New Publications signal a turning point for the use of mobile and ICT in humanitarian crises and the protection of human rights
Monday 22 April, 2013 | Blog | Disaster response | Global | Global | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Preparedness
The past month has witnessed the publication of a number of ground-breaking papers related to the use of mobile technology in natural disasters, complex emergencies and human rights. We review what this might mean.
I’ve got customers, so how do I keep them? A quick introduction to Customer Retention Management for Agricultural Value Added Services
Friday 19 April, 2013 | AgriTech | Blog | Global | Global
Last month, we had a workshop with one of our mFarmer grantees to understand their Agricultural Value Added Service (Agri VAS) customer retention management (CRM) process and implementation plan. Here I have captured some of our thoughts regarding effective CRM for Agri VAS.
A new primer on sustaining mHealth interventions: m-Enabled Inclusive Business Models: Applications for Health
Thursday 18 April, 2013 | Blog | mHealth
This is a guest post written by Pamela Riley, the Senior mHealth Advisor of SHOPS project. While mobile technology has attracted widespread recognition of the enormous opportunity for its application to development challenges, few mobile-enabled solutions are commercially ...
How MTN Uganda communicates to its network of 15,000 agents
Thursday 18 April, 2013 | Blog | Mobile Money | Sub-Saharan Africa | Uganda
MTN Uganda directly manages over 15,000 active mobile money agent outlets, a daunting task for a single mobile money team. In this guest post, Shaibu Haruna, MTN Uganda’s GM of Sales and Distribution, shares their approach to agent engagement and communication.
Snippets from the Energy + Mobile for Development Seminar
Tuesday 16 April, 2013 | Blog | Digital Utilities | Energy | Europe and Central Asia | Spain | Water
GSMA M4D’s brand new Mobile Enabled Community Services (MECS) programme did its first steps at MWC. The MECS seminar – at 9am on the first MWC day – kicked off the programme and despite the early hour, the room was full, with over 150 attendees representing every ...
MMU Spotlight on “direct deposits:” An expensive nuisance for mobile money operators
Monday 15 April, 2013 | Blog | Global | Mobile Money
Direct deposits have become an expensive nuisance for mobile wallet operators by eating into revenue, weakening customer engagement, and stunting registration efforts. One operator estimates up to 40% of P2P transfers take place through direct deposits
mHealth services in South Africa: We need your input!
Thursday 11 April, 2013 | Blog | mHealth
As of January 2013, GSMA mHealth is tracking 326 mHealth services in Africa (up from 135 in December 2011). Sixty-three of these are listed in the South African market, the greatest number of mHealth services in an African country that we’ve tracked. . Initiatives are ...
Industry collaboration and coordination – some quick wins
Thursday 11 April, 2013 | Blog | Building the financial ecosystem | Global | Interoperability | Mobile Money
The GSMA 2012 Mobile Money Adoption Survey showed that there are over 40 countries with more than 2 live mobile money deployments. When meeting with different operators in the same market, we tend to hear a similar set of challenges.
The incredible growth of EcoCash Zimbabwe: A chat with Econet Services CEO Darlington Mandivenga
Monday 8 April, 2013 | Blog | Mobile Money | State of the industry and trends | Sub-Saharan Africa | Zimbabwe
Econet Wireless’s mobile money offering, EcoCash, is new to the mobile money scene but already making a splash. In its first 14 months of operation, EcoCash has raced to over 2 million users earning it a place amongst the world’s 14 mobile money sprinters.
mHealth 2.0: To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before
Thursday 4 April, 2013 | Blog | mHealth
The following is a guest post by Marc Mitchell, Founder and President of D-tree International. It is time for us to get past the proof of concept stage for mHealth. The concept has been proven. We now have evidence that mobile phones in the hands of a health worker can lead ...
Should you be cutting your inactive agents?
Thursday 28 March, 2013 | Blog | Global | Mobile Money | State of the industry and trends
The results from our 2012 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey highlight the rapid expansion of mobile money agent networks, from 366,000 in December 2011 to 520,000 in June 2012. There are just as many mobile money outlets than Western Union points of sale globally. However, ...
Scale and Sustainability: Is it just about Numbers?
Thursday 28 March, 2013 | Blog | mHealth
This is a guest post written by Sean Blaschke, the Child Survival Systems Strengthening Specialist for UNICEF. It is nearly impossible to discuss mHealth without the topic of “scale” coming up. Although achieving scale is not required or even appropriate for some use cases, ...
Hello GSMA Mobile Money Sprinters! Telesom Zaad, Telenor Easypaisa, UBL Omni, Orange Money announced as fast growing mobile money services
Monday 25 March, 2013 | Blog | Global | Mobile Money | State of the industry and trends
The findings from the 2012 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey counted 30 million active mobile customers. While these numbers indicate increasing industry maturity, mobile money remains a two-tier landscape. There are just 14 fast- growing services or GSMA Mobile Money ...
Is mobile money becoming a commonplace rather than a differentiator?
Thursday 21 March, 2013 | Blog | Global | Mobile Money | State of the industry and trends
Two weeks ago, we published the results from MMU 2012 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey. The fact that the industry continues to grow fast is very positive, and growth in number of deployments results in increased competition.
‘Transforming health care is a journey’: Lessons Learnt in mHealth space
Thursday 21 March, 2013 | Blog | mHealth
Two weeks ago I wrote about MWC13 and today I would like to share with you some additional highlights from some of the mHealth events from Congress. It was Oscar Gómez, the Director of eHealth Product Marketing in Telefónica Digital, that said the quote in this blog’s ...