Phone-Wallet & Phone-Banking: A Bold Anti-Poverty and Sustainability Initiative

A robust payment platform, and reliable banking services are the prosaic fundamentals for economic sustainability and growth. Trade, innovation, financial gains motivate people to work harder, and see the fruit of their effort. Alas, some two billion people on this planet live without basic infrastructure, carry coins in their bags, lacking any mechanism for credit, or for handling value — neither to store, nor to pay.

Fortunately one infrastructure is both very affordable, and very present: cell phones. These popular devices may be turned into full fledged wallets, and into effective banking systems.

So why not order from the manufacturers of cell phones a very large number of a basic cell phone, designed specifically for talking, payment and banking. No frills, none of the expensive super-sharp screens, and fancy features.  At large numbers such dedicated phones will be readily affordable.  Target areas will be visited by project initiators who would give these phones away to the population, along with basic training how to use them, and from that moment on, the contributors will be able to download individually to phone holders an initial sustainable amount of cash — with repeated downloads as appropriate. And since this is digital cash, it can be tethered to a specified purpose: money for food, money for medicine, money for electricity, etc.

The direct distribution from the giving center to the individual recipient will eliminate the layers of middlemen and corruption.  People will readily use their phones as wallet — pay and get paid with them, store and transfer money, as necessary. Microcredits on one hand, taxation on the other hand, can all be accomplished via the phone.

Empowering people to bootstrap themselves into sustainability and eventual prosperity should be the ultimate goal. Trucks of food, free hospitals are temporary solutions. Education and a financial framework are the only investments that would make a lasting difference, and uplift deprived areas into self-supporting mode.  The cost of the physical phones, and the money to download to the users is an investment  in the fundamental solution of this pervasive problem that incessantly burdens the conscience of the developed countries, and will impress shame on us, until we find the leadership quality to effect a solution.

Let all the stakeholders come together on this!