As a Kenyan, you can't live without a local mobile number in Kenya.
Because it's the way you to talk to people. It's also your wallet/bank
account, i.e. you send money from it and receive money to it [1].
If
you're a Kenyan living overseas, things become infinitely harder. You
have to resort to whatsapp for calling home which is frustrating to use
[2]. For sending money, you have to use remittance services which are
mediocre compared to the local mobile wallet experience. As for
receiving money or receiving calls, you can just forget about doing that
easily.
The *only sane option* is to get a separate Kenyan phone and roam overseas. But it's bloody expensive and complicated.
So I have done something about it.
I've
invented a way for me to use my mobile phone service in Kenya *without *
having a sim card via an app. It does
everything a physical phone with a roaming service would have done but
the call rates are local charges, the call quality is amazing and
reliable. And the mobile money experience ... what can I say, it's
superb. It's like being in Kenya.
I've stopped using whatsapp completely for calling my family. What's more, they've stopped using whatsapp for calling me.
I'm getting the same reaction from Kenyan's who I have shared it with. Some of this feedback has moved me so much, its energised to me work on the idea even more.
This is big!
There are over 2 million Kenyans overseas that have the same problem.
There are over 16 million Africans overseas that have the same problem.
It also turns out the app is useful inside Kenya itself, I've had a number of people travel to Kenya and use the app when there. It avoids all sorts of hassles like getting a new number each time they land. And some local Kenyan's have installed it because they don't have space for a third sim card. This allows them to actively use their phone service even when all their sim slots are full with other operators [3].
It's also now clear to me the
ability to have a phone service 'Over the Top' has other massive
opportunities. LeDunia is also a platform because it sits between your
mobile phone service and the network and provides programability to it.
This gives unbelievable power and extensibility to the the current
systems which are built on legacy telco infrastructure. LeDunia removes
these constraints. Imagine the possibilities.
There are numerous
ideas I have. My head is brimming with possibilities. Africa is 1.2
billion people spread across 54 countries with some of the best
demographics you can imagine. Africa is a nascent opportunity. Africans
want to participate in the world. Africa is rising.
LeDunia will make things possible for them.
[1]
*Everyday* 866 million dollars gets moved in Africa this way. Compared
to 250 million every quarter with bank cards. The banked rate is about
25%.
[2] The called party needs data which is expensive and not
common. When they have data, it's not great quality with lots of jitters
and dropouts. Last, whatsapp needs a smart phone and notifications to
work, but sending notifications to African phones is fiendishly complex
and unreliable.