Understanding the emerging (African) market consumer --- Never NOT acknowledging the informal market

Vahid Monadjem of new company Nomanini, has developed a product that dispenses prepaid airtime (instead of the scratch card) which he believes will adequately build upon/revolutionize how the informal market does business. Given the increasing interest in ICT for Development, there is seeming disregard for how these emerging market or BoP populations actually use technology. Monadjem, having done research as a Mckinsey & Company’s global fellow for emerging market product development, explains his hypothesis for the real origins of Africa's "mobile revolution"

I think the scratch card has really opened up the possibility to serve deeper and deeper into underserved markets… I don’t think the mobile revolution in Africa would have happened without the scratch card… That was the best method available and that was kind of the benchmark we were trying to improve against.

Nomanini helps traders print airtime simply from different retailers

It's been purported that about 70 percent of the "bottom billion" live in Africa , most notably by Dr. Paul Collier of Oxford. Yet, the informal economy accounts for 80 percent of new jobs across the continent and is a major contributor to wealth. So who are we making products for and what do entrepreneurs have in mind when they make products for these people? It seems Mr. Monadjem has given the world real insight into the "bottom billion" with his Nomanini product. Even the word Nomanini--which means "anytime" in Zulu--is testament to the idea that the bottom billion may be much more variable than the "living on $2 a day" characteristic.