Grameen Village Phone

Project Title:

Responsible Organisation:

Grameen Foundation USA

Website:

www.gfusa.org

Organisation Type:

Non-Profit

Project Director:

Partner Organisations:

MTN Uganda, Uganda Women's FinanceTrust Limited, Foundation for International and Community Assistance, Foundation for Credit and Community Assistance, UMU, Feed the Children, MEDNET, HOFOKAM, POST BANK

Administrative Country:

Project Region:

Africa

Project Country:

Uganda/Rwanda

Project Funding:

Type of technology used:

Communication

Technology Details:

Cellular phones

Support Of Technology Company:

Conservation/Developmant Focus:

Telecommunication where no service exists.

Project Duration:

Project Aims:

Provide cellular phones via a sustainable financing mechanism to poor entrepreneurs who use the phone to operate a business.

Project Activities:

Puts cellular phones into the hands of very poor women who operate it as a business. These micro entrepreneurs buy the phone with a loan from the Grameen Bank and then sell the use of it on a per call basis.

Project Results:

Previous project in Bangladesh was very sucessful. "Village phone ladies" make an average of $71 per month-in a country where the average monthly income is about $25. The entire village benefits for their business venture. By making a phone call a small producer can check on the market price of goods and therefore better negotiate a price for their goods with middlemen.

Grameen Phone is the largest cellular phone company in all of South Asia with almost 2,000,000 subscribers. Thanks to Grameen Telecom, micro entrepreneurs operate over 125,000 of these as a business, bringing phone service to at least that many rural villages in Bangladesh.

Future Steps:

Replicating the work in Rwanda and other countries.

Technology Lessons Learned:

Contact Name 1:

Telephone/Fax 1:

Postal Address 1:

Email 1:

pbladin@gfusa.org

Contact Name 2:

Telephone/Fax 2:

Postal Address 2:

Email 2:

Organisation Summary:

rameen Foundation USA (GFUSA) is a global non-profit organization that combines microfinance, new technologies, and innovation to empower the world's poorest people to escape poverty. Founded in 1997, GFUSA’s global network includes 52 partners in 22 countries. The network has impacted an estimated 11 million lives in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East

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Project Image: