This week, we’re stepping back and looking at the explosive developments in the ICT industry and their effects in emerging markets.  In case you missed it, check out our ongoing series on how mobile transactions systems can fight poverty, Part 1 and Part 2.

“Ethio Telecom launches credit transfer service” Press Release from Ethio Telecom

Ethiopia is infamous for its lagging mobile penetration rates. The Government-led telecom released ambitious goals for mobile penetration last year. So far, it seems that the country is on target to meet them. Last week, Ethio Telecom announced that it would now allow prepaid users to transfer airtime to one another, an early version of mobile money. Airtime is like a currency in emerging markets, and we’re excited to see this type of development continue in Ethiopia.

With over 14 million customers signed up since its March 2007 launch, Safaricom’s M-Pesa is processing more transactions in Kenya than Western Union is in the entire world. M-Pesa provides mobile money services to more than 70 percent of Kenya’s adult population, according to the International Monetary Fund. M-Pesa has revolutionized the way Kenyans transfer their money, moving about 17% of the country’s GDP each year.

In Zimbabwe, mobile phone penetration has begun to significantly contribute to levels of entrepreneurship in the country. A report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development revealed,“59% of Zimbabweans have access to mobile phones compared with only about 5% in 2005.” The UNCTAD pointed out that Zimbabwean SMEs are using mobile phones regularly to conduct business and m-commerce. The Government of Zimbabwe indicated that m-commerce has been a significant economic driver. In addition to mobile penetration, phones with mobile Internet are always increasing; in Arica, “7 out of 10 are expected to be Internet-enabled by 2014.”

“UN Team Approves ICT Goals As EA’s Speed Lags” by Esmond Shahonya on All Africa

The UN’s Broadband Commission for Digital Development has endorsed new targets that aim to provide global broadband access. The first target requires all countries to have national strategies for implementing universal broadband access. Furthermore, broadband access must be affordable. The final target aims to provide broadband access to 40% of households in developing countries by 2015. The goals were developed at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom World 2011 summit, which considers “broadband as a vital ingredient for development.” 

Image Courtesy of Simpa Networks

However, for real financial inclusion, mobile transaction systems are going to have to expand their services beyond simple cashless transactions. Some of this is happening already. For example, Safaricom recently partnered with Equity Bank to develop M-KESHO in Kenya, a product that provides M-PESA users with interest bearing mobile savings accounts. Another example comes from Simpa Networks, an ID portfolio company that leverages mobile technology to finance the costs of solar home systems. The Simpa Regulator allows users to make payments with their mobile phone to pay off the cost of the system over time. In this way, mobile transactions can expand one of the most important aspects of financial inclusion, credit.  

Like us, Mobile Active is a proponent of the basic feature phone’s potential for impact by distributing information. A new report, “News on the Go: How Mobile Device Are Changing the World’s Information Ecosystem” by the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) discusses and examines how the implications that mobile penetration has for politics, education, economies, society, and most importantly, the global disbursement of news and information. The report focuses on smartphones, but Mobile Active smartly lists a collection of case studies focused on more basic phones. Both smartphones and more basic phones create opportunities as Mobile Active and CMIA demonstrate in their publications. Check out the Mobile Media Toolkit for case studies focused on basic phones and download the CIMA report to get a sense of the impact, no matter what kind of phone.

Nathan Eagle, a local MIT professor and co-founder and CEO of Jana, was profiled in The Economist in January and more recently in Next Billion as a “radical innovator capitalizing on the rapid and broad-based distribution of mobile technology.” Jana, formerly Txteagle, is a mobile-phone-based platform that allows global organizations to reach and engage consumers in emerging markets. Jana has Research and Marketing arms across 80 developing countries, allowing consumers to actively participate and leverage their own influence over the market. Jana allows businesses to collect data on the wants and needs of their target markets at the BoP by distributing surveys on mobile phones and offering a promotional incentive for doing so. In the case of Jana, mobile phones change the way we look at and do business with BoP markets.

Claire Hunsaker, Director of Marketing and Client Services at Samasource!, presented at the Android Open 2011 on mobile ubiquity’s impact in Kenya. Claire discusses how the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones contributes to the lifestyle of everyday Kenyans.  Notably, cheap Android phones called “Kenya phones” are slowly rising in popularity in the market. Most importantly, she points out that 99% of new-paying Internet users access the web on their mobile phones.  Hunsaker and Samasource!’s work focuses on the use of mobile phones for information, payments, and networking. This is a philosophy we share at ID. For example, the Mobile Media Toolkit and the Open Data Kit, accessible on a mobile phone, promote citizen journalism. For more examples on how information distribution is made possible through mobile phones in addition to payment and networking opportunities, watch her whole presentation and follow Samasource! on Twitter.

Prairie Summer and Lucy Lyon of Equal Access International (EA) leverage the technology developed by FrontlineSMS to educate and empower the BoP through media and community mobilization. That is to say, with mobile technology, they facilitate participation and information transactions. FrontlineSMS is a valuable tool for NGOs that allows group texting and two-way communication on a large scale. EA hosts six radio programs in Chad and Niger and communicates with its listeners using the FrontlineSMS technology.  This allows the listeners to participate, share their views, and get their questions answered using a tool that is readily available. Check out the article to read first-hand accounts of user participation.

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GOOD Magazine spotlights Paul Needham, co-founder of Simpa Networks, our portfolio company, and a member of the Class of 2011 PopTech Social Innovation Fellows. Paul understands that solar energy incurs an upfront cost that is too high for most users. So he and the team Simpa created the Simpa Regulator, which allows users to pay for the cost of a solar home system over time. Simpa smartly pegs its prices to be the same as kerosene, which most people at the BoP use for energy. This way, the Simpa Regulator not only delivers energy affordably, but it also delivers clean energy that isn’t damaging to personal health or the environment.  Even better, Simpa’s light from SELCO-India’s solar panels is brighter than a kerosene lamp. Consumers get a safer and longer-lasting energy source for the same up-front price and ultimately spend less money over time.

Simpa is not the only company offering pay-as-you-go models. A company called Eight19 creates solar film – or printable solar panels. In partnership with Solar Aid, the pair has developed IndiGo, a charging technology that is specifically designed to be affordable for the BoP. Users can add credit to their IndiGo box by using the codes sent to their mobile phones after purchase. Like Simpa’s Regulator, this model allows users to pay for their energy over time without the initial upfront cost.

Christine Eibs Singer, the co-founder and CEO of E+Co, recently published a case study for the MIT Innovations Journal’s latest edition - SOCAP11: Impact Investing Special Edition. An executive summary is available on the E+Co blog. In the Case Study, Singer looks at the different stages that E+Co has gone through, and how the organization got to where it is now. E+CO started before “impact investing” was a buzz word. Despite the merge of impact-focused funding vehicles, the goal has always been to help energy enterprises grow and prove their worth, and ultimately create impact for the BoP.  The full journal is available on Amazon and contains articles from many other industry experts including Kevin Doyle Jones, Phillip Auerswald, Antony Bugg-Levine, Mario Morino, and Ross Baird.

The UN’s Millennium Development Goals seek to halve poverty by 2015. The Prime Minister of Nepal, Dr. Baburam Bhattari, noted that his country’s achievement of the MDGs is largely hindered by energy poverty, and in a broader sense, a lack of technology and innovation. Energy poverty occurs when there is limited or no access to electricity for cooking, heating, cooling, and/or lighting. Many people at the BoP in Nepal use unsustainable and harmful energy sources like kerosene. The Prime Minister addressed the “Sustainable Energy for All: Water, Food, and Energy Security” session at a UN Roundtable, where he suggested that the Nepalese government is accelerating efforts to scale sustainable energy solutions to fight against poverty.

A staggering 2.4 billion people in the world live in energy poverty - a way of life that is very unfamiliar to us in the United States. Almost a third of the world’s population lives with very limited or no access to electricity. This means that the time they can spend working or studying is limited, and it affects everything from cooking to communication to refrigeration. In other articles this week we discussed pay-as-you-go solar as a solution. Another solution to help bring energy access to the BoP is microgrids. General MicroGrids, Inc. is a company founded by Terry Mohn who is also the Co-Chair of the UN Foundation’s MicroGrid Work Group. He hopes that the company can deliver affordable and renewable energy to eliminate energy poverty and contribute to the goals outlined by the UN Campaign of Sustainable Energy For All.  The three main goals that the UN is promoting to achieve by 2030 are: “1) Achieve universal access to modern energy serves; 2) improve global energy intensity by 40 percent; and 3) Produce at least 30 percent of the world’s energy from renewable sources.” Microgrids , according to Mohn, are a technological answer and solution that can meet the UN’s goals for energy. 

People often ask us why we chose technology as our investment focus. The answer is quite simple: technology has the greatest potential to create impact in the developing world. The following articles for this week share our sentiment and speak to mobile technology’s power for social impact (be sure to check out next week’s Review to see how alternative energy is creating impact).

Kenya has been the shining star of mobile technology innovation in Africa, largely fueled by high mobile penetration and the installation of undersea fiber cables in 2009. The folks at iHub Nairobi have collected data regarding mobile technology and mobile broadband usage in Kenya.  They have found that broadband speeds are increasing alongside the number of users and that most access the Internet with their phone; “98% of mobile subscribers use mobile internet.” More important are the affects mobile Internet will have on the Kenyan economy. iHub writes, “It is predicted that mobile broadband can potentially increase national productivity and growth by up to 15%.” Access to mobile phones, and therefore mobile broadband, will made a significant improvement in the continued development of Kenya.

Michael Fertik reflects on the attitude world leaders had on Internet at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year. All agreed and wanted to know more about how the Internet “spreads information, misinformation, rumor, innuendo, and fact.” While the Internet can cause a stir, the information it channels to underserved populations is critical. Fertik writes of the impact the Internet has in times of crisis or disaster. We agree that technology creates impact by absorbing and transmitting information, and add that it doesn’t just have to be in times of crisis.

Katrin Verclas, founder of MobileActive.org, has been honored as one of the most influential women in technology this year. Her site is a “hub for people around the world who are building tools for mobile phones that make a difference.” Her site unites the large community of technology innovators who are working to create technologies that empower the world’s underserved populations. This way, innovators can share their experiences and expertise to create affordable and scalable products and services for the underserved. By promoting the development of applications and mobile technologies, we can leverage mobile ubiquity to create social impact. Congratulations to Katrin Verclas and thanks for propelling the technology for impact space forward.

“HP Invests for Growth in Africa; New operations in 10 countries bring transformative technology solutions to help drive sustainable, long-term growth” Press Release from HP on Market Watch

It’s not just small social enterprises that have caught on the potential at the BoP and technology’s power for impact. The IT giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) is expanding its operations in Africa with 10 new entities throughout the continent. Business customers, governments, and individuals will have improved access to HP’s hardware and software. Governments especially will be able to leverage HP technology “to drive economic growth by modernizing the delivery of services in key areas such as education, healthcare, and e-Government services.” By penetrating the market, HP will drive increased adoption of technology and promote sustainable economic development. HP’s presence alone will create jobs and stability throughout their communities. HP also has plans for many other initiatives to collaborate with universities, innovate in African education and extend social innovation programs.