Empowering smallholder farmers in Nigeria: An introduction to AgroMall
Wednesday 8 December, 2021 | AgriTech | AgriTech solutions | Blog | Climate | Digitisation of agricultural value chains | English | Financial inclusion for farmers | Innovation fund and grants | Nigeria | Resilient technology | Sub-Saharan Africa
This is the sixth blog in a series introducing the grantees and key partners supporting The GSMA Innovation Fund for Digitisation of Agricultural Value Chains. Nigerian agritech company AgroMall is one of seven grantees under The GSMA Innovation Fund ...
The Indo-Pacific: A look at the 427 active hubs in the region
Monday 29 November, 2021 | Blog | East Asia and Pacific | Ecosystem Accelerator | English | Innovation fund and grants | Mobile access and use | Partnership engagement
This blog has been authored by Briter Bridges. For more information on the Indo-Pacific investment landscape, please see our report. The technology landscape across the Indo-Pacific region over the past decade has been heavily influenced by the presence of India and China, ...
Making mobile internet more accessible for people with reading or writing difficulties
Friday 26 November, 2021 | Blog | blog | Connected Society | Digital literacy | Mobile access and use | Mobile for Development
Across low- and middle- income countries (LMICs), 3.4 billion people are still not accessing mobile internet despite living within the footprint of a mobile broadband network[1]. According to the latest GSMA Consumer Survey, for people who are aware of mobile internet, ...
Impactful Innovations: Insights from evaluating Cyber Food
Friday 26 November, 2021 | AgriTech solutions | Blog | COVID-19 | East Asia and Pacific | Ecosystem Accelerator | English | Fiji | Innovation fund and grants | Mobile access and use
This post is part of a two-part blog series on a programme for Scaling Innovation and Supporting Entrepreneurship across the Indo-Pacific during the pandemic. This programme was funded by the Australian Government’s Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and ...
Impactful Innovation: Insights from evaluating ATEC
Thursday 25 November, 2021 | Bangladesh | Blog | Cambodia | East Asia and Pacific | Ecosystem Accelerator | Energy | English | Innovation fund and grants | Mobile access and use
This post is part of a two-part blog series on a programme for Scaling Innovation and Supporting Entrepreneurship across the Indo-Pacific during the pandemic. This programme was funded by the Australian Government’s Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and ...
Mobile money can drive the financial inclusion of persons with disabilities in Ghana
Tuesday 16 November, 2021 | Assistive Tech | Blog | blog | Connected Society | Digital inclusion for persons with disability | English | Financial Inclusion | Financial inclusion for women | Ghana | Mobile Money | Mobile Money | Sub-Saharan Africa
Over the past decade, the proliferation of mobile money across Sub-Saharan Africa has been a catalyst for the financial inclusion of millions of those previously underserved by traditional banks. More than half of the globe’s active mobile money accounts are now located in ...
The Climate Crisis: Mobile-enabled solutions to address the growing humanitarian challenge
Thursday 11 November, 2021 | Blog | blog | Climate | ClimateTech | Frontier Technology | Global | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation
World leaders recently gathered in Glasgow at COP26 to accelerate action towards addressing climate change. They’ve come from around the world to grapple with the most pressing existential crisis of our time with an urgent need to reduce global emissions. No matter how ...
Starting Out Smart: Gender-Smart Strategies for Start-up Success
Wednesday 10 November, 2021 | Asia Pacific | Blog | blog | COVID-19 | Ecosystem Accelerator | Ecosystem Accelerator | English | Gender | Innovation fund and grants | Mobile access and use
When pandemic restrictions locked down Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea’s capital), many women absorbed additional unpaid care work, making it more difficult to do food shopping during the safer daylight hours. Shalom Warrey saw an opportunity and created “At Your Doorstep” ...
Using digital tools to improve the commercial sustainability of container-based sanitation models
Wednesday 10 November, 2021 | Blog | Digital Utilities | English | Innovation fund and grants | Mobile access and use | Sanitation | South Asia | Sub-Saharan Africa
The number of people living in informal settlements is expected to reach three billion by 2030. At the same time, two billion people currently lack even a basic level of sanitation service. With urbanisation accelerating across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), ...
The GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation: Open now
Tuesday 9 November, 2021 | Africa | Asia Pacific | Blog | blog | Climate | ClimateTech | Innovation Fund | Innovation fund and grants | Latin America & the Caribbean | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development
This week, during the Science and Innovation day at COP26, the GSMA, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) announced the launch of the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and ...
COP26 highlights the need to transform smallholder agriculture: Can digital solutions be an enabler?
Monday 8 November, 2021 | AgriTech | AgriTech solutions | Blog | blog | Climate | ClimateTech | Digitisation of agricultural value chains | Farmer credit scoring | Financial Inclusion | Financial inclusion for farmers | Global | Index insurance | Innovation Fund | Innovation fund and grants | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Resilient technology
Two years since COP25, during which the impacts of climate change have become ever more evident, the focus now shifts to Glasgow for COP26 and what many are seeing as the last chance to take meaningful action. Smallholder agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to ...
Trust, misinformation and the role of technology in the localisation of information: Five key lessons
Friday 5 November, 2021 | Blog | blog | English | Global | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation
As COVID-19 has illustrated, in the context of a pandemic almost nothing is as important as timely, trustworthy, and actionable information. Due to the circumstances, mobile technology came to play a key role in disseminating information over the last 18 months. And while ...
Driving the conversation about Government–Innovator Partnerships on Urban Mobility and Waste Management in Lagos, Nigeria
Wednesday 3 November, 2021 | Blog | Digital Utilities | English | Nigeria | Partnership engagement | Partnership-hub | Plastics and Waste Management | Public-Private | Resilient technology | Smart infrastructure | Sub-Saharan Africa | Transport
Utopia, an innovation group focused on emergent cities, and the GSMA Digital Utilities programme have teamed up to organise a virtual workshop where digital urban innovators and urban policymakers in Lagos can have a conversation on how to bolster government– start-up ...
Thinking Outside the Box: Vodacom Tanzania Agri Digitisation Journey
Tuesday 2 November, 2021 | Africa | AgriTech | AgriTech solutions | Blog | blog | Building the financial ecosystem | Climate | Digitisation of agricultural value chains | Farmer credit scoring | Financial Inclusion | Financial inclusion for farmers | Index insurance | Innovation Fund | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Partnership engagement | Tanzania
This is the fifth blog in a series of blogs introducing the grantees and key partners supported by the GSMA Innovation Fund for Digitisation of Agricultural Value Chains. In 2020, Vodacom Tanzania was awarded a grant under the GSMA Innovation Fund for Digitisation of ...
Introducing the GSMA’s 2021 Mobile Money Handbook: why policy still matters
Monday 1 November, 2021 | Blog | blog | English | Financial Inclusion | Mobile | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile Money | Mobile Money | Mobile Money | Mobile Money Blog | Policy and regulation
In 2018, the GSMA Mobile Money Programme published an updated Mobile Money Policy Handbook. The 2018 edition brought together practical mobile money policy and regulatory considerations from a range of sources, coupled with the team’s industry experience. The Handbook ...
Pay-As-You-Go smart assets increase farmers’ climate resilience
Monday 1 November, 2021 | AgriTech | AgriTech solutions | Blog | blog | Climate | Digital Utilities | Digitisation of agricultural value chains | English | Financial inclusion for farmers | Mobile for Development | Resilient technology | Smart infrastructure
Innovation SunCulture Pay-As-You-Go solar irrigation systems Partners SunCulture, Energy Access Ventures, Microsoft, REEEP, MIT, PG Impact, GSMA, EDF, Shell Foundation, SNV, USAID, EEP Africa, Mercy Corps, DPI, Acumen Capital Partners, Self Help Africa Smallholder farmers ...
Closing the weather data gap in LMICs using mobile networks
Monday 1 November, 2021 | AgriTech | AgriTech solutions | Blog | blog | Climate | Digitisation of agricultural value chains | English | Financial Inclusion | Financial inclusion for farmers | Global | Index insurance | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Partnership engagement | Resilient technology
Innovation Rainfall observation using Commercial Microwave Links (CMLs) Partners GSMA, Dialog Axiata Sri Lanka, MTN Nigeria, Digicel Papua New Guinea, Wageningen University & Research, Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI), TU Delft, Hyds, FCDO, DFAT Reliable ...
The state of mobile internet connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa: why addressing the barriers to mobile internet use matters now more than ever
Wednesday 27 October, 2021 | Africa | Blog | blog | Connected Society | English | Mobile access and use | Report | Sub-Saharan Africa
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitisation of economies and societies around the world. Mobile internet adoption continued to increase in 2020, despite the economic recession. By the end of 2020, 28% of the Sub-Saharan African population was connected the ...
The state of mobile internet connectivity in South Asia: the coverage gap is narrowing but the usage gap remains the largest in the world
Tuesday 19 October, 2021 | Blog | blog | Connected Society | Mobile access and use | South Asia | South Asia
In this blog, we present highlights of the State of Mobile Internet Connectivity in South Asia. Mobile internet connectivity has continued to grow in many countries across South Asia during 2020. Despite, or perhaps partly driven by, the COVID-19 pandemic, 34% of the ...
The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity: the coverage gap continues to narrow but the usage gap remains wide
Thursday 14 October, 2021 | Blog | blog | Connected Society | English | Global | Global | Mobile access and use | Report | State of the industry and trends
More than half the world’s population are now using mobile internet. That’s just over 4 billion people connected, and with 94 per cent of the world’s population covered by a mobile broadband network, lack of coverage is no longer the main challenge to digital inclusion. The ...