News coverage of the African “market opportunity” reminds me of “Chindia”
Africa’s economic and consumer market opportunities, as covered in mainstream media as well as press releases, has begun to remind me of the way India and China used to be covered back in the early years of the past decade. Just as was the case with India, where any news of economic growth or scientific […]
The mechanization of donkey water, a symbol of economic progress
There’s a snippet of interesting insight in this news article from Hargeisa City in Somaliland. Traditional donkey carts supplying water are being replaced by motorcycles and this has been framed as a sign of increasing development and economic activity by the journalist. Its a local invention, this “Bajaj Water Tanker” as its called, a prime […]
Prepaid services for water in Africa – survey
An increasing number of African water utilities are turning to pre-paid metering in order to curb wastage, claw back lost revenues and extend service coverage. Do the rewards justify the high roll-out costs? Chris Heymans, senior water and sanitation specialist at the World Bank, is currently undertaking a study of pre-paid services in eight cities […]
Service design for the prepaid economy: Continuing the case of Google’s Bebapay in Nairobi
The previous post on the sluggish adoption of Google’s BebaPay, a cashless prepaid card introduced in Nairobi as a payment mechanism for public transportation, had me pondering the challenge of designing services for the informal sector. There are two main challenges that I see here, which don’t seem to have been taken into consideration during […]
The curious case of Google’s Beba Pay: a mobile payment app that users refuse to adopt
This week, news from Nairobi, that hotbed of mobile money innovation, opened up a Pandora’s box of reflections on payment plans, service design issues and the challenge of technology adoption in the mass markets of the African informal economy. None of these are ‘bad’ things in their own right, but taken together, they have resulted […]
Emerging Futures: Opportunities in Digital Africa
In January 2011, my friend Dirk Knemeyer, Founder of Involution Studios, an internationally reknowned app design studio, suggested I write a series of articles on the imminent opportunities in technology and design emerging across the African continent. That first article in the series “Opportunities in Digital Africa” was published on 22nd February 2011. Below, I’ll […]
Prototyping for pennies
That’s Teemu Ronkka, the Electroshop leader at the design factory, explaining his moisture detector. Its a prototype he put together for just pennies of a humidity sensor using some copper 5 eurocent coins, lemonade and bit of sponge. This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World
Over the course of nearly 20 centuries, millions of East Africans crossed the Indian Ocean and its several seas and adjoining bodies of water in their journey to distant lands, from Arabia and Iraq to India and Sri Lanka. Called Kaffir, Siddi, Habshi, or Zanji, these men, women and children from Sudan in the north […]
2014 is the year of the wooden horse
Startup Sauna, Espoo, Finland What am I doing here? Sitting upstairs next to that guy and typing this. Just got my keycard and I have no idea what I am going to do next but they’ve offered me a chair and told me I can hang out as long as like. This post was […]
FAQ on Value creation
The NDA expired 4 years ago 1. Problem statement: How do you build and maintain trust and commitment without face to face contact with your customers? Value proposition: Through a cohesive, integrated strategy of brand building across all information media sources, whether they be handhelds, mobiles, monitors, screens or even the product interfaces on medical […]
