Category Archives: Philipines

The Global System’s Fulcrum has Changed in Location and Trajectory

By Niti Bhan | Published: November 15, 2020

Where, the innovation flowed outwards from age old centers of world system changing such as the Bay Area of the US Pacific Coastline or more recently, in the first visible shift this century, from the Pearl River Delta region of mainland China, now has shifted its locus of pivoting the levers of the system into […]

Also posted in Analysis, ASEAN, Ecosystem, Emerging Futures, Mobile platform, Perspective, Strategy, urban, Value | 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, Airtime, 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, 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

Lessons from African Fintech for the Gig Economy

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 20, 2018

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to share my research on the past decade of mobile ecosystem development across the African continent with Dr. Antti Saarnio, founder of Zippie; co-founder of Jolla (developers of the Sailfish OS, among other things). “We want to test our product first and foremost in Africa because there is […]

Also posted in Africa, Airtime, Alternative currency, Analysis, Assumption filter, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Commerce en ligne (e-commerce), Consumer Behaviour, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Futures, Emerging Markets, Flexibility, Frameworks, Income, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Loans, Mobile platform, Perspective, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, Technology | Tagged android, design, fintech, gig economy, informal economy, mobile, mobile money, mpesa, pilot, prepaid economy, smartphone, user research, user testing | 1 Response

Rural Household Financial Management on Irregular Incomes

By Niti Bhan | Published: October 18, 2018

While all farms are not alike, and scale and variety and geography differs, the pattern of household financial management holds its fundamental logic across continents. As we saw previously, an experienced farmer tends to fall somewhere in between a salaried employee and an odd job labourer in their ability to predict with any reasonable degree […]

Also posted in Africa, Analysis, ASEAN, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Cattle, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Frameworks, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Livestock, Mama Biashara, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Rural Economy, Savings, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research | Tagged biashara, biashara economics, biashara economy, frameworks, household finance, household financial management, informal economy, prepaid economy, research | Leave a comment

Financial Behaviour Patterns Observed Among Households in Rural Informal Economy in Asia

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 24, 2017

This is the original working paper of the research conducted on rural household financial management, in developing country conditions, pioneering the use of methods from human centered design for discovery, during Nov 2008 to March 2009, aka the Prepaid Economy Project. It was peer reviewed by Brett Hudson Matthews, and I have incorporated his comments into […]

Also posted in African Consumer Market, Airtime, Alternative currency, Analysis, ASEAN, Assumption filter, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Cattle, Consumer Behaviour, Design, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Flexibility, FMCG, Frameworks, global, Income, India, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Livestock, Marchés africains, Marketing, Migrant worker, Mobile platform, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Process, Projects and Reports, Research, Retail in Africa, Risk, rural, Rural Economy, Savings, Scarcity, South Asia, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, User research | Tagged asean, biashara economics, bottom of the pyramid, cash based markets, design research for development, financial management, household finance, india, informal economy, irregular incomes, philippines, prepaid, prepaid business model, prepaid economy, research, rural economy, seasonality, south asia, The prepaid economy | Leave a comment

Finally, the silver bullet of micro-finance can be buried in peace

By Niti Bhan | Published: January 15, 2016

Six years ago, in March 2009, after my return from The Philippines where I’d first conducted fieldwork using design ethnography methods to understand household financial management at the erstwhile Base of the Pyramid in a rural region, I had written: Another eye opener was hearing the story about a micro-finance loan for enabling local women […]

Also posted in ASEAN, Base of the Pyramid, Loans, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Rural Economy, Strategy, User research | Tagged death of microfinance, micro-credit, sub prime debt, usury | Leave a comment

Creative ways to financial inclusion, inspired by observing practice

By Michael Kimani | Published: July 8, 2015

Needless to say, mobile money has been a wild success in scaling an expansive agent network for converting cash to e-money and enabling person to person money transfer. Speaking at a recent conference, John Staley, Chief Officer – Finance, Innovation and Technology at Equity Bank had this to say: “We should move the conversation from […]

Also posted in Assumption filter, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Cattle, Culture, Kenya, Livestock, Loans, Perspective, rural, Rural Economy, Savings, urban | Tagged bop finance, financial inclusion, financial services, rural, savings, unbanked | Leave a comment

RIP Google BebaPay – Requiem for a cashless payment system

By Niti Bhan | Published: February 26, 2015

Less than a year after going live, Google is closing down the BebaPay smart card which was introduced as an NFC based cashless payment mechanism for Nairobi’s public transport. Last year, I’d analyzed the context and the operating environment in which they’d launched their service, on hearing the news that they’d been struggling to gain […]

Also posted in Africa, Alternative currency, Analysis, ASEAN, Assumption filter, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Emerging Markets, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Kenya, Mobile platform, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Process, Research, Strategy, Systems, Technology | Tagged bebapay, cashless, google, informal economy, prepaid economy | Leave a comment

Part 4: The visual documentation of the original research on rural economic behaviour

By Niti Bhan | Published: November 1, 2013

I have uploaded a PDF synopsis of the fieldwork conducted during the original Prepaid Economy research including approach and methodology. Also documented are the different ways those in the rural economy manage their ‘investments’. These images support the observations documented in Part 2 and my thoughts on rural Indian cow ownership have been fleshed out […]

Also posted in About, Africa, Airtime, Alternative currency, Assumption filter, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Consumer Behaviour, Culture, Economy, India, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Livestock, Projects and Reports, Research, Rural Economy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research | Tagged bop, exploratory user research, insights, livestock, observations, portfolio of investments, prepaid economy, rural economy | 1 Response

Exploratory User Research in the Rural Economy

By Niti Bhan | Published: October 25, 2013

When I first began developing the attributes by which to select representative user profiles for the original fieldwork to begin understanding the “prepaid economy”, that is, household financial management in rural India, The Philippines and Malawi, it was based on people’s ability to plan and budget. One can plan best when one is certain of […]

Also posted in Base of the Pyramid, Business Models, Design, Economy, Expenses, Flexibility, Frameworks, global, Income, India, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Research, rural, User research | Tagged agriculture, cash, design ethnography, exploratory user research, farmers, gem, informal economy, pay as you go, prepaid economy, rural economy, user research | Leave a comment