WORLDWIDE MARKET RESEARCH REPORT - CISE

EC/IST FP6 Project No 026920
Work Package: 6
Type of document: Report
Date: 20.12.2007
File name: OP_WP6_D37_V1.0.doc Version: 1.0
Title: Worldwide Market Research Report 334 / 356
developing countries in an increasingly information-driven world economy. It is a
global grant program managed by the World Bank to promote innovative projects on
the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for economic and
social development, with a special emphasis on the needs of the poor in developing
countries.
• The Partnership for Information and Communication Technologies in Africa (PICTA)
(www.uneca.org/aisi/pictal): PICTA is an informal group of donors and executing
agencies committed to improving information exchange and collaboration around ICT
activities in Africa. It builds on the work of the African Networking Initiative (ANI) and
the African Internet Forum (AIF).
Another good initiative is SchoolWAN (www.schoolwan.org.za), a new project, mainly driven
by volunteers and sponsor companies, to inter-connect schools in South Africa, provideing e-
mail access and local content services. It has a strong open source strategy and makes use
of cost effective wireless technologies.
SchoolWAN currently have more than 80 schools connected to the Wide Area Network.
At the moment most schools connect using outdoor fixed wireless (Wi-Fi) connections, but
there are a number of schools that connect with dial-up modems.
e-Banking
An interesting initiative has been launched from Simba Telecoms, an East African cell phone
company that introduced an innovative local money transfer service in Uganda.
[A22] The system was built using a variety of open source tools. The new service, Simba
cash, aims to overcome the challenge facing much of the population in Uganda that banks
are often inaccessible to rural communities, both through geography and cost.
To use the money transfer service, customers can visit any of the Simba Telecoms branches
across Uganda to deposit money. The customer is then given a password which is forwarded
to the recipient of the money. The recipient can then take their identification and the
password to any other Simba branch to collect the money.