Mobile World Congress (MCW) 2018 will be held from the 26th of February to the 1st of March. MWC is ‘the largest gathering for the mobile industry where industry leaders gather, network, showcase, and exchange ideas.’
At each edition of the conference several awards are given to players in the mobile industry from around the world in recognition of innovative solutions. At this year’s edition one of own is in contention for an award.
There is a ‘Best Mobile Innovation for Women in Emerging Markets Award’ and the nominees are:
- Cassava Fintech (Econet Wireless Zimbabwe) & Mahindra Comviva for EcoCash Savings Club
- Girl Effect & iSON Group for Girls Connect
- Mobile Dimension LLC for Pregnancy Tracker
- MoPT&IT, Robi Axiata & Huawei for ICT Training Buses
- Türk Telekom for Türk Telekom Technological Mobilization
You will have noticed that Econet and their partner Mahindra Comviva are nominated for their efforts with…
EcoCash Savings Club
This product was launched back in 2015 and is meant to support savings groups (maround or mukando) across Zimbabwe. Anyone registered on EcoCash to create a group wallet where fellow participants or members of the savings club contribute funds.
The product is in partnership with the Organisation For Public Health Interventions (OPHID) and although anyone is free to use it, the focus for Econet and OPHID is women. The Mbereko Women’s Groups in rural Marondera piloted the product and various other women’s groups have been engaged by Econet and OPHID.
As with a number of Econet’s innovations, they were not exactly the first to debut such a product in Africa. M-Pesa, the mobile money frontrunners have their own Chama for example. EcoCash Savings Clubwas just executed so well that they are the ones getting nominated for awards.
You can read more about EcoCash Savings Club here.
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3 comments
A case of nomination and subsequent rewarding of mediocrity as a consequence of lack of serious competition. Class yemadofo inotobuda number 1. The problem here is that such awards are annual. They have to go ahead whether such “innovations” have had a meaningful impact on people’s lives or not. Thats my 2 cents.
Great
I don’t understand. Is theirs innovation or perfection of a stolen idea. I can’t agree more with Samaita.