Benefits for Enterprises and Entrepreneurs
With people becoming connected at an ever-increasing rate, the mobile phone stands to have a huge impact on a region’s economic development. We work with you to be part of this development, helping you launch services that make it easier to be flexible and do business in high-growth markets.
- Enterprises benefit from access to broadband and voice services. They save time and money, increase efficiency and productivity, and boost economic growth.
- In markets where formal financial systems are limited or inaccessible, micro-finance and micro-payment services using mobile technology offer reliable banking options.
- Mobile phones enable micro-business traders to negotiate prices, arrange deliveries and build customer relations. This means more business and higher incomes.
- Applications such as video-conferencing reduce the need for travel, saving money and time while reducing your carbon footprint.
The introduction of mobile broadband and the use of the internet will help societies continue to develop. Small entrepreneurs will expand their businesses even further. Their markets will become national and global, impacting on turnover and employment.
The efficiency and quality of institutional services will increase. People will be empowered by knowledge, and can compete for jobs or set up small businesses on terms similar to those in more developed regions.
Mobile communications can have a ripple effect at the microeconomic level. A mobile phone can help start a series of businesses, and not just as a result of people doing business over the phone: there are new opportunities such as phone charging and mobile-phone repair shops.
In 2006, South African operator MTN started its Access Project, which provides financing and business training to local entrepreneurs using mobile broadband in an effort to encourage simple and sustainable business models. The project, which reached profitability after only two months, provides affordable and convenient internet access.
In the Indian state of Kerala, access to mobile phones meant that fishermen in the region could check where they could sell their catch for the best price. Research shows that the fishermen’s incomes increased by about 8 percent, while the cost to the consumer fell by 4 percent.
We have already seen dramatic differences in the way people do business in high-growth markets – let us show you how you can be a part of it all.
