Limpopo farmers with cell phones

Posted on August 2, 2005 by Tony Harris
Posted in Uncategorized

Limpopo farmers sell fresh produce by cellphone.

Off the Blogafrica site.

Off Jonathan Calder's Liberal England site.

5 Comments

  1. Mark Pollock
    August 2, 2005

    Thanks for posting that. I had a conversation with a techie colleague over a year ago about exactly the same thing - getting good market information to primary suppliers. We ran aground on the problem of getting the technology to the suppliers for an affordable price. He was suggesting a big end solution - the carriers and vendors doing the heavy lifting (charity) and I was suggesting a charitable intervention (Oxfam collecting Nokia 5110s (with chargers) and shipping them off to Africa for resale on the second hand market - capitalism).

    This sort of thing could make a real difference.

  2. Rafe
    August 3, 2005

    Check this out Mark, geeks vs poverty in West Africa http://www.geekcorps.org/

  3. Mark Pollock
    August 6, 2005

    Ta.

  4. Rafe
    August 8, 2005

    More on the sim card stampede in Ethiopia. http://www.meskelsquare.com/archives/2005/03/the_sim_card_st.html

  5. Mar Pollock
    August 13, 2005

    That was intersting too. I predict some pretty horrendous billing problems with those 200,000 SIM cards. I doubt if there are too many direct debit opportunities over there.