Mobile phones: the single most transformative technology for development
Mobile phones are clearly business4good. I have read plenty of articles about specific solutions using mobile phones in the developing world - including the Kenyan mobile4good example. This this BusinessWeek article sums it up nicely:"What would a Kenyan farmer want with a mobile phone?
Plenty, as it turns out. To the astonishment of the industry, people living on a few dollars a day have proven avid phone users, and in many parts of the world cellular airtime has become a de facto currency. The reason is simple: A mobile phone can dramatically improve living standards by saving wasted trips, providing information about crop prices, summoning medical help, and even serving as a conduit to banking services.
Mobile phones are changing developing markets faster than anyone imagined. Today there are some 3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, and that will grow to 5 billion by 2015, when two-thirds of the people on earth will have phones, predicts Finnish handset maker Nokia"
ile phones are changing developing markets faster than anyone imagined. Today there are some 3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, and that will grow to 5 billion by 2015, when two-thirds of the people on earth will have phones, predicts Finnish handset maker Nokia Corp."
Jeffrey Sachs even calls cell phones "...the single most transformative technology for development".
Read the full article in BusinessWeek.
posted by Jürgen Nagler at 19:48
2 Comments:
I would agree with Sachs in this instance. The mobile phone has also become THE "payments device" when you think about how mobiles have taken banking to the next level. According to some folks I spoke with at CGAP, the next iteration in mobile phone banking and sending/receiving a remittance via text message - is to expand the infrastructure out of urban areas and into rural villages. Still not enough mkt. penetration yet, but soon hopefully. Furthermore, if I use my mobile phone to receive money then I want to use it to make other purchases/transactions - what CGAP calls instilling a multiple payments environment. Orgzs like the World Bank need to assist central bankers in these countries to bring about this type of environment - thus avoiding the the problem of 'cash economies'
10:15 PM
I would agree with Sachs in this instance. The mobile phone has also become THE "payments device" when you think about how mobiles have taken banking to the next level. According to some folks I spoke with at CGAP, the next iteration in mobile phone banking and sending/receiving a remittance via text message - is to expand the infrastructure out of urban areas and into rural villages. Still not enough mkt. penetration yet, but soon hopefully. Furthermore, if I use my mobile phone to receive money then I want to use it to make other purchases/transactions - what CGAP calls instilling a multiple payments environment. Orgzs like the World Bank need to assist central bankers in these countries to bring about this type of environment - thus avoiding the the problem of 'cash economies'. Hats off to business week as well - they are more than meets the eye.
10:19 PM
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