20th century intelligence - ending poverty of half world without electricity -although Keynes 1936 (last capter general theiry money inetrest emplymen) asked Economists to take hipocrati oath as the profession that ended extreme poverty, most economists did the opposite. Whats not understandable is how educatirs failed to catalogue the lessons of the handful who bottom-up empowered vilages to collaboratively end poverty. There are mainly 2 inteligences to understand- Borlaug on food; fazle abed on everything that raised life expectancy in tropical viage asia from low 40s to 60s (about 7 below norm of living with electricity and telecomes). Between 1972 and 2001, Abed's lessons catalogued in this mooc had largelu built the nation of Bangladesh and been replicated with help of Unicef's James Grant acroo most tropical asian areas. What's exciting is the valley's mr ad mrs steve jobs invted Fazle Abed to share inteligences 2001 at his 65th birthday party. The Jobs and frineds promised to integrate abed's inteligence into neighborhod university stanfrd which in any event wanted Jobs next great leap the iphone. The Valley told abed to start a university so that women graduates from poor and rich nations could blend inteligence as Abed's bottom of the pyramid vilage began their journey of leapfrog modles now that gridd infarstructures were ni longer needed for sdiar and mobile. Abed could also help redesign the millennium goals which were being greenwashed into a shared worldwide system coding frame by 2016. There re at Abed's 80th birtday party , the easy bitwas checking this mooc was uptodate. The hard bit - what did Abed mean by his wish to headhunt a taiwanese american to head the university's 3rd decade starting 2020?
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Building bKash: Enabling an inclusive digital financial ecosystem in Bangladesh
How can technology help people in the margins? The quest to find answers led Kamal Quadir to start bKash, the fintech solution that is now synonymous with digital payments in Bangladesh. Valued at two billion dollars, bKash is backed by global giants such as the Ant Group of Ali Baba, the SoftBank Vision Fund, the International Finance Corporation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Until Mobile Financial Services started to be offered in 2011, millions of Bangladeshis with small transaction capacity could not access services offered by traditional brick and mortar banks. Leveraging the network effect of Bangladesh’s ubiquitous mobile infrastructure, and a robust network of over 330 thousand agents trained to serve as “human ATMs”, bKash, today, is making financial services accessible to people with even the most basic cell phones. It has created an inclusive digital financial ecosystem offering utility payments for rural electricity, a wage solution for factory workers, remittance transfer for migrant workers, and other services like digital nano loans, small savings, and insurance plans. How did bKash become a financial lifeline for millions of the previously unbanked? Join us at #GDDF2023 to find out…
