Making mobile phone chargers mobile

Although this is a slightly older video, what business opportunities does this present for today’s rural population in East Africa?

For example, a mobile application can be created that farmers can use to learn about changes in market prices for goods they produce. While they may already be doing this via SMS, the fact that wall-sockets are no longer needed to charge mobile phones presents an opportunity to formalize alerts on a bigger scale (because more people are able to have a fully-charged mobile phone, and will be able to use it for longer).

Organizations dealing in mass-SMS exchanges could work with state district offices to implement a market intelligence platform like this. While not all mobile phone users in East Africa are likely to use a smartphones which can load applications, perhaps this also presents an opportunity for companies whose phones are widespread in East Africa, such as Nokia, to develop “smart” technology on “rugged” devices.

How else does this news present business opportunities?

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Al-Amin founded Vijana FM in 2009. With over a decade of experience in communications, design and operations, he now runs a digital media consulting agency - Lateral Labs - in Dar-es-Salaam.

This post has 2 Comments

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  1. And who said Africans are not innovative enough? I think we are the most inventive people on earth due to the everyday challenges we face.
    I hope this invention will be documented, refined and developed.

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