Digital solution for Zim Crisis: Mukuru.com
Interesting… an sms/cell phone service has been set up by enterprising Zimbabweans and South African’s in London that enables UK based Zimbabweans and South Africans to easily help their cash-strapped friends and family at home. It’s a voucher-based system – cash is paid over in the UK for a specific service like petrol or fuel at a garage, friends and family are sent an sms voucher to redeem the goods.
So in other words, you can buy petrol for your family in Southern Africa in pounds and all they have to do is show the voucher at the garage and fill up with petrol. Author CK Prahalad talks about exactly this kind of notion, how creative digital solutions can help the developing world, specifically in reducing poverty. It’s a great concept – well done guys. Let’s not get bogged down but look for solutions instead. See Makuru here.
BBC Africa has more here:
Text messages from abroad have never been received so eagerly by cash-strapped Zimbabweans. The “beep beep” signals an end to hours spent queuing at petrol stations. “Hey… you have been sent a Mukuru Voucher for 40 litres of Petrol from…” reads the message. A voucher number follows which allows the recipient to swap the pin number for coupons redeemable at certain garages. This is all the handiwork of Mukuru.com – a website set up by Zimbabweans in the UK to help their fellow countrymen in the diaspora pay for petrol, satellite TV or transfer money to their friends and relatives at home. It properly got off the ground last year, and its customers are steadily growing as news of it spreads. [Click here for rest of BBC Africa article]
