NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Financial Services - Comments

for the agricultural development

aminu muritala — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:49:25 -0500

it is a good achievement for the federal govement to establish a microfinancial bank for the porpose of agricultural developement and poverty alleviation in nigeria,so they should allow all nigerians to enjoy the Golds of the establishement.so i am very interestine,please send me all the adresses of their locations,thanks

I saw this also the other

Anonymous — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:45:29 -0500

I saw this also the other day but am slightly disappointed by the outcome of this. The topics are all very standard, down-the-line banking stories. Debt seems to be their definition of financing. Little talk about equity, even though it seems certain that debt is not the right solution for cash-strapped MSME start-ups.

Thus it is not really a surprise to find that innovations such as online risk capital exchanges or micro venture funds springing up all over the place are not really discussed.

Was I expecting too much from the World Bank?

Financial inclusion

samson Tatiwa — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:51:33 -0500

The Zimbabwean gvt has unveiled a new legislation to promote the access to financial services by those in rural areas previously considered to be unbankable by formal banking institutions.The new legislation seeks to lay a framework for the operation of micro-finances as conduits of funds for development.

yes

madrid man — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:20:25 -0500

I think that idea is from India, where they have had this kind of loans for 15 years.

Phone Banking

NK — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:55:39 -0500

With the estimation of 2.5 billion people in developing countries expected to be mobile phone customers in 5 years. This technology has tremendous potential to improve the business interactions in the developing world. Not only will it help the BoP, it will add numerous new customers to cell phone companies. If security can be enhanced, which I believe it will, billions of the BoP will have access to services that will help their struggle out of poverty. I am extremely excited to see when this project will actually be implemented and its results. Lets face it, the BoP cannot pull itself out of poverty only through micro-lending and these financial services are needed. They will allow faster transactions, the less need for money, and the ability for checking and savings accounts to be established.

Know What It Takes To Get Approved For Business Financing

James Christy — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:37:26 -0500

The Event sounds great, yet wouldn't it just make sense if the Lending Industry told Small Business Owners EXACTLY what it takes to qualify for their program? That way the Business Owner wouldn't be out there damaging their personal credit, getting declined and still looking for capital. Come on, the Lenders Approval criteria shouldn't be a SECRET right? This company has over 4,000 lenders categorized on it's site and only a few hundred have shared their approval criteria. Why not all 4,000? http://www.Search4000BusinessLoansForFREE.com

submission of cv

seriki lukmon.b — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:45:44 -0500

hi, i wud like to submit my cv to all this microfinance bank but no addres or email to reach i wud be glad if u people can be of help thank u and GOD bless.

Phone Banking

TechMode — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:28:58 -0500

I find it surprising that Africa and the Phillipines have this type of access to phone banking. The bureaucratic nightmare of the west always hinders it to work in the best interests of society.

WHI

Hamed Elbarki — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:17:10 -0500

I think WHI is doing a great thing here and hope that everything works out well!

MFBs

AYORINDE NURUDEEN — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:35:39 -0500

Pls, can u send me the address of the MFBs we have in NIGERIA?

Steve - fascinating

Rob Katz — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:57:36 -0500

Steve - your experience sounds fascinating. Please let us know when your writing on this experience is ready, I am very interested in see what your meta-level thoughts are. Thanks for commenting. Rob

Yes, I have lived without

Steve Cisler — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:57:59 -0500

Yes, I have lived without connectivity. In 2004 I went offline totally and began traveling around the U.S. talking to people not using the Internet. Seeing how they coped, what they might be missing. Then I went into Mexico and rode buses around the country, talking to people (the majority of course) not online. It was an eye-opening experience to see how many did not need or want access and had other ways of staying informed and connected. For myself who had been on the Net since the mid-80's it was very hard to stay off for 8 months. People thought I was dead. "You've committed virtual suicide said one." I am writing more exensively about this now.

Have you ever lived with no connectivity?

Al Hammond — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:24:20 -0500

I find all these comments fascinating. Personally, I think its no longer debatable that connectivity is a very powerful tool to empower people in ways that can help them climb out of poverty. Can you imagine what it would be like not to be able to make a phone call or send an email--instead, have to go physically to talk to everyone with whom you need to interact? That, unfortunately, is still the case for about half the world's people, either for reasons of access or cost. We are now piloting a model in rural Vietnam that could dramatically lower the costs of phone and internet service, both for users and for telecommunications. In fact, this model can make local calls entirely free for users, and lower capex by a factor of 5 and operational costs by half, compared to a typical mobile network. Because both customers and telcos win under this model, we think it has a chance of being adopted and used to build out in rural areas. And then the incredible entrepreneurial innovation that low-income phone users display in finding new ways to use this tool--as illustrated in the NYT article--can be unleashed.

Global Poverty and telecommunications

Paul Rigterink — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:10:55 -0500

I will give an example of how poor people will use telecommunications to increase their standard of living based on my understanding of poverty problems in a Central American country. A campesino in a rural area has been offered 1000 pesos for 10 bushels of corn by a middleman who declares his corn to be of "low quality". He calls his friend in the capital and learns chicken farmers in the area are paying 5000 pesos for 10 bushels of corn of "commercial quality". After calling his friend and the chicken farmer he decides to ship the corn to the capital and is able to sell it for 3500 pesos. He also talks with other friends and learns how to improve the quality of his corn, learns where to buy small grain storage systems so he can sell his corn when the price is higher, and learns that he can make even more money by raising chickens with his corn (1 lb of chicken takes 2 lbs of corn and sells for the price of 4 lbs of corn.) The use of telecommunications has helped the campesino increase his income by a factor of four.

Yes, they MAY

Beth Nderitu — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:31:27 -0500

I was born and raised in Kenya at a time when land-line phones were the preserve of the rich, corporations, and other institutions. Currently, almost all the families I know (here family means extended family) have at least one cellphone. So yes, poor people can afford cellphones. What is now needed are better ways to make them productive. Most of the people I know use them for social purposes, but some business people use them to order supplies, inquire about prices, and even get market prices sent to their phnes by text. This cuts down on time to travel to market and inquire price, and also give new leads on the best market to sell produce. New innovations are making them useful for other reasons as well. Case in point: M-Pesa, a money transfer service using cell phones. Of course cell phones can't end poverty by themselves. But they may be key.