"There's enormous entrepreneurship and creativity worldwide, and through mobile phones you're providing people with the tools - rather than aid - to earn a living", says Leonard Waverman, chair of the Department of Economics at the London Business School.
In a study of 92 countries, Waverman says of the moblie phone, especially in emerging markets and the developing world, "It's not a magic bullet, but it's a vital tool."
Cell phones are expensive in the developing nations for many who live on one or two dollars a day. Inaccessibility to cellphones by many has given rise to communal phone use and a cottage industry where individuals resell phone services for a living in some regions of the world, both of which are typified in Bangladesh's "village phone program". A quarter million "phone ladies" buy mobile phones on credit from Grameen Bank, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize along with its founder Muhammad Yunus, providing wireless communication for the community and a livelihood for themselves.
Hasina Banu, who lives in a remote village in northern Bangladesh, bought a phone from Grameen for about $110 and each week pays back about $2.50. She now earns about $25 a month from the phone and plans to use that money to open a small grocery store.
The Grameen Village Phone project is considered by many to be one of the world's most significant programs of change, attracting enormous global attention. Grameen Bank has been giving poor local women micro-credit loans, requiring no collateral as would other lending instituitions. With these loans these women can purchase a mobile phone and then rent air time to other villagers. There are now more than a quarter million of these "phone ladies" providing communications access to an estimated 60 million people living in rural Bangladesh.
 Based on the success of the Grameen Village Phone project, the Grameen Foundation, a global non-profit organization, is now working with partners across the globe to replicate this model. In partnership with Nokia, MTN Uganda and MTN Rwanda, the Grameen Foundation has accelerated its efforts in making universal access a reality by enabling African villages to acquire the benefits of mobility through implementation of the Village Phone Project. This linking of the telecommunications and microfinance sectors has facilitated the spread of affordable and sustainable mobile communications services throughout the largely rural, lower-income areas of Uganda and Rwanda.
The concept is simple yet effective. A microfinance loan of approximately 200 US dollars allows individuals to set themselves up as Village Phone operators, providing mobile communications services to their communities and boosting network connections in areas otherwise restrained by infrastructure limitations. With a monthy income of $170, in a country which has an annual per capita income of $368, "phone ladies" are improving their lifestyles and that of those around them. The individual's investment is guaranteed to yield returns almost immediately and allows for the building of a business that can help provide for their entire families and ensure better health, nutrition, education and thereby a better future for their children.
Discussion on the Mobile phone industry in Kenya here.
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