Vodafone
BCTA MEMBERSHIP STATUS
Alumni
SECTOR
Information Communication & Technology (ICT)
HEADQUARTERS
United Kingdom
REGION OF INITIATIVE
Asia & Pacific, Africa
SDG CONTRIBUTION
Around the globe, millions lack access to financial services. Vodafone provides poor communities with basic financial services through its mobile money transfer platform. In 2007, Vodafone and partner Safaricom launched a mobile money transfer and payments service, branded "M-PESA", in Kenya. The service is also available in Afghanistan, Tanzania and South Africa.
Vodafone's mobile money transfer platform allows customers to transfer money to other customers, pay bills, and buy mobile air time. As of September 2010, the service had reached 16.8 million subscribers in developing markets.
Promoting M-Health
In addition to its commitment to bringing financial services to low-income consumers, Vodafone joined pharmaceutical company Pfizer in a pilot project focused on addressing gaps in the pharmaceutical value chain using mobile phone technology.
The initiative, called "SMS for Health", uses real-time information collected via mobile phones to track medication stock levels and expiry dates to help capture information that can be used to predict the seasonal variation in the rates of disease in particular regions. The project, which was piloted in The Gambia, covers 50 health clinics as well as the central and regional medical stores throughout the country and at five major hospitals. Pharmacists, health care providers, and store managers have been trained to use a simple coding system which allows them to text the stock levels for 20 medications including expiry dates and disease event rates for 10 diseases to a central database. The data will help the Ministry of Health and pharmaceutical companies to understand where improvements in the Gambian supply chain are needed to ensure medicines reach more patients in a timely manner.