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More Chinese farmers benefit from agricultural information services
I receive text messages on my mobile phone from a horticultural expert, said Guo Kebing, a farmer in the suburbs of Chongqing Municipality. He planted 33 hectares of sweet wormwood this year. Like Guo, more and more Chinese farmers will benefit from an agricultural information service website which was officially launched on Thursday in Chongqing, after a month of tests. It’s time to treat your sweet wormwood plants to stop them getting mildew... This tex...
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Needy Ugandans Develop the Mobile Phone ATM
It is called Sente. The sender buys a mobile phone topup card, but instead of topping his own phone up he tops up the phone of the kiosk owner nearest home, who passes the money on to his family (minus his commission, of course). Sente has weaknesses and relies on trust, but is better than having to take a two-day trip home. ?Everyone who has a phone, has an ATM,? Chipchase says. For years people in the West have talked about mobile phone ATMs. In Africa it is already a reality. In ...
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Motorola’s Dumb Phone
Mobile phones in the United States are more power-hungry and complicated than ever. But one of the latest phones from Motorola, aimed primarily at other markets and due out by the end of the year, is just the opposite. Looking for more customers, the company did extensive market research in poor countries. The result: the company’s slimmest phone yet, boasting cutting-edge technology that--rather than adding complexity--extends battery life and makes the phone simpler to use. Call...
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African Governments Asked to Plough Back Cell Phone Taxes
Telecommunications experts say mobile networks have the capacity to provide coverage to 90 per cent of the world’s population by 2010. But this could happen only if governments spend all the tax collections from telecoms industry on improving the mobile infrastructure. Speaking in Cape Town yesterday, experts urged Governments to complement mobile operators towards achieving this goal instead of watering down their efforts through ill-advised policies of subsidising rol...
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Microcredit not working in China, new initiative needed
Without a microcredit of 20,000 yuan, Shan Xinhui, a laid-off woman, would not have been able to start her own business and today boast fixed assets worth more than two million yuan. At the 2006 China Banking Association-Citigroup Micro-entrepreneurship Awards Ceremony, Shan, from the western city of Yan’an in Shannxi Province, showed her appreciation for the government and the microcredit fund that gave her the seed money. But, in obtaining a microcredit, Shan was one ...
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Efforts geared up to introduce mobile banking
The ministry of information technology has directed the country?s telecom regulator and services providers to work closely with the central bank and remove hurdles in the way of introduction of electronic mobile banking in Pakistan. Mobile banking facility is in place in many developing countries consisting of comprehensive banking services including money transfer, cash-in, cash-out, person to person transfer, bill payments, on-line purchases etc. However, the lack of coor...
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In pursuit of sustainable business
Vanessa Hill is no naive optimist. She believes corporate America should develop a greater social conscience, but she also knows that business executives are driven by an overriding goal: maximizing profits. She also knows that Wall Street judges those profits every quarter. And that such a short-term outlook makes embracing sustainable values, which may not pay dividends for years, all the more difficult. Ultimately, it will take public pressure to push corporat...
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Regulation Pushes SMEs to Non-Compliance
Many Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) become illegal because of excessive regulation, an expert with the South African-based Strategic, Business Partnerships for Growth in Africa said on Tuesday. Speaking at the Bifm/FinMark Trust Forum, Douglas Irvine said that SMEs usually fly under the radar and operate hiding from the law and end up being harassed and becoming non-compliant. Irvine said that this excessive regulatory network is not good for business. ...
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