ICTworks by Inveneo

The fine folks over at oAfrica have complied the Facebook growth rates for the last 18 months and they are stunning.

But before you get too excited, they also put these numbers into perspective by comparing the total number of Facebook users to the total populations of African countries. When you look at these numbers, FB's growth is great, but still quite lacking in mass adoption. Here are some highlights worthy of a raised eyebrow:

18 month user growth rate in selected countries

• Nigeria 154% increase to 4,369,740 FB users
• Ghana 85% increase to 1,146,560 FB users
• Kenya 50% increase to 1,298,560 users

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Facebook adoption across Africa

• 37+ million Facebook users as of December 2011
• 165% median Facebook user growth since July 2010 (114% mean)

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Penetration rates across Africa

• 2.4% median Facebook penetration rate (3.6% mean)
• 36 nations have fewer than 1-in-20 people on Facebook
• 12 nations have fewer than 1-in-100 people on Facebook

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Another way to look at this is that with Nigeria's growth at 150,000 new Facebook users ever month, it would take 4 years to reach everyone in Nigeria, if the 154% growth rate remains the same. But it will probably slow dramatically as oAfrica projects:

Facebook adoption in Africa, although rapidly increasing within most nations at the moment, is starting to slow in more developmentally-advanced countries. Even if Facebook user growth rates settle at 25% annually, it could be ten years until Kenya boasts 30% of the population on Facebook. In 17 months, Kenya’s Facebook user rate has gone from 2% to 3%. South Africa’s is near 10% after increasing from 7%. This growth rate of 50% over 17 months for Kenya and South Africa – which we deem “mature” – suggests the challenges large nations face providing affordable Internet and connecting rural areas. Plus, even when Internet access is available, not everyone wants to use Facebook.

What to make of this all? Facebook is a growing presence in Africa and it is an online juggernaut. But African countries have a long way to go before all their people can get online and enjoy the FB experience.

Danya provides innovative services and solutions in the areas of public health communication, research and evaluation, information technology, education and training, program management support, and health product development. Under supervision of the Africa Regional Director, the Regional ICT Advisor will provide technical leadership and implementation oversite of all Danya's evidence based Information Communications Technology (ICT) initiatives in the region. This position will be responsible for providing technical assistance to USG agencies, USG partners and national government partners, designing and leading high impact ICT strategies and implementations.

More Details: http://www.danya.com/careers_opens_intl.asp#ricta

The mere mention of agriculture conjures, for many, outmoded images of a backbreaking industry. It's an image that holds true in some places where few farmers utilize contemporary farming technologies and techniques.

But ICTs play an increasingly important role in agricultural value chains. Though important, cellphones aren't the only ICT being used to improve agriculture. ICTs encompass radios, digital cameras, geographic information systems (GIS), cloud computing, tracking mechanisms, etc.

Five ways in which ICT can help tackle key challenges in agricultural value chain development are:

1. Pricing and weather information systems
2. Applications (apps) to help buyers manage transactions with the thousands of small-scale farmers who supply to them
3. Mobile banking and apps that facilitate quick payments
4. Initiatives to expand the reach of farm extension services through phone, radio, video and sometimes all three
5. SMS or text messaging campaigns for enabling environment advocacy

The increasingly important role of ICTs in agriculture can help change the face of the sector (from outmoded to cutting edge). In fact, it should form part of the larger thrust to attract more young people to the sector. In a resent blog I contend that there's a strong link between ICTs and general youth employment. Agriculture is no exception. ICTs offer employment opportunities in the sector that are both attractive to young people and are in demand. I recently reviewed two unpublished labor market surveys for Rwanda and Kenya that confirms this.

The interesting bit of the research is that while less than a third of the youth surveyed expressed an interest in ag jobs, more than 40% saw opportunities in ICT related areas (not including ag). Clearly, showing the link between the two (ICT and Ag) should be a starting point. Three ICT-enabled functions that are in demand by industry and appeal to young people are agriculture input sales, logistics tech and agricultural infomediaries—the latter being the most cited, perhaps due to the well touted successes of M-Kilimi (M-agriculture), Esoko and others.

The rationale for Ag infomediaries, which enable quick access to information databases that were previously unavailable, best underscores how ICTs have improved agriculture in some places. The basic concept is that the economic livelihood of farmers has been hampered by ad hoc marketing systems and broader issues of information asymmetries for centuries. In other words, poor communication between producers and buyers results in inadequate planning, and ultimately an unstable market environment. So, In much the same way the global economy is driven by knowledge, agriculture depends on high quality, reliable and efficient information systems.

While the full impact of ICTs on ag is subject to research, there is compelling evidence about successful use of technologies in the sector.

I am David Scanell and I would like to describe the Internet access landscape in Kisumu and Nyanza from my personal experience. Now this just Western Kenya, so I can't comment on the rest of rural Kenya, though I imagine it's pretty similar.

There are a few terrestrial and wireless ISPs in Kisumu - KDN, Africaonline, Orange Telkom and Swift Global spring to mind. I think a few more may arrive soon once the fibre optic cable installation marathon that's currently under way here is finished.

Right now, I know a couple of people using Orange ADSL and a few others using KDN's WIMAX. I only know a single person (through their business) using fibre but I think quite a few more homes and business may switch to fibre soon; maybe even more will move to wireless services from resellers. I'm pretty sure that far more people will start use mobile data over the same time frame though - coverage in Kenya is very good and the spread of mobile ownership continues apace - and there are a few drivers for mobile growth that are no where near exhausted yet.

Since I last lived here in 2007, there has been a noticeable influx of new, cheaper low- to mid-range phones to the market. Whereas before I saw high street shops full of second hand phones, today I see quite a lot more selling good looking branded phones from China such as Tecno - which has a broad range available here - as well as a Huawei and ZTE who also have a few products. There's also a pretty high volume of KIRF stuff for sale here too. Lots of weird and wonderfully specced Noklas, Samesungs and the like.

Huawei's IDEOS (android) phone has had a huge media push here of late, though it is still way, way out of the average person's reach though at it's current KSH7,999 price point. The Samsung brand seems to be going from strength to strength here and, as ever, Nokia has a big (though noticeably falling) high street presence.

Nearly all these companies offer mid level phones that have EDGE capability at least - some of them also have 3G (the cheapest one in Safaricom's shop right now is KSH3,999). High level stuff is available here too - PhoneExpress have my Desire Z on sale - but the prices are as high as you'd expect with, for example, a Samsung Galaxy S (i9000) setting you back KSH42,999.

For a mobile 3G modem, prices range from KSH1,999 for the Huawei E173 to KSH12,199 for the Huawei E5 (which is a portable wifi hotspot) and most come with a bundle of free data.

As for mobile data coverage and pricing, there may not be much 3G outside of major towns just now, but EDGE seems to be almost everywhere else, at least in the parts of Nyanza, Western, Central and Coast I've traveled to in the last 9 months (including some very out of the way places around Lake Victoria here).

The end user cost is relatively low - standard unbundled MB price on Safaricom is currently KSH8 - and the bundled prices seem to be dropping all the time. The main players Safaricom, Orange and Airtel are cooking up new, lower-priced data bundles. There's currently a new set of bundles being marketed by Safaricom as "affordable Internet for less". These daily bundles are priced from 5MB for KSH5 up to 25MB for KSH20.

I'd say the number of Kenyan's going online via mobile will continue to increase rapidly for a good while yet.

Juhudi Kilimo is a social enterprise that provides asset financing and technical assistance to smallholder farmers in the Central, Western, and Rift Valley provinces of Kenya. Unlike traditional microfinance, which primarily provides loans for working capital to informal businesses, Juhudi finances specific assets that offer immediate and sustainable income for farmers. Assets vary from high-yield dairy cows and other livestock to agricultural equipment and greenhouses. Most assets are insured and can also act as an alternative form of collateral to protect farmers from over-indebtedness.

Project Background

To complete the transition to an independent and sustainable organization, Juhudi is leveraging technology to streamline its back office processes and systems. Currently, loan officers and clients complete several paper forms as part of the group intake, loan application, and repayment processes, including client intake forms, the group constitution, business appraisal forms (including a poverty assessment), Kiva interview and waiver forms (and photograph), household goods waiver, loan application forms, and monthly repayment receipts and ledgers. In an effort to reduce costs, data entry errors, and delays in processing, Juhudi has targeted some documents and processes to convert to electronic forms that loan officers can complete via mobile phones.

Juhudi is currently completing integration of a mobile repayment option for clients through Safaricom’s M-Pesa. Mobile payments dramatically improve our monthly repayment operations and eliminate the need for paper receipts and ledgers. In addition, a volunteer developer created a tool to allow loan officers to view client data via mobile phones. The tool, called Simple MFI, syncs with Juhudi’s MIS (Microsoft Dynamics Nav) to display client data by region and loan officer. Simple MFI is an open source Java-based tool that runs on any Android phone. All Juhudi loan officers and regional managers are now equipped with IDEOS Android phones and began accessing and testing Simple MFI in the field in August 2011. (See https://github.com/kevgibbs/simple-mfi/wiki for more information and images of Simple MFI and the related Manta software.)

To expand on these efforts and loan officers’ new mobile capacity, Juhudi seeks to combine and convert its business appraisal, the Kiva interview processes, and poverty assessment (Grameen’s Progress Out of Poverty Index) to a mobile form using Open Data Kit (http://opendatakit.org/). By entering this client data electronically, Juhudi can eliminate significant duplication of data entry, facilitate import into our MIS, export data to an online source that is available to all offices, begin to collect and analyze valuable social performance data, and improve the speed at which it funds loans through Kiva and disburses loans to clients.

Scope of Work

Juhudi is seeking technical assistance to aid development and testing of XML- and Java-based mobile tools, including mobile forms created in ODK and the Simple MFI tool.

Mobile business appraisal

Juhudi has detailed the format and structure of the combined mobile business appraisal and created a draft in ODK and seeks the following technical assistance to complete the project.
• Review the overall design and functionality of the form and XML file
• Develop and implement items in the form that can’t be built directly in ODK:
o Progressive questions on expenses, income, and credit history that result in a summed amount
o Automated answers on date, loan office name, field office name based on phone presets
• Improve the numeric parameters of some items to ensure correct entry: client ID, mobile number, and year started farming
• Resolve XML export and import errors
• Improve display of collected client data in an internal online source
Juhudi seeks to further develop the appraisal tool to offer increased operational capacities:
• Implement signature capture to allow clients (including co-guarantors and group leadership) and staff to sign the Kiva legal waiver and approve the business appraisal data
• Implement GPS capture and develop a client farm and loan group location map listed by loan officer
• Develop and implement a credit score calculation based on collected income, expenses, and credit history
• Develop and implement a loan schedule calculator
• Develop and implement an automated PPI assessment score based on preset values
• Develop and implement an accessible online application to allow managers and other staff to review and approve collected data, including a credit score and poverty assessment score

Simple MFI

Simple MFI is being used throughout our field offices but technical errors are limiting its use. Simple MFI’s original developer is available for questions and review but not for continued development. Juhudi seeks technical assistance to complete implementation of the tool:
• Review and resolve technical errors that occur when running Simple MFI on IDEOS phones, primarily the application freezing and closing, but other errors may be identified with further use
• Document Simple MFI functionality in a specification that facilitates further development

More Info: Juhudi-Kilimo-Mobile-Client-Intake_data-Tools.pdf (100.9 KB)