Selling Money In A Digital World
Response to Innovation Prize For Africa Challenge 2014
Today Answering The Question:
What is needed to build a global money lending machine in the digital world?
II. INNOVATION DESCRIPTION
2.1 Please describe your innovation: (Please limit this to 500 words. Feel free to attach additional materials if you need to provide more details.)
This is a platform for the distribution and management of e-money based micro-loans.
Thus the invention provides a platform which renders methods and system’s capable of automatic mass micro-loan loan processing, in which clients (borrowers) register, request, get and repay loans online and the lenders have a loan management, approval and credit rating methods that ensures all loans, even delinquent loans are repaid.
Key Functionalities:
1) Manage Member Registration
2) Manage and Enforce Loan Requirements Criteria
3) Effect and Manage Loan Disbursement
4) Effect and Manage Loan Collections
5) Manage and Enforce Loan Non Payment Procedures
6) Business logic module that is customizable;
a. For different loan services
b. Different countries
7) Payment module that is compatible with different e-money offerings.
8) Communication module that employs SMS, USSD, WAP, HTML and STMP.
9) Service uptake growth options based on referral model and options for referees to act as guarantors and how many other clients a client can guarantee.
The Obuntu platform can be deployed worldwide where mobile money schemes (or equivalent) exist.
The Obuntu Platform interconnects the necessary players to enable countrywide, continent wide or global wide lending and management of micro-loans to micro-traders involved in the business of buying and selling on a daily basis.
Players in the Obuntu Platform
Figure 1: Players in the Obuntu Platform.
1. Social networks-web and telecommunications.
2. Lenders-Financial and Non-financial institutions.
3. Clients-individuals who need micro to small loans.
4. E-money accounts- of the lenders and clients
5. Identity repositories- for authenticating clients (you are who you say you are)
6. Quarantine repositories- a defaulter's friends are placed in this database’s (credit level actually) so that they may help their friend who has defaulted in working out how to pay back the loan.
7. Defaulters repositories-defaulters are placed in this repositories (credit level) and if they are willing they are recommended to micro-finance institutions to help them better manage their finances.
8. Loan engine-that glues the whole model together (this is what I have defined and built, together with the above model).
As can be discerned from the above, the loan engine will exist in a cloud and accessible through social networks from any location.
Clients for the platform can be from any point of the globe as long as they can be categorically identified, have the means to receive and pay out money electronically and satisfy the requirements for the particular loan service they are interested in.
The innovation, Obuntu platform is a means to enable mass empowerment by access to micro-loans by over 2 billion people in the globe who might need to mitigate their current financial situations.
2.2 Please describe how advanced is your innovation with regards to its maturity: e.g. idea phase, research & development phase, prototype phase, start-up phase, market phase, scaling up phase etc. (200 words maximum)
The Obuntu platform was in idea stage back in 2011.
At that time almost 30 request for funding were send out to various micro-finance funders, but only Accion (http://www.accion.org/) showed any interest, but it was to early for their frontier group to jump in, (by 2012 Accion set up VentureLab (http://www.accion.org/venturelab) to enter into such early stage ventures), so I decided to build the platform.
Back then, in 2011 when I was looking for finance to develop the Obuntu platform, I was also looking for money to register Obuntu as a company. Once I decided to develop the platform, I moved ahead and registered Obuntu International Limited in July 2011. In the course of developing the platform I discovered a lot of the modules I needed for my platform to work could also be used to tackle other problems in other areas, which I also moved ahead and developed solutions for the same. See http://www.obuntu.co.ke/
The development phase is over; it is time to take Obuntu to market.
The Obuntu platform is market testing in the Kenyan market under the name Rudisha, Swahili for “bring back”. See http://rudisha.kbo.co.ke/
Full launch in the Kenyan market is planned January 2014.
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2.3 Please describe how your innovation meets the IPA five criteria listed below: (500 words maximum for all 5 criteria)
1. Marketability:
According to World Bank-The New Microfinance Handbook- (2013):
1. Today 1.6 Billion working-age adults are living less than US$ 2 a day:
Table 1: Livelihoods and Financial Services Need By The Poor.
2. Furthermore, over the years, it has been learned that the economically active poor rather than the poorest of the poor stand to benefit the most from access to financial services (without other interventions). “The majority of the world’s estimated 150 million microcredit clients are thought to live just below and, more often, just above the poverty line” (Hashemi and de Montesquiou 2011,1).
The numbers exist, the need exists, what Obuntu platform provides is a means to address the market effectively by providing access to loans for mass numbers of people without “much ado”.
2. Originality:
The innovation is not very original, but it is powerful in empowering.
It is in essence, a mash-up, a new model, the bring together of existing concepts, practices and ideas to bear on existing needs that are being served inhumanly, inadequately and expensively.
Hence the innovation is a way, means and methods to render and manage micro-loans on a global scale, while ensuring loan repayment and sovereignty and humanity of the individuals.
Obuntu platform is a new model to enable a constant always there opportunity to up-lift and empower millions of people in Africa and across the globe.
3. Scalability:
The innovation is a social media micro-loan disbursement and management model.
In the Obuntu platform, the loan engine will exist in a cloud and accessible through social networks from any location.
Think of it as the Facebook, an Amazon or an eBay of micro-loans, designed and built for mass usage.
4. Social Impact:
The loans going through the platform are not charity, but micro-loans that have to be paid back, some of the impact of the platform are;
1. Existing micro-traders get access to means of business start-up and continuity.
2. Willing and able persons all over the world will have the means that can be the difference between having dinner tonight or not, a child going to school or not-by providing consumption smoothening loans.
3. People, young and old, women and men can engage in buying and selling as individuals or groups pulling resources together, the choice is theirs.
4. The population growth of Sub-Sahara Africa is growing, and so is the percentage of its poor people. The current innovation cuts the poverty growth rate in the bud-pap! And provides a vehicle out of abject poverty.
5. Providing freedom, dignity and choice.
5. Utility/technical aspects:
The innovation is a platform, running on computers and interconnecting through social networks.
The infrastructure is servers and communications pathways and highways availed through social networks.
The client end is rendered via SMS, USSD, Mobile Apps, and Web Browsers.
2.4 Who is this innovation for? Who are the primary users and what is your target market segment? (300 words maximum)
According to the UN;
1. The 1.5 billion people between the ages of 12 to 24 in the world today represent the largest number of youth ever on the planet. Of these, 85% or 1.5 billion live in developing countries.
Table 2: World Poverty Statistic
Graph 1: Evolution of Poverty
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/04/17/where-the-worlds-poorest-people-live/
2. More than half of global population growth between now and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa. According to the UN’s medium-variant projection, the population of Africa could more than double by mid-century, increasing from 1.1 billion today to 2.4 billion in 2050, and potentially reaching 4.2 billion by 2100.
Primary Users of Obuntu Platform:
Micro-traders all over the globe.
Obuntu platform serves a need for instant low cost micro-loans that enable consumption smoothing, capital start-up, business continuity and fosters entrepreneurial spirit.
Most of us, who are capable of reading and understanding this document, when we hear capital start up, we think minimum in terms of ten thousands of dollars, while the addressable market thinks in terms of tens of dollars.
A profitable occupation for the target market is buying and selling at a micro-level, and on a daily or weekly basis. To carry out this kind of business 30 dollars is enough to be up, off and running.
Target market segment:
Young people of Sub-Sahara Africa
People willing and able to see small opportunities and capitalize on them.
2.5 Please describe why you think your project is innovative and how it might lead to breakthroughs. Also, what is your product differentiation in comparison with similar projects that might exist? (300 words maximum)
The Obuntu platform is innovative because of the scale at which it can be deployed coupled with the ease rendering and managing micro-loans to the recipients.
It is not a micro-finance, it is not a bank, it is much much more-freedom, dignity and choice.
Obuntu platform enables registration to be equivalent to opening a Gmail email account and enables the creation of a vehicle to move masses, who are willing out of abject poverty instantly. No other solution in any field or sector can make such a claim, Obuntu platform does.
It is not comparable with any other existing service or solution, for the simple reason that any other such system will of necessity be closed, Obuntu platform is open.
Obuntu platform prowess emanates from the following;
1. Capacity to scale-it is build for mass market from the word go.
2. Collaboration and partnerships-it is built to be deployed in partnerships.
3. Transparency-build for visibility, traceability and audit-ability, everyone in the platform eco-system can see and access what appertains to them.
It means for example, a group of 10 friends could see an opportunity costing say 300 US$, call it a cow, and each borrows from the platform say 30 US$, they then buy the cow and reseller it say at 450 US$, there by each making 15 US$ that day. Whatever administration fee the platform charges, the 10 friends day is” made”.
That is what Obuntu enables, instantly, everywhere anytime, freedom, dignity and choice.
2.6 Please describe your long-term effects/impacts of your innovation on the primary users? 200 words maximum
Obuntu platform will liberate and bring peace of mind to millions of people every-where.
The certainty that in the morning I can request for say a 30 dollar loan and get it in minutes (if not seconds), which I can then use to buy something at point A and sell at point B and return the loan in the evening or the next day is a very powerful enabler and liberator of creativity leading to well being of mind and body which leads to more creativity, which leads to more..…
The long term effect on users of Obuntu platform is that they will have a stepping stone, a leg up out of abject poverty and a permanent stepping stone to always lift them up hence enabling them to dream of possibilities.
III. COLLABORATION/ PARTNERSHIPS & OWNERSHIP
3.1 Please describe any collaboration/partnerships involved in this innovation (include names and contact information of all collaborators). Also, please specify the ownership (failure to disclose ownership may lead to disqualification). 300 words maximum
Innovation owner is I - Michael Makwani Stephen.
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-makwani/23/a72/306
The patent documentation for the innovation is still under-development, and thus there is no authority or institution, other than my own or belonging to me that can endorse the innovation since none other institution or authority outside my own know of it.
IV. BUSINESS PLAN & MARKETING PLAN
4.1 Do you have a Business Plan? If YES, please attach a copy. If NO, please describe your ideas and steps taken towards developing a Business Plan. (300 words maximum)
Original 2011 business plan used to try and solicit funding for Obuntu Platform development can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70dstB1VHO2M2gxWU5aMVA5NDA/edit?usp=sharing
Hence a kind of a business plan backbone exists, the original one (although it was focused on the Kenyan market then), that coupled with more data used to justify marketability and target market segment of the innovation in this application do form a basis to develop a global business plan.
A key to rapid uptake and usage of the platform resides with the kind and reach of the partner Obuntu platform partners with.
Towards this end, filling patent applications in the USA and western European countries will be the next most critical step before engaging an international partner.
To that end, patent application documents are almost complete; see the abstract and drawings here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70dstB1VHO2TlZ0bTVlQ24yQXM/edit?usp=sharing
What is left is the main document which needs a few iterations, see it here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70dstB1VHO2RVNVWkEzV0RueDA/edit?usp=sharing
Thus after patent application, can we talk of an effective international business plan.
4.2 Do you have a Marketing Plan? If YES, please attach a copy. If NO please describe your current marketing strategy or how you would go about it? (300 words maximum)
Do you have a Marketing Plan? If YES, please attach a copy. If NO please describe your current marketing strategy or how you would go about it? (300 words maximum)
I am in the midst of counting down to a market testing phase launch, see:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70dstB1VHO2MmZQY1VvQU9Eazg/edit?usp=sharing
A full marketing option depends on:
1. Are we launching a Kenyan solution only or a global solution?
2. 2Do we have a partner to do it with or we are doing it alone.
Even back in 2011, in the Obuntu business plan (link referred to in the item on business plan) the marketing plan had two options.
Entrance into this IP4A is also a way of marketing, a very crucial one, for it forces me put down material that I will need to use to write an updated business plan when looking for a partner with whom to launch Obuntu services with.
V. PROOF OF YOUR INNOVATION
5.1) Please provide evidence that your innovation exists (web addresses, links to journal articles and other publications, attachments of project activities, etc.) 200 words maximum
1. The original platform service definition for Kenyan market:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70dstB1VHO2NmpZdmpZVHZPbFk/edit?usp=sharing
2. Obuntu website: http://www.obuntu.co.ke/
3. Market testing website: http://rudisha.kbo.co.ke/ and flier information
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70dstB1VHO2Ri1IX0l6WEJSS0k/edit?usp=sharing
4. Original Business and marketing plan:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70dstB1VHO2M2gxWU5aMVA5NDA/edit?usp=sharing
5. Patent application documents see the abstract and drawings here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70dstB1VHO2TlZ0bTVlQ24yQXM/edit?usp=sharing
The main patent application document-not finished, see it here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70dstB1VHO2RVNVWkEzV0RueDA/edit?usp=sharing
Disclaimer
The links are as they were on 30th 2013 October .
I will in the coming weeks and months work out which links work and which don't, your feedback on what is what will be immeasurable in doing that
The document is reproduced - as it was then - apart from the numbering of questions, which I have added for ease of discussion and dissecting the document .
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