Insights on the psychology of cash money – Demonetization vs Financial Inclusion
The flurry of commentary on the Great Indian Demonetization of November 2016 has thrown up some nuggets of insight worth considering more deeply. Santosh Desai explores the psychology of cash money in the Times of India blog, linking the need for tangible evidence of income to physical labour, as opposed to those of us with […]
The hidden cost of doing business #informaleconomy
This looks like its a low cost business operation with low barriers to entry. All you need to do is find a decent tree under which to display your wares. The reality is that these entrepreneurs have numerous fees and costs that they must pay in order to do business, regardless of how informal it […]
Breaking bulk and profiting at the margins
Michael sent me this information from Nairobi last week. He’d spotted informal retail within the context of a mini-supermarket – known as traditional trade in the jargon of consumer product distribution and retail. He adds, “So 500 ml of Rina cooking oil retails for 120KES, 1 litre for 195 KES. What the owner of this […]
Exploratory User Research in the Rural Economy
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 […]
Risk is dynamic, not static
Exhibition Panel – Samsui Woman, National Museum of Singapore, March 2013 And investor, bankers and venture capitalists imagine they are taking risks that deem high interest rates when operating in Sub Saharan Africa. Come now, you do not gamble with your next meal, your risk is static. What every micro entrepreneur, in the informal economy […]
