Technology, economics, and politics
We've read about examples of how mobile (cell) phones have had dramatic effects on political cultures in countries that were slow to build telephone infrastructure in the last 60 years. (See: Cell phones and civil society, for example.)Grameen bank-type micro-credit schemes haven't made waves as big in the AP6 as they have in some other countries, but there are micro-credit schemes in all six. The effects have been economic, social, and political, especially for women.
What if the mobile phones and small-scale banking were merged? New York Times reporter Chris Nicholson offers some ideas to evaluate.
In Poorer Nations, Cellphones Help Open Up Microfinancing
"In many developing countries, where bank branches and A.T.M.’s are few or nonexistent in rural areas, cellphones may finally make financial services practical such places, fitting in the palm of one’s hand.
"Mobile devices have the potential to take financial markets outside urban areas, allowing banks to provide services like loans and savings accounts in rural regions...
"The value of mobile technologies has benefited microlenders, too. Jamii Bora, the largest microfinance institution in Kenya, has more than 150,000 borrowers. The organization, whose name means 'good families' in Swahili, began to experiment last year with mobile point-of-sale devices, magnetic-stripe cards and fingerprint authentication to take its remote branches online...
"The system that Jamii Bora uses allows clients in the countryside to make loan repayments, receive disbursements and do other business electronically. Once clients log in with a fingertip, authenticating their identity, they are connected to a central database in Nairobi.
"In a system similar to the one Vodafone has set up, cash is paid and received through loan officers or sales agents in gas stations or shops, which settle their accounts with Jamii Bora...
"The technology has allowed Jamii Bora to centralize operations and introduce a transparent accounting system to administer the loans and other services it provides, like health insurance. In doing so, the company said, it has increased efficiency and reduced the risk of fraud. If that means reducing its operating costs, making the organization more sustainable, Jamii Bora said it could lower the size of its average loan and still break even..."
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:28 AM
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Africa, Offline: Waiting for the Web
"Africa remains the least connected region in the world, and the digital gap between it and the developed world is widening rapidly. 'Unless you can offer Internet access that is the same as the rest of the world, Africa can’t be part of the global economy or academic environment,' said Lawrence H. Landweber, professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who was also part of an early effort to bring the Web to Africa in the mid-1990s. 'The benefits of the Internet age will bypass the continent.'..."
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