, monitor existing projects and create new ones, and spread the word on effective mhealth solutions for tobacco. Eventually we plan to create a matrix of population wide cost effective solutions for our member states detailing the top mHealth solutions for tobacco control.

Image credit: Matthias Weinberger (Flickr)

September 21, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Free money transfers in Kenya

The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by the GSMA’S Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme, which seeks to accelerate the availability of mobile money services to the unbanked and those living on less than US$2 per day.

Outdoor advertising for free mobile money sending service in Kenya

One of my first posts for this blog explored how mobile operators could exploit the network effects that characterize mobile moneyservices by “subsidizing” early adopters—that is, by rewarding those who sign up and use a service early with deep discounts or bonuses to make up for the fact that there aren’t many other people on the network to transact with. It’s a classic pricing strategy in networked markets.

Recently, Airtel in Kenya launched a new promotion offering Airtel Money (formerly known as Zain Zap) customers free money transfers to both registered and unregistered customers. Although slated to run only for a short time, this promotion is a clear illustration of an attempt to subsidize participation in a network that has far fewer users than its competitor M-PESA, the most famous and well-established mobile money service in the world.

Such a move is risky, but not crazy. Ignacio Mas has pointed out that the online payments service PayPal lost $23 for every customer they signed up during their first 9 months of operation because they paid large sign-up bonuses and chose not to charge fees that were large enough to cover their variable costs. PayPal racked up millions of dollars of losses that way, but in the process it built a user base that it was later able to monetize: PayPal went on to a successful IPO and now has over 100 million active users around the globe.

For this tactic to work, a networked business must be willing to sustain losses up until the point that it has built a network large enough—which is to say, valuable enough—that users and potential users are willing to pay to use it.

We’ll see if this gambit pays off in Kenya.

Subsidizing early adopters is just one of the tactics that networked businesses can employ to exploit network effects. Previously, I’ve written about how network effects apply to mobile payments and their implications for target market selection and marketing communications.

September 9, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Infectious Diseases, Maternal & Child Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

India to use mobile phones to track millions of immunizations

Child being given vaccination. Photo Credit: getty images

India’s health minister announced earlier this month a new initiative designed to boost the country’s rate of immunizing newborns by collecting mobile phone numbers of all pregnant mothers to monitor their babies’ vaccinations over time.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, the health minister, told a World Health Organization meeting in New Delhi that his ministry has been supervising the collection of about 26 million mobile numbers of pregnant women in India since January and plans to finish the job by December.

The women whose numbers are collected will be tracked via the mobile phones in the future by the Indian government to ensure the women’s babies receive the proper immunizations at the proper times. Babies in India are supposed to be immunized against tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whopping cough and measles, health experts say.

According to Mr. Azad, the campaign will “enable us to monitor our immunization service at a national level. In addition, the central government will be able to check on the accuracy of data collected locally, which is often in doubt.”

The impetus for this program manifested due to a decentralized and deficient public health system, poor monitoring methods and sub standard vaccination coverage.

Photo Credit: wisdomblog.com

In 2010, only 72% of Indian babies received the three doses of the DPT vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, an accepted indicator of a successful vaccination program, according to a joint estimate United Nations Children’s Fund and the WHO. That compares poorly with Bangladesh at 95% and Indonesia at 83%, according to the same joint estimate.

An inherent problem with the monitoring of vaccinations in India is that once babies are vaccinated, there tends to be no physical record of that baby being vaccinated. It is up to the guardians of the child to remember which vaccination was administered at which time. Also, the district levels governments may report erroneous numbers when reporting on the number of children vaccinated.

This initiative will give the central government the ability to contact the new mothers to confirm their babies’ immunization. “We’ll know the capacity of each state so they can’t fool us,” said Mr. Azad, reflecting widespread frustration.

Such an encompassing initiative is bound to face obstacles. Mr. Azad already encountered problems when he tried calling ten numbers from a list gathered back in February. “In front of all of the ministers, I picked up the phone and dialed the first 10 numbers. Only six of them were accurate numbers. Knowing we were going to be checking these numbers, our health workers still collected 40% faulty numbers—that is very bad” he said.

Mr. Azad declined to detail the cost of the program or how many numbers have been entered into the government’s system so far. But he said that tracking 26 million babies “is not an easy job.”

This is an ambitious project to say the least. Mobile phones after all aren’t permanent tools. A family could potentially report one number and procure a new phone with a new number. Also keep in mind, the Indian government is talking about a series of vaccinations that will span over a number of years for families living in rural areas. There could be a high turnover issue of mobile numbers. Families could also report a false phone number for fear of government intrusion – there is no way of double checking for that. Don’t forget, not all mothers will have a mobile phone to begin with.

The list of possible impediments could go on, but the bottom line is that attaining 26 million accurate and functional mobile numbers is idealistic at best. Nonetheless, this is a good start for the central government – it shows they are paying attention to the issue.

August 29, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Innovating in Afghanistan

The following post was written by Rajiv Shah and appeared in the USAID Impact Blog.

In 2002, fewer than 200,000 people in Afghanistan had access to telephones. Today, some 15 million Afghans use mobile phones and a full 85% of the population lives within the combined network coverage of the four major telcos. This technological leap connects Afghans to each other and to the economy in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. And the mobile phone now opens up a world of possibilities for finding solutions to some of the challenges that Afghans face every day. One important use that is quickly becoming a reality in Afghanistan is the creation of a nationwide mobile financial services sector – using mobile phones to transfer money safely and instantly, reducing the need for cash and giving millions of Afghans who may never see the inside of a bank the ability to use their handsets to conduct basic financial transactions. The possible applications for mobile money in Afghanistan are limited only by our imaginations.

USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah and Afghanistan’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amirzai Sangin test a mobile money application at the ceremony in Kabul. Photo Credit: Barat Ali Batoor/US Embassy

Today I had the honor of announcing three USAID innovation grants, totaling just over $2M, to develop applications in this field and begin to create a mobile banking system that could include all Afghans.

At the grant kick-off event, the Afghan Education Minister highlighted the urgent need for mobile payments in Afghanistan by telling us about his staff member who was killed just three weeks ago while transporting cash in a remote province in northern Afghanistan in order to pay a teacher. He expressed his frustration that thousands of his teachers, who are so critical to Afghanistan’s future, often wait months to get their salaries due to the difficulties of transporting cash in the country. I am delighted that USAID is able to help seed a partnership between the Afghan Education Ministry and the mobile operator MTN to begin paying teachers in ten provinces over the mobile platform, thus ensuring they get paid in time and in time, and more importantly, that no Ministry employee loses his life for a duffle bag of cash. And if successful, we expect much of the Afghan civil service to eventually benefit from a mobile payments system that will help the government develop its own capacity as our troops transition home.

The second grant links up telco Etisalat with the new Afghan electricity utility. To my mind, this partnership to design mobile phone-based billing and payment systems for electricity service represents the true art of development by using creative, commercially viable systems to help the Afghan utility collect real revenue. At the end of the day, delivering electricity to all Afghans will require a revenue model that will sustain operations, motivate more public and private investment, and expand Afghanistan’s energy grid so that fewer communities live in the dark. This novel concept applies to any kind of service. In Kenya, some rural communities are sustaining water systems thanks to a mobile phone-based payment system. The concept is simple: consumers use a phone-based app to pay for the water they need, enabling the maintenance required to actually keep the system up and running. Although mobile payments are a simple concept, the possibilities they offer are revolutionary for truly under-served communities.

The third grant funds a partnership between Afghanistan’s mobile money trailblazer, Roshan, and a micro finance consortium whose clients are predominantly women. The concept is to further extend the reach of credit into areas otherwise inaccessible or simply too costly to reach. Running loan extensions and repayments over mobile phones significantly reduces the need for loan officers and clients to travel. This cost savings can be passed on to the customers, making credit more affordable. In culturally conservative Afghanistan, our hope is that this innovation will better serve women who might otherwise not be able to participate in loan programs.

Finally, today we kicked off a contest USAID is co-sponsoring with the Afghan Mobile Money Operators Association to tap the minds of creative young Afghans. University students are being asked to submit ideas for mobile money applications they believe will make a difference in the life of Afghans. Designers of the eight most interesting proposals will receive cash awards and, more importantly, the mobile operators will implement and market the winning apps. We hope this contest will not only drive uptake among a key early adopter demographic, but will also unleash the creativity of young Afghans who have so readily adopted cell phone technology.

With 3G looming just over the horizon (the Afghan Government issued the first tender earlier this month), it is clear that Afghans will increasingly use mobile phones and other modern technologies to build a healthier, better educated and more prosperous society. The days of land-lines or coal-fired development are rapidly being replaced with these new innovations, and I am proud that USAID is able to help unleash Afghan innovation to lead the way.

PS – Check out this video on Afghanistan’s emerging mobile money sector.

August 24, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Asia, Connectivity, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Where we work

3 million impoverished to gain mobile numbers

U.K. startup Movirtu has announced plans to help 3 million or more people in developing countries gain access to mobile services by giving them personal phone numbers – not phones. Movirtu plans to work with a U.N.-affiliated initiative called Business Call to Action (BCTA) to offer the numbers which will be called “mobile identities”.

The service will be called Cloud Phone and will be offered through commercial carriers in developing countries in Africa and South Asia. The name Cloud Phone should not be confused with cloud computing which operates through the internet.

Movirtu is aiming to get 3 million people to use their mobile service for the pilot phase. Movirtu expects about 75 percent of its users to be women, because women in Africa and South Asia are statistically far less likely than men to have their own phones according to Ramona Liberoff, executive vice president of marketing at Movirtu.

The pilot phase will take place in Madagascar through the carrier Airtel. “Madagascar is a perfect market for Movirtu, because Airtel has built an extensive network but many people in the country can’t afford to buy a phone,” Liberoff said.

Owning a mobile identity as opposed to owning a personal mobile phone can save money for the users. For those living at poverty levels, affording a mobile phone may be impossible. A mobile identity allows users to use mobile services without having to purchase a phone.

Also, according to Liberoff, “the cost of prepaid service from a carrier typically is less than what consumers in those countries pay someone to borrow a phone. The average savings from using regular prepaid service instead is estimated at about $60 per year.”

Users can get a mobile identity by going to one of the mobile carrier’s shops. When the user wishes to borrow a mobile phone, the user enters a shortcode for the Movirtu service and then punches in their individual phone number and a personal identification number.

After that, the temporary user can access all the services available through the phone, as well as a personal carrier home page where they can manage and replenish their prepaid account. The system works on any GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phone, using USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data), a GSM protocol for communicating with a service provider’s computers.

Following the pilot in Madagascar, Movirtu plans to open up the Cloud Phone service in at least 12 markets in Africa and South Asia by early 2013, reaching at least 50 million potential users. “The two regions were chosen because they are home to about 1 billion of the 1.3 billion people in the world who rely on borrowed phones,” Liberoff said.

If successful, these mobile identities will allow mobile services to be physically and financially accessible to the poorest of the poor. This will greatly benefit aid parties since according to Liberoff, “In many cases, there are great NGO programs that can’t reach 80 percent of their base because those people don’t have their own phones.”

The overall goal with Cloud Phone should be to bring the impoverished out of poverty by giving them access to a brand new set of tools.

Giving rural populations and women access to mobile services will empower them, and get them involved economically and socially. It will enable them to enter a mobile world which billions of others have already tapped into, opening up many opportunities for development.

August 22, 2011/by actualize

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