About villageTell Foundation
According to the World Resources Institute, four billion people live on less than $2 per day. The study further indicates that three of the most significant unmet needs of the 4 billion poor are:
villageTell Foundation is a catalyst and advocacy initiative that paves the path for private sector and governmental reform to create mobile access for the rural poor, empowering citizens at the grass roots level to accelerate economic development and help them graduate from poverty. The Last Meter Project - proposes a Rural Access Alliance (RAA) between Government, Mobile Network Operators (MNO), Mobile Transaction Operators (MTO), Microfinance Institutions (MFI), FinTech initiatives, Alternate Energy providers, and NGO's to bring access to the last meter of the rural poor and connect them to the global economy. Problem
Solution: Remittances. RemovIng remittance flow obstacles all the way to the last meter could increase a developing countries GPD by at least 10%. Remittances can exceed foreign aid and investment flow 3 to 4 times. Obstacles: Access, fees, cash scarcity, trust, corruption, regulatory framework, infrastructure, intermediaries, interorganizational cooperation and alliances, just to name a few. Solution Scenario: Near a small village in the eastern district of Uganda, pastor Robert's mother recieves a text on her feature phone from Robert who works and lives in Kampala. She's also recieves a text from one of pastor Robert's friends at Northland Church in Orlando, FL. Both texts are remittances sent to her from the Abra P2P money transfer app just seconds before that. She instantly text Moses, a family friend in the next village less than two kilometers away. She tells him she'd like to cash out and asked if he has the money available today. Moses is an Abra Agent that serves several villages in the district. He owns a smartphone, bike, small scooter that doubles as a boda boda (taxi) and offers other tech services for his village customers. Moses asks how much she recieved and she tells him USh 47,500 (US $14) from Robert and US $30 from her Northland friend. She needs the cash for meds and food for the month. Moses tells her he doesn't have the cash, but quickly texts his Abra Master Agent who's about 11 kilometers away. He responds and tells Moses he's just returned from the bank and is able to rebalance his account for the transaction. Moses text Robert's mother back within minutes and says he'll stop by to see her in about two hours with her cash. How can a transaction like this happen at last meter in only a couple of hours, not 2-3 days like it used to only months ago, and for years before that? Well it can't because the bottom of the pyramid still remains on the other side of the wall. Unless an initiative like the Last Meter project can forge a Rural Access Alliance pooling together local government, MNO's, MFI's, Tower Co's, Digital-first MTO's, faith-based and non-faith-based NGO's that can create a win win program for all participants. Potential Partners
Countries
Approach - Alliance Success Factors: Partners aligned in all 4 areas have an 80% chance of success. Success rate decreases to 20% if the alliance is off by only 1 area, and down to 5% success rate if your off by 2 areas! Methodology Envision--> Design--> Build--> Implement--> Scale--> Maintain
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villageTell Foundation | Dan Cozart - Executive Director | dancozart@gmail.com | 407-883-5821