The power of a mobile telephone

Dear all,

Again an amazing week in Nairobi. The Catholic Relief Services (CRS), an American development organization, had organized a big conference in the Safari Park hotel here in Nairobi, to discuss how mobile technology can make a difference in this world. And as many organizations are discovering the opportunities mobile technology enhances, a lot of initiatives are started all over the world. But to avoid that we are all inventing the wheel twice, CRS tried to open up the discussions on this conference to see if companies can help each other.

At the conference were 188 companies represented from 55 countries with an overall of 135 speakers in different sessions. Organizations like USAID, Oxfam, Unicef, World Vision, but also commercial organizations like Accenture, SalesForce etc. It was an amazing combination of expertise and knowledge available. They had chosen Kenya, because Kenya is the leading country of all development countries to implement new and mobile technologies into poverty alleviation. And also the enormous success of MPesa in Kenya makes it an unique country in the world.

But for those of you who doesn't know what MPesa is, I will quickly explain. Since a lot of countries are jealous about the success of MPesa, many countries are preparing to copy this model. MPesa makes banks unnecessary. You can create an account on your mobile and add money onto this account through small offices which are placed everywhere in Kenya, even in slums. Through unique accounts, you can transfer money very easily through your mobile Phone, without having a bank account. So far this sounds the same as mobile banking, instead that you don't have to have internet connection and a bank account. Therefore this is also accessible for people with a very simple telephone. Also transferring money is much more easier. So when you for example have lunch, but no money, you can either pay with MPesa or let someone else pay and transfer your money with your mobile in 1 sec to the account of the other person. In Kenya 50% of the country (18 million people) is using MPesa for payments.

Small payments become in this way very easy and accessible without internet. And now all these organizations are implementing models based on MPesa. F.e. electricity. What if you are living in Kenia far away from electricity sources and you don't have money for a generator. The electricity companies created a generator with a simcard. You can rent a generator with this simcard, and you can pay for your electricity through MPesa. The moment you cannot pay the bill, a signal will be send which blocks the generator for giving electricity. So the user has a great incentive to pay his electricity through MPesa, but if he cannot pay it due to lack of money, the generator is switched off automatically without sending reminders or sending someone over to collect the money. It makes a person very flexible in his payments, which is representing his actual cash flow in real life. Most of the people here don’t know when they will have money again. Getting your salary every month is only for a few people here applicable.
Beside mobile financial services, the opportunities have grown enormous with all these new mobile phone technologies. You can easily conduct surveys through mobile phones, having the GPS coordinates immediately recorded. Retrieving information is very easy for health workers. Sending reminders to people to keep track of their health status etc. Conduct simple and quick research. And the mobile phone has become so accessible. Almost 96% of the world population has a mobile telephone subscription. The mobile phone in easy form, has found his way all over the world.

So to us it was very interesting what these organizations have been doing so far. And we could use their experiences greatly for our benefits. We are talking now with 2 organizations about sending automated sms or text to speech services. We are investigating a mapping tool to create graphical displays of clinics in the neighborhoods. We are also investigating open source reporting tools and having ideas on how we could implement a simple supply chain solution.

And yesterday we went on our first safari within Kenya. The Nairobi National Park is just a 15 min drive from our house. Very impressive to see these animals with the skyline of Nairobi at the background. It was not as impressive as the Masai Mara, but every time when I can see these magnificent animals I feel blessed. The lion, the giraffe, the buffalo, the zebra etc. Our nature is just amazing. And somehow it cannot slip my mind to realize how huge our responsibility is to preserve all this beautiful nature. As Pim correctly stated during the safari: “We used to live amongst nature, but paid a lot of money to start living in cities. Nowadays we can move almost for free in cities, but have to pay to access nature areas.” But I always feel much more alive when I’m in the middle of the nature.

Only five days left before my lovely wife jumps on the plane and flies to Kenya. Cannot wait for her to be with me again!!!

Take care, Robert