In Ghana, it’s popularly known as susu. In Cameroon, tontines or chilembe. And in South Africa, stokfel. Today, you’d most likely call it plain-old microfinance, the nearest term we have for it. Age-old indigenous credit schemes have run perfectly well without much outside intervention for generations. Although, in our excitement to implement new technologies and … Continue reading Indigenous and ingenious: The roots of mobile banking in Africa
Tag: microfinance
Step inside the laptop bank
In the world of social innovation, many of the smartest ideas focus on “market inefficiencies” and, in particular, ways of reducing them. As increasing numbers of mobile operators implement airtime transfer systems and mobile money functionality on their networks – particularly in developing countries – opportunities also increase for locally-run microfinance institutions and their customers … Continue reading Step inside the laptop bank
Let’s not write it off quite yet
A couple of months ago a member of the Social Mobile Group on Facebook asked an interesting, and pertinent, question. Commenting on a picture of a payphone attached to a bicycle from the kiwanja Mobile Gallery (this bike is taken around the streets of Kampala for members of the public to use to make calls), … Continue reading Let’s not write it off quite yet
Joining the dots the Kiva way
An old expression, maybe, but “that idea is so simple I don’t know why I never thought of it” applies almost on a weekly or monthly basis when you’re tapped into the Silicon Valley technology/academic environment. Take YouTube. The idea seems like a no-brainer, but to take it from nothing to a $1.6 billion venture … Continue reading Joining the dots the Kiva way