NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, July 14, 2005

The best way to help developing nations is to recognise that development is “of the people, by the people and for the people”, says a Bangladeshi entrepreneur.

Iqbal Quadir, Grameen Phone founder in Bangladesh, told experts gathered for TED Global in Oxford that aid strategies for the last 60 years had failed.

Technologies such as mobiles empowered people because they connected them.

This, he said, fuelled productivity much more than the top-down aid approach.

Mr Quadir had the idea for Grameen Phone, a way to get mobile telephony into Bangladeshi villages and rural areas, 12 years ago.

Since then, the company has grown to more than 3.5 million subscribers, with more than 115,000 phones in villages across the country.
Story found here.