When would you buy life insurance for a week? New products for the informal market
A South African company has figured out the back-end technology required to provide easily accessible prepaid or pay-as-you-go insurance products that can be serviced via your smartphone. Their solutions are designed for the unbanked, informal trader, typically living on an average household income of US$8 a day. At first glance, I wondered who on earth […]
The end of an era: Where next for the big smartphone brands of today?
Africa’s marathon to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of connectivity and access is now a sprint to the finish line. Ericsson’s latest report shows penetration rates on the continent have overtaken India. The market we began our careers in has now, not only matured, but is expected to cross 100% […]
Collapsing the sustainable agricultural value chain of commodities with a single tweet
Tony Addison of UNU-Wider, in Helsinki, just tweeted this photograph, expressing his pleasure at seeing Rwandan coffee at his favourite coffee shop, Roastery. I retweeted it and within minutes, Josh Kariuki proudly tweeted that his neighbourhood Gachatha coffee, from Nyeri county in Kenya, was being sold far away in Helsinki, Finland, by name. The next […]
Untapped opportunities in Francophone Africa for design of apps and smartphone solutions
Bacely Yorubi frames the opportunity space for local app design and development in The Toronto Star: “Lots of young Africans who’ve studied elsewhere and returned home have expectations of mobile services that don’t yet exist,” said Bacely Yorobi, an app developer from Ivory Coast. “So they’re the ones coding and putting new African-made apps out […]
Cross-border mobile financial services in Africa are going to be huge
Analysis Mason has an excellent article on the next big thing in mobile money across the African continent – cross border payments. I covered the emergence of these services, through regional operators as well as partnerships based on interoperability earlier. This is what I asked for: Mapping it all I’d love it if someone could […]
Rwanda launches cashless public transport payments – Will they succeed where Google failed in Kenya?
Public transport is going cashless in Kigali, Rwanda, with smart card payments and mobile money schemes being launched simultaneously with much fanfare. Can Kigali succeed where regional giant Kenya failed a couple of years ago? Nairobi’s attempt to impose cashless payment technologies in public transport (particularly the matatus, ubiquitous white mini buses that ply the […]
Why I’m cautious about most mobile platform consumer research in Africa
StanChart’s price tracker rolled out in Nigeria is a great example of where and how mobile phones can really add value in understanding the African consumer market and add substantially to its scarce database. What concerns me however is the increasing promotion of the ubiquitous cellphone as the means to gather consumer insights for all […]
Breaking the caste barrier: Aspirations, upward mobility and the brass ring
We don’t talk about this much. India’s caste system is an intangible barrier to upward mobility. We assume the ‘untouchables’ are a one lumpen mass of poor. Is the post liberalization economic growth finally offering opportunities for change? “Post-liberalization, the country witnessed a transition from the caste-based occupations and services to modern businesses. Looking at […]
Why am I so excited about an African hair style app released on smartphones?
Darling, the pan African hair extension brand owned by Godrej of India, has just released an app in Nigeria aimed at helping customers choose their latest hair style on their smartphone. The implications are enormous, imho. Mobiles are ubiquitious. E-commerce in Nigeria is becoming commonplace. Smartphones are default. The African consumer market is sophisticated in […]
Bitcoin accepted here
This money transfer point in Treichville market, Abidjan in the Cote D’Ivoire accepts bitcoins.
