Category Archives: Sub Saharan Africa

A design challenge for agric service innovation in rural Africa

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Niti Bhan

Find a way to embed principles of sustainable good agriculture for the smallscale farmer in a socio-economically beneficial way. How would we do this? Where do we begin? The answers to these questions and more will be forthcoming on this … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, Culture, Design, Flexibility, Frameworks, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Mobile platform, Rural, Rural Economy, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research, Value | Tagged agriculture, business models, design, design challenge, prepaid, prepaid economy, rural economy, vcd | Comments Off

Part 4: The visual documentation of the original research on rural economic behaviour

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Niti Bhan

I have uploaded a PDF synopsis of the fieldwork conducted during the original Prepaid Economy research including approach and methodology. Also documented are the different ways those in the rural economy manage their ‘investments’. These images support the observations documented … Continue reading →

Posted in About, Africa, Airtime, Alternative currency, Assumption filter, Banking, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, Culture, Economy, India, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Livestock, Philipines, Project report, Rural Economy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research | Tagged bop, exploratory user research, insights, livestock, observations, portfolio of investments, prepaid economy, rural economy | 1 Comment

The Role of Livestock Data in Rural Africa: The Tanzanian Case Study

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Niti Bhan

The World Bank finally notices the humble goat, four of which will buy you a new Nokia featurephone in Malawi. Funded by Bill and Melinda, this report takes a closer look at the domesticated animal as a financial instrument and … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Alternative currency, Bottom of the Pyramid, Cashless transactions, Culture, Indigenous & Traditional, Livestock, Rural, Rural Economy, Savings, Sub Saharan Africa, User research, Value | Tagged agriculture, livestock, rural economy, subsistence farmer, tanzania | Comments Off

Reflecting on this blog’s genesis after 5 years

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Niti Bhan

I started this blog in late December 2008, in earnest and every day during the first prototype fieldwork for The Prepaid Economy project, one of the iBoP Asia Project’s first batch of Small Grant winners from the ASEAN region. For … Continue reading →

Posted in About, Africa, Airtime, ASEAN, Assumption filter, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Collection, Design, Economy, Flexibility, global, Income, India, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Migrant worker, Mobile platform, Philipines, Project report, South Asia, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Urban, User research, Value | Tagged 5 years, africa, asean, asia, bop, five years, india, prepaid economy, project, rural, update | Comments Off

Promoting Africa’s Informal Sector

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Niti Bhan

Organising the informal sector and recognising its role as a profitable activity may contribute to economic development. This can also improve the capacity of informal workers to meet their basic needs by increasing their incomes and strengthening their legal status. … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Airtime, Alternative currency, Assumption filter, Banking, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, China, Economy, Flexibility, global, India, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Migrant worker, Mobile platform, Rural, Sub Saharan Africa, User research, Value | Tagged prepaid economy | Comments Off

Snippets of note

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Niti Bhan

The fifth most important barrier to financial inclusion is individual level informality, a constraint cited by 15 percent of the unbanked population in Nigeria. Respondents who cite informality reasons for financial exclusion tend to be more educated and rurally based … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Airtime, Banking, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Economy, Flexibility, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Rural, Sub Saharan Africa, User research | Comments Off

Mapping global seasonality: national times of abundance and scarcity?

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Niti Bhan

Connecting some dots made me think of this exercise. If national governments are increasingly looking at ways to bridge the informal economy with the formal, in order to provide more inclusive benefits to their citizens and at the same time … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, ASEAN, Assumption filter, Banking, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, China, Culture, Economy, global, Income, India, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Migrant worker, Philipines, Rural, Senegal, South Africa, South Asia, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research | Comments Off

Informal payment plans offer flexibility and convenience

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Niti Bhan

Rural electronics shops in the North Meru region of Kenya are full of colour television sets, home stereos and DVD players as increasing electrification of smaller and smaller market towns takes place. How do aspiring customers pay for these high … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Economy, Income, Informal & Flexible, Rural, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research, Value | Tagged africa, consumer durable, flexible, kenya, layaway, pay as you, purchasing pattern | 2 Comments

Some concerns about ‘pay as you go’ lighting solutions in rural markets

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Niti Bhan

Having just got back yesterday after immersion in an arid part of rural Kenya, it struck me after coming across yet another solar lighting solution with a pay as you go or prepaid business model that this may become a … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Airtime, Alternative currency, Assumption filter, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, India, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Mobile platform, Rural, Sub Saharan Africa, User research, Value | Tagged africa, business model, cashless, pay as you go, prepaid, rural, subsistence farmer | Comments Off

Senegalese research on innovation processes in their informal ICT sector

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Niti Bhan

I came across some excellent research by Dr Almamy Konte and Mariama Ndong of Senegal. While I’m sure the original working paper in French must be far better than this drafted English translation, their key points are nonetheless something to … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Culture, Economy, Income, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Literature review, Mobile platform, Senegal, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa | Tagged ICT, informal business, informal sector, innovation, innovation processes, marketing, organization, research, senegal | Comments Off