Grameen Foundation : Resource Center : Print Newsletter : Fall 2006 : New Opportunity Ringing in Rwanda
New Opportunity Ringing in Rwanda
Rwandans now have the opportunity to escape poverty by purchasing the cellular phone service “Tel’imbere” (translated to “using the telephone to move forward”) with a microfinance loan.
Borrowers in the program set up pay phone businesses by collecting fees on calls made on their cell phones. Fellow villagers gain affordable access to communication where phone service may never have existed. At the same time, borrowers earn enough to repay their loan and dramatically increase their incomes.
Susanne Ny’ralagende, a widow of the 1994 genocide, added a Village Phone to her store selling sorghum brew. Previously, the nearest public phone was more than six kilometers away. Word of Susanne’s Village Phone spread quickly and now many neighboring villagers are coming to her shop to make calls— providing Susanne with greater profit than ever before.
Following the success of clients like Susanne during Grameen Foundation’s (GF) one year pilot program, GF partnered with a local telecommunications company, MTN Rwanda, to establish Village Phone Rwanda and the Tel’imbere service. This joint venture is expected to create 3,000 new Village Phone businesses over the next three years.
A year long evaluation is underway to study the impact of Village Phone Rwanda, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the USAID Global Development Alliance. The report will be published in late 2007, and benefits are already clear. Communities have better phone service and Village Phone operators are using their profits to build homes, educate their children, and create local employment.
The Village Phone Program started in rural Bangladesh in 1997. Where it enabled 220,000 microfinance clients to start pay phone businesses and has proved to be a profitable way for telecommunications to enter rural markets. Grameen Foundation has successfully replicated the program in Uganda, where there are more than 4,800 operators. A pilot program is currently underway in the Philippines, with plans to expand to Cameroon, Indonesia, Senegal and Zambia in the coming years.
Grameen Foundation : Resource Center : Print Newsletter : Fall 2006 : New Opportunity Ringing in Rwanda
Grameen Foundation uses microfinance and innovative technology to fight global poverty and bring opportunities to the world's poorest people. With tiny loans and financial services, we help the poor, mostly women, start businesses and escape poverty. Our global network of 55 microfinance institution (MFI) partners including our Growth Guarantee partners has touched more than 34 million people in 24 countries. In addition, we introduced and now sustain technology initiatives (Mifos and Village Phone) in Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, bringing our total country outreach to 28.
+1-202-628-3560 www.grameenfoundation.org
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