Myth: Government needs to provide economically viable services
What Grameenphone proved: Private companies can provide them
Myth: Government needs to subsidize private companies
What Grameenphone proved: Private companies can help government with taxes
Myth: Poor people are recipients
What Grameenphone proved: The poor are a resource
Myth: The poor are uneducated and can’t do much
What Grameenphone proved: They are eager learners and capable survivors
Myth: Poor countries need aid
What Grameenphone proved: Businesses raise GNP far more than aid
From the a slide at Iqbal Quadir’s TED talk.
Coincidentally, Courtney from Wokai has just posted her thoughts on this CNN article about mobile money transfers taking off in Kenya–where not everyone has a bank account or even a home address. I believe the saying that creativity can’t flourish without constraints is true. In well off countries like the United States, *everyone* has a bank account and home address, so it’s quite natural to see why the average normal person would care much about being able to conduct banking sans a bank account or home address.
Mobile/cellular technology is a great example. What cell phone users are offered here in the US make us look we’re still living in the stone age–when compared to oh say, Japan.
Sometimes having good things in life can be a burden, in the sense that they might block you from seeing other opportunities. Ever felt that way?
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