Category Archives: Airtime

Can Africa’s Informal Trade Ecosystems Provide Lessons for Navigating Uncertainty and Volatility in the post Pandemic World?

By Niti Bhan | Published: May 1, 2021

It is virtually impossible today to consider emerging markets without taking into consideration the vastly different operating environment of the majority of the countries in the global South. As the map, based on GSMA data, above shows clearly in bright red and blue, the clearest indication of this difference is in the way mobile telephony […]

Also posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Flexibility, Informal & Flexible, Mobile platform, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Strategy, Work in Progress | Tagged informal trade ecosystem, uncertainty is the only certainty, volatility | Leave a comment

IMD Case Study – how Mpesa’s adoption transformed Safaricom

By Niti Bhan | Published: April 26, 2021

There is a case study on Safaricom that supports my viewpoint – that first one must consider the operating environment pragmatically prior to design and delivery of services for low income markets for a successful outcome that then drives the transformation of both the customer base and the corporation, giving rise to new ecosystems and […]

Also posted in Africa, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Cashless transactions, Consumer Behaviour, Design, Economy, Ecosystem, Kenya, Mobile platform, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, South Africa, Technology | Tagged mobile money, mpesa, safaricom | Leave a comment

Mobile telephony and low income customers: Market conditions drove product development and pricing

By Niti Bhan | Published: April 25, 2021

Many who were around and as obsessed by the entry of mobile telephony in the global South during the early years of this century will recall this eyecatching graphic used to illustrate the announcement by Cameroonian researchers Victor and Irene Mbarika that can now be pointed to as the moment Africa’s mobile revolution was born: […]

Also posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Assumption filter, Biashara Economics, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Literature review, Mobile platform, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Rural Economy, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Work in Progress | Tagged africa, mobile phones, prepaid business model, strategy, strategy tools, toolmaking | Leave a comment

Less Technologically Advanced Societies are not necessarily backward or primitive: Assume at your own risk

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 26, 2019

This illustration by Jeroen Meijer of Jam Visueldenken of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, was created for our team during a workshop to capture the insights from a feasibility study on agritech we had completed for the Dutch government’s sustainable agricultural value chain development at Wageningen University’s Economic Research unit back in mid 2013. I’m pulling it […]

Also posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Afrique francophone, Analysis, Assumption filter, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Consumer Behaviour, Design, East African Community, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Frameworks, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Kenya, Marketing, Mobile platform, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Rural Economy, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Technology, UCSD, Value | Tagged africa, business model, design, Flat and fragmented, mobile, prepaid, user research | Leave a comment

Is Design Prepared to be Responsible?

By Niti Bhan | Published: November 7, 2019

Last week, I was invited to join a 60 strong group of pan African thinkers in law, human rights, gender, debt and related issues to convene in Nairobi to explore the concept of predatory lending now being delivered direct to your handheld device. As a human centered designer, I was rocked back on my heels […]

Also posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business, Business Models, Design, Ecosystem, Innovation Planning, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Rural Economy, Strategy, Systems, Technology, User research | Tagged africa, design, digital mobile service, human centered design, informal economy, mobile, mobile platform, responsible design | Leave a comment

The Perfect Storm: A Continent, A Phone, A Business Model

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 20, 2019

In the mid 1990s, in a small city in northern Finland, engineers and designers began work on the product development of a mobile phone that would eventually become one of the best selling Nokia models ever – the 3310, released in Europe and the Far East in the year 2000. The continent of Africa was […]

Also posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Afrique francophone, Analysis, Articles on Design and Innovation, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Commerce en ligne (e-commerce), Consommateurs, Consumer Behaviour, Design, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Futures, Emerging Markets, Flexibility, global, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Kenya, Mobile platform, perfect storm, Perspective, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Rural Economy, South Africa, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, Technology, User research | Tagged africa, digital ecosystem, mobile phone, prepaid economy, the perfect storm | Leave a comment

The Prepaid Economy as a Commercial Operating Environment

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 18, 2019

I have been looking for information the global prepaid mobile subscriber market since yesterday morning. Initially, all I wanted to know was the percentage of prepaid subscribers in China, as I wanted to compare operating environments in major mobile markets like India and China, against the fast growth emergent one in sub Saharan Africa. What […]

Also posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Alternative currency, Analysis, ASEAN, Assumption filter, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, China, Commerce en ligne (e-commerce), Consumer Behaviour, Culture, Design, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Flexibility, Frugality, Ghana, global, Income, India, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Kenya, Marchés africains, Marketing, Mobile platform, Nigeria, Perspective, Philipines, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Rural Economy, Savings, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, Technology | Tagged africa, china, digital mobile social ecosystem, digital social economy, ecosystem, emerging markets, india, informal economy, mobile, prepaid business model, prepaid economy, south east asia | Leave a comment

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement and the Age of Interoperability

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 15, 2019

I have been writing on cross border mobile financial flows across the African continent since early 2015, when the partnerships and agreements made between African telcos to provide interoperability between their mobile money services first began to hit the headlines. In my last post back in August 2016, I asked if Cross Border Mobile Money […]

Also posted in Africa, Afrique francophone, Alternative currency, Analysis, Assumption filter, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Commerce en ligne (e-commerce), Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Futures, Ghana, Income, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Mobile platform, Perspective, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, Technology, UEMOA | Tagged afcfta, african continental free trade agreement, african digital economy, cross border mobile financial services, cross border trade, interoperability, mobile money, trade | 1 Response

New Market Opportunity: The Digitalisation of African Agriculture

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 12, 2019

Just over two weeks ago, I analyzed a report on the Digitalization of African Agriculture on twitter. Bandwidth heavy PDFs aren’t user friendly for mobile first or mobile only browsing environments, such as prevalent across much of the African continent, and ‘granulating’ reports is something I’ve gotten into the habit of doing quite regularly for […]

Also posted in Africa, Alternative currency, Analysis, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Cattle, Design, Ecosystem, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Livestock, Mobile platform, Platforms, Report Review, Research, rural, Rural Economy, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, Technology | Tagged africa, agriculture, D4Ag, design, digitalization, new market strategy, rural value chain, sustainable agricultural value chain development, vcd | Leave a comment

Mobile Money and the Informal Economy: A Paradigm Change

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 9, 2019

One of the most powerful pieces of data analysis I have come across recently has been the Banque de France’s working paper on the role of financial innovation in the informal economy. In my opinion, the importance of their conclusions are no less than the famous “price of fish” paper of a decade ago – […]

Also posted in Africa, Alternative currency, Analysis, Assumption filter, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Cashless transactions, Economy, Emerging Markets, Flexibility, Income, India, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Literature review, Loans, Mobile platform, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Savings, South Asia, Sub Saharan Africa, Technology | Tagged banque de france, complex adaptive systems, informal economy, informal sector, mfs, mobile financial services, mobile money, mobile phones, transformation | Leave a comment