Rwanda is a benchmark to study in the creation of emerging markets. Social media has changed the paradigm by which emerging markets are created. Social media has taken away the limitations that capital, geography, natural resources, education, and everything else that has cursed third world markets for centuries. Social media can quickly make a country evolve from an emerging economy to a significant middle class economy, even with limitations. Let us observe Rwanda to understand the dynamic forces that social media has unleashed.
Rwanda wants to become a world economic power, and in our social media era, this could happen. This may astound some people. Rwanda has severe limitations. Sixty-six percent of Rwandans live on less than one dollar per day. More than 90 % live in rural villages and survive from subsistence farming. Thirteen per cent are HIV positive, and thousands are orphaned, because of the 1994 genocide.
Half the population of Rwanda is under 18. These young people were left on their own after their families were murdered during the genocide of 1994. They must act as the heads of households, responsible for providing for themselves and their families. The genocide and its civil war of the mid '90s is Rwanda's modern brand, unfortunately.
Much of modern Rwanda is still rural. In many of these villages there is little or no electricity or running water. Villages are connected by few paved roads. There is no regular means of public transportation and many rural Rwandans must spend half their day walking or bicycling to get to the nearest town to find a market to sell their goods and purchase necessities.
Mobile phones are beginning to change this. It is the mobile phone which supplies the means by which Rwanda can become a middle class economy, despite its lack of resources. The "village phone" is managed by a village operator and is made accessible to everyone living in the village. In many cases, money from a micro loan is used by the operator to purchase the phone, and then its continuing costs are managed by charging clients for the calls they make. The village operator manages the phone as a business and uses the profits to pay back the original loan, or invests in other businesses. The phone is a multiplier. If used correctly, it can create many other businesses in a Rwandan village.
If phones and laptop computers were to become mainstream in Rwanda, integrated with the use of social media platforms, the Rwandan economy would take off. Each morning there are dozens of Rwandans on their road to the city marketplace, wasting a lot of time that could be put to better use.
Many of these villagers have no access to a telephone, making it extremely difficult to contract clients and know how much to bring to the markets. They do not know which clients and how much to bring to the markets. They do not know which clients would be at the market that day to speak to them in person. This makes it impossible to determine the amount of goods to bring to the city to sell, or what price to charge---which in turn make it impossible to estimate profits or expand their businesses.
Potato famers on Rwanda's northwest frontier could call clients to determine demand ahead of time. With a phone, a farmer would not be forced to make the long journey to Kigali, which many times results in a wasted trip. With the use of the telephone and social media sights, Rwandan farmers would have the ability to service world markets.
Rwanda needs a specialized phone system. They need "smart phones" which have a graphical interface that can be manipulated with fingers. This system must be integrated into the conventional internet and social media networks.
Are you an entrepreneur? Do you have the ability to create and maintain a smart phone network? If you do, you have the potential to be a billionaire. Don't forget, 20% of the world's population is located on the African continent. It is home to a billion people. With the right phone Africa could become a middle class economy.
Dean Hambleton
dnhambleton@gmail.com
Dean Hambleton is a student at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, R.I. and a free lance consultant
GoArticles Business Ideas Recent Articles
Random Post
0 comments:
Post a Comment