"...it removes the remoteness from the remote!"
                                              Dr. Kojo Carew
                                              villageTell Sierra Leone

According to the World Resources Institutes’ five year study “The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid”, four billion people, a majority of the world’s population, live on less than $2 per day. The study further indicates that three of the most significant unmet needs of the 4 billion poor are:

1. Banking

2. Access to financial services

3. Owning a phone

On average, only 15% of the population in developing countries own or have access to a phone, and that percentage decreases significantly for the rural poor. Why? Two reasons: affordability and access.

The London Business School suggests that adding 10 phones per 100 people adds 0.6 percent to the GDP of a developing country, which, according to the UN’s figures on poverty reduction (1 percent GDP growth results in 2 percent poverty reduction) would cut poverty roughly 1.2 percent!

villageTell

villageTell is a champion organization designed to help catalyze a worldwide Village Phone movement, that makes owning and using a phone a reality for the rural poor. ...More