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.
culture is nothing new. From the nooks and crannies of the "bottom billion" to the attics of perceived "social recluse" kids, the act of backyard product development has long been a testament to human ingenuity. However, the motivations for "making" for those in less than underserved communities could be taken as being noticeably different than those who are in a comfortable position to "tinker" away at their homemade gadgets.
Nonetheless, education is the equalizer in both instances. We have three stories: The Georgia Tech Makerspace, Alex Odundo of Kenya and his rural made machines and the Beat Making Lab. The story of Georgia Tech's maker lab and its' quest to "democratize" the practice of engineering says that amid the debate over the future of colleges/universities (Are they necessary? Do they really prepare students? More online classes!), physical institutions of higher learning provide the necessary knowledge transfer environment to revolutionize they way learning is done. All three examples presented --- were either created or enhanced by some interaction with a University. When Mr. Odundo found out that one his prototypes that he had been working for years was already being crowd funded by another company, he was staying with Stanford PhD material science candidate Andrew Byrnes in Menlo Park. He was convinced to do an Indiegogo crowdfunding project for the Victoria Innovation Center. The Beat Making Lab is a creation of UNC Chapel Hill.
The Chicago Boys story is hailed as a "striking example of an organized transfer of ideology" and how ideas can penetrate more than aid in the development and non profit space. Whether Beijing can follow (or want to follow) in Chile's footsteps remains to be seen as more emerging markets work together.
In a micro scale example, Toyota trained an under-equipped food bank in New York in its' Kaizen supply chain method resulting in increased delivery capacity and shortened lines. I have created a TUMBLR offshoot as a part of my "rebranding" effort. Hopefully it gives me the opportunity to condense information that I come across on a daily basis. You can follow me at http://maisonplus.tumblr.com/
