Grameen Foundation, Google, MTN Uganda Launch Mobile Service

From Grameen Foundation June 2009 Newsletter.

Grameen Foundation has launched five mobile phone applications developed with Google and MTN Uganda (MTN) that will provide Uganda’s poor and underserved communities with real-time information about agriculture, health, and a virtual marketplace for buying and selling goods.

The suite of five mobile services, using Google SMS Search technology and the MTN network, includes:

• Farmer’s Friend, a searchable database with both agricultural advice and targeted weather forecasts;
• Health Tips, with timely, relevant information on sexual and reproductive health, paired with a
• Clinic Finder, so people can locate nearby health clinics and the services they offer; and
• Google Trader, matching buyers and sellers of agricultural produce and commodities as well as other products.

The services are SMS-based and designed to work with basic mobile phones to reach the broadest possible audience.  Anyone with a mobile phone can access the services quickly and privately at any time and search relevant content on-demand, like someone with access to the Internet.

Existing Village Phone Operators (VPOs) extend service to people without mobile phones. VPOs and other trusted intermediaries serve as a bridge between communities that lack access to essential information and the sources that can provide it.  Building on the pioneering work of Grameen Telecom in Bangladesh, Grameen Foundation and MTN Uganda launched Village Phone in Uganda in 2004 to expand telecommunications access to poor people.