“This is wealth in Wote”
The owner of this shamba specially asked his man to remove the pipe so that he could proudly share his ‘wealth’ – sweet, fresh water piped in from a submersed pump with pipe and power laid down under the dry river bed and his fields. Value is always contextual.
Fuel, Food and Fone – The necessities of modern life
“The Largest Mobile Money Network”
Seeing signs of increasing competition around as next evolution requires interconnectivity and platform agnosticism.
Human centered design: Surprising insights from rural Kenya
One of the most surprising things that struck me over the past couple days of running around doing recce visits for our upcoming rural research was just how rapidly and how well the concept of the user centered design (UCD) process and thus, the human centered approach to research and development was not only understood […]
Low Income Household consumer research in rural Kenya
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be starting a whole new set of fieldwork in rural Kenya. This time we’re doing something closer to the better known applications of our human centered design approach for increasing our understanding of people. It will be among rural ‘BoP’ households on behalf of a consumer product that’s retailed […]
Observations on emerging opportunities in upcountry Kenya
Louis Majanja is a photographer who maintains the wonderful ‘Daily Struggle‘ photoblog capturing life in and around Nairobi and Kenya and his latest post captured not only my imagination but also the changes he’s observed upcountry in his rural home region when he went back for the holidays. Here, I want to share that insight […]
Prosperity may not always directly translate into demand
News has it that the richest county in Kenya is Kajiado where only 12% of the population are below the poverty line as compared to the national average of 46%. A snippet reveals: Commenting on the fortunes of Kajiado district, commission Vice-Chairperson Fatuma Abdulkadir said: “Kajiado’s riches are concentrated on areas in proximity to Nairobi.” […]
Systems thinking and the mobile for economic impact and wealth creation
I have been meaning to write this post for quite some time now, percolating as it has in the back of my mind but it was Mark Kaigwa’s recent comment that finally spurred this writing. This is not all about MPesa, though it will take a look at some of the issues why its runaway […]
Ever smaller and smaller: how household budgets deal with rising prices and inflation
It is only an eighth of a kilogramme packet of sugar, yet many Kenyans can barely afford it. This particular size of sugar has many references among residents of Nyanza Province, such as kobole, Kadogo and Sukari ndogo. In Kisian Village, Kisumu County, the packet is retailing at Sh28, the epitome of the ‘Kadogo economy’ […]
Pondering a new prepaid research focus
Ever since I completed the first Prepaid Economy study which looked at how those on irregular income streams managed their household finances – focusing on rural Philippines and India – I’ve been curious about rural Kenya. I’ve long wanted to delve into the impact, if any, of the mobile money systems that have rapidly gained […]
