Cutting out the middle man

April 6th, 2007

Tomi was one of the co-founders of Forum Oxford, a debating society on all things mobile. If you have the remotest interest in the mobile industry, I suggest, even if you are a lurker, that its worth the effort.

I picked this up today, posted by Jeff Sonstein

Rose Lukalo Owino, a Kenyan author, told me this story: ?I was recently in Ngutani, east of Nairobi. I was reporting for a book and interviewing these women who raised goats.? The women complained that for years they had been swindled by middlemen who would get them to sell their goats for a pittance, because the women didn?t know the price in the Nairobi markets. ?But when I interviewed them, these women were holding so much money,? said Ms. Owino. Why? Fourteen villages got together and bought one cellphone, which they now share to check the market prices in Nairobi for goats before they sell.

Jeff comments