La banque d'un monde qui change 2004 - BNP Paribas

56retail banking57MANOBIExchanges of Information in Real-timeTrigger Economic DevelopmentThierry AlbrandVice President Digital BridgeAlcatel - Client of BNP Paribas - ParisIdrissa is a Senegalese fisherman. In a few minutes time on this cloudy Tuesdaymorning, he will be casting his fishing nets out from his small boat off the coastof Casamance. But before leaving the beach, he has one last important thing todo – thanks to a service developed by a Franco-Senegalese company, Manobi,Idrissa’s mobile phone will enable him to find out today’s shipping forecast, tolearn that the flat sardinella is selling best at the market today and to obtainprices for every market in the country in a matter of seconds. “The project is stillat pilot stage for fishermen, but it has already been available to farmers for overa year.” The same principle applies: with the aid of a mobile phone, farmers areable to obtain real-time information about the price of their products and deal withwholesalers on equal footing. The result has been virtually a 50% rise in revenuesfor the farmers, thus proving that telecommunications devices can truly be usedas development tools. This high value-added service, which is expected to berolled out to other countries, has been put together by three organisations: Manobi(service designer), Sonatel (telephone operator) and Alcatel, the equipment makerwhich provides radio equipment and facilitates Manobi’s access to telecomsoperators. With already more than a thousand professional clients able to easilyabsorb the cost of the service, the project is working to the advantageof all concerned. “It’s this type of service that is needed to encourage operatorsto extend coverage beyond the larger towns.” In developing countries, up to 70%of the population currently lives in the country.www.manobi.net / www.sonatel.com / www.alcatel.com