EPROM - Entrepreneurial programming and research on mobiles

EPROM, part of the Program for Developmental Entrepreneurship within the MIT Design Laboratory, aims to foster mobile phone-related research and entrepreneurship. Key activities include:

• the development of new applications for mobile phone users worldwide
• academic research using mobile phones
• the creation of a widely applicable mobile phone programming curriculum

EPROM has now expanded to 10 countries within Sub-Saharan Africa!

Village Phone Nigeria

Making a phone call is something that many people take for granted. Yet millions in rural villages around the world simply do not have easy or affordable access to a telephone. The Village Phone concept was developed precisely to help extend access to telecommunications beyond the urban areas.

Started by GrameenPhone in Bangladesh -- a client of IFC, IFC is now working with MTN (also an IFC client) and other partners to replicate the Village Phone concept in several African countries, starting with Nigeria.

IFC also collaborated with the Grameen Foundation and other partners to create a Village Phone Replication Manual -- essentially a 'how-to' resource for setting up a Village Phone project.

Beyond providing much needed communication access, the Village Phone model goes a long way to empower the women operators, spur economic activities and promote entrepreneurialism.

Zain - African & middle east telecommunications

Zain (formerly MTC) is the pioneer of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and now a major player on the African continent.

Today, they are a leading mobile and data services operator with licenses in seven Middle Eastern and 15 sub-Saharan African countries with over 15,000 employees providing a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 42.4 million ** active individual and business customers (December 31, 2007).

On September 8, 2007 MTC Group announced it has re-branded to Zain (www.zain.com) which becomes the Group’s corporate master brand with immediate effect.