Grameen America announced a collaboration with Citi and Mastercard to provide financial technology solutions that will assist low-income minority women entrepreneurs. The aim is to improve the organization's ability to promote digital financial access. The project will target more than more than 86,000 low-income minority women entrepreneurs across the United States. The most important advancement in the project will be a cloud-based Management Information System that will allow Grameen America to modernize and standardize its back-office processes. The new system will allow the employees to...
Vodacom is leading a three-part ICT development initiative in Kaduna State in Nigeria focused on education, health and agriculture. Kaduna State and Nigeria are only a part of wider plan of similar initiatives throughout the whole of Africa. Similar initiatives have already started in Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, and other countries will be reached during 2017. The first part of the project is centered on education and will be implemented in 4 000 schools across Kaduna State by June 2017. It is a solution that allows the State to monitor feeding programmes mobile phone and tablets...
One of the main problems of farmers and people living in rural areas in the developing world is the lack of access to information on health and efficient farming practices. Other media such as Radio and TV, don't have the same reach of mobile phones, which are very widespread in the developing world. Human Network International (HNI) created the 3-2-1 Service, a service which provides access to a range of information on their mobile phones by voice message in local languages, with no internet required. The information provided includes Health, Gender, Agriculture, Microfinance, Water,...
Nano Ganesh - a mobile based remote control for water pumps and water tanks - developed by the Ossian Agro Automation , will be demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress , Barcelona, Spain, taking place from February 27th to March 2nd 2017. The electronic device will be part of the Mobile for Development in the Innovation City in the Mobile World Congress. GSMA has constructed a small grass plot irrigated by sprinklers controlled live by visitors with a mobile phone with the help of Nano Ganesh device. Nano Ganesh is a GSM Mobile based remote control system exclusively for the use with water...
Rural mobile connectivity is still poor in Africa, according to the GSMA Mobile Economy Africa 2016 Report. Mobile connectivity can help smallholders get access to relevant market information and financial services, which are essential for their development. Affordability is another key issue, as the report states that in countries such as Chad and Niger, for example, "mobile broadband represents around 200% of the annual income of the bottom 20% of the population." Nevertheless, mobile financial services are hugely important in sub-saharan Africa, with the region representing 63% of active...
Can technology help family famers in the developing world? The story of Coconut farmers in the Philippines does offer answers to this question. Philippines has more than 3.5 million coconut farmers and most of them are communal farmers. Most abject poverty in the world is concentrated in farming communities, and technology can open up new opportunities for family farmers . While more than 90% of farms are run by an individual or a family and they produce about 80% of the world's food occupying around 70-80% of farm land. In the Philippines, where mobile penetration is 50 percent and...
One of the main challenges for development of smallholder farmers' livelihoods is access to market information and financial services. Smallholder farmers are the most underserved group in the world by financial services, with women and youth at a particular disadvantage. Arifu is a platform that provides customer capability-building through mobile technology. The Kenya-based platform tests, refines, and hosts content developed by various educational organizations via SMS on mobile phones. Arifu has a team of digital learning experts who work with providers to design and develop behaviorally-...
KrishiSuchak is a WhatsApp-like app developed by Bangalore-based startup Nubesol Technologies to permit smallholders to message agricultural scientist to ask them for advice on their yields, thus eliminating spatial barriers between extension services. Farmers can send their queries either as text, a photo or a record of their voices to the extension officers. Farmers can now get advice via Krishi Shuchak from agronomists by sending only a picture of the damaged crop. The scientist then responds to the query by identifying the problem and then giving advice on the pests to use in order to...
From 27 February till 2 March 2017 - the 2017 World Mobile Congress will take place in Barcelona, Spain. Mobile World Congress is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry, organised by the GSMA and held in the Mobile World Capital Barcelona. If you have the occassion to participate in...
THOUSANDS of smallholder farmers in the region are set to benefit from a digital platform connecting them to agents, buyers and banks in East Africa. Launched by Mastercard , 2KUZE, as the platform is known, is the latest offering in the region hailed as the cradle of African technology innovation. The agricultural technology app was developed at Mastercard's Nairobi Labs for Financial Inclusion with the support of the Gates Foundation. 2KUZE’s primary value proposition is connecting farmers, agents, and buyers on a digital platform toward greater pricing transparency and more effective...
From 27 February till 2 March 2017 - the 2017 World Mobile Congress will take place in Barcelona, Spain. Mobile World Congress is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry, organised by the GSMA and held in the Mobile World Capital Barcelona. If you have the occassion to participate in...