Tag: Data

Setting boundaries: how Agrinfo’s mapping technology overcomes pen and paper land disputes

Overview

Smallholder farmers are the majority of the East African population, but there are many issues that they face.

Rose, who founded Agrinfo, is using ICT to help. Identifying some key problems for Tanzanian farmers she and her team are looking to improve the agriculture sector by utilising modern technology.

We discuss the low number of farmers with legal right to their land, the process for mapping Tanzania and the benefits that come by knowing what is planted where.

There’s a bird tweeting outside the window at the beginning of the episode, and so apologies if you find that distracting.

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“We use ICT to solve challenges for small-holder farmers”

We consider ourselves a technology company and work backwards from the problems which farmers have told us.

“A big challenge is land”

Only 10% of farmers are working on land that they are legally entitled to. Often the documentation isn’t in order.

“Surveying costs can be 3x the cost of land”

Professionals need to be hired and require them to go across the vast country. This often becomes so expensive that people aren’t able to afford to make a legal rights.

“We’re helping to solve this”

Agrinfo are adopting mobile technologies and getting the help of schoolchildren to undertake this work remotely, rather than the expensive status quo. We also look to include the whole village.

“We have a process around giving ownership of land”

This involves with going to the village, holding talks with the local government who then hold a village meeting and plan out the different boundaries throughout the area (where will be the hospitals/ schools etc.). The whole things takes 3 weeks.

“There are many many villages to map”

A large amount of the country isn’t fully mapped and so we see lots of opportunity across Tanzania.

“We also want to track what’s being planted”

Through asking farmers, we are looking to understand all of the crops which are being planted in different areas of the country.

“People will tell you what they have”

The exchange that I’ve seen work is that farmers are willing to say what it is they are planting by believing that it will lead to an increased likelihood of selling their produce.

“There are other problems”

For example, the cotton farmers now need to spray a new pesticide on their crop. This makes it difficult in terms of practicability.

“We make money”

Through a number of a services such as up front costs of doing the mapping. Our vision is that Agrinfo will become the Tanzanian Agriculture Google.

“Drones”

We’re looking forward to using drones to give advice on how much fertiliser they should use on their crops.

Social Media Follows etc.

USSD: kind of like an SMS

Website: www.agrinfo.co.tz

Facebook: AgrinfoTZ

Twitter: @AgrinfoTZ

How Lynk is building a “TaskRabbit for Kenya”, with the founders Adam and Johannes

Overview

A huge amount of employment in East Africa exists in the informal sector.

People often working on an ad hoc basis with little record of what they do.

This means that it is difficult for workers to build a reputation, and for customers generate trust.

Adam and Johannes at Lynk see a great opportunity to use technology to bring value in this broad sector.

We talk about how the founding story of their services marketplace above a hardware store, the processes around matching customers and workers, and their vision for how data can bring benefits to whole sector.

It’s a super interesting episode, and I hope you enjoy

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“80% of workers in Kenya are in the informal sector”

We can add a huge amount of value in this sector where payslips and mapped career progression aren’t really a thing. Like LinkedIn for the Linked Out.

“TaskRabbit for Kenya”

Is how some people think about what it is that we offer.

“We used to live above a hardware store”

We would spend the day talking to these informal workers, and then at night time go and do coding to build around the product.

“700 interviewed, verified workers”

These are people who we have on Lynk and that customers can choose to hire. They are across 150 different categories. An informal worker is known as a “fundi”

“We’ve gone broad as the market is bigger”

It would have been easier to pick, say, one category/ industry to work in, however we didn’t feel that there were that many, say, plumbing requests in Nairobi each month. Our way is harder, but bigger.

“There are lots of processes needed”

The job isn’t an easy one, as it’s not just a classifieds site. We’re ensuring that customers and workers have a great experience.

“Most requests are reactive”

Customers are always coming to us and saying that they want X done. Our vision is to be able to suggest Y to them.

“Marketing is tough”

Word of mouth is really the main way that fundis get work, or they hang around by hardware stores to see if they can help. Adam and Johannes used to live above one of these hardware stores.

“We met at university”

Adam was finishing up at Google and Johannes had just finished his Masters. They were looking at doing an idea in Nairobi and a service marketplace seemed to be a big problem to solve.

“There are some behaviours we wish to change”

For example, timeliness. For a fundi it’s low on their priorities, however it’s something that customers really value. Teaching fundis about this is an important aspect to the business.

“… and others we will adapt to”

Like how fundis want to get paid. We identified a series of behaviours where we would adapt to the market, and others where we wanted things to change.

“We manually deal with each request”

Currently when a new request comes in we will clarify a few things with you and then contact the best three fundis who could do the job, and ask them for a detailed quote.

“A full service solution”

We don’t put up a big list of providers for customers to scroll through as we don’t think that’s the best user experience, and there are also issues with scheduling. Instead, a customer comes to Lynk and has a relatively high level of service.

“Payment flows through Lynk”

This gives protection for both customer and fundi. Customers can pay in a variety of ways, and we pay fundis through mobile money. Lynk’s commission is 10%.

“Most communication is through SMS”

Customers and fundis receive phone numbers when a job is booked and then communicate from then on. Depending on the complexity, Lynk may stay involved. Either way, fundis don’t all have the phone/ data package to want to communicate through an app.

“Being cut out is inevitable”

It will never be fully avoidable. Ensure that there are limited disincentives to using the platform, and just generally that there is value from the service. We’ve found that we’re being “cut in” more.

“The data is amazing”

We’re interested in providing a good service for a fair price. Going forward, we’ll be collecting lots of rich information which can be used in other areas.

Social Media Follows etc.

Facebook: Lynk Kenya

Twitter: @LynkKenya

Website: www.lynk.co.ke

A history of surveying and market research in Kenya with Boniface Ngahu from SBO Research

Overview

Understanding the consumer is an important part of a lot of businesses.

Boniface is a director at SBO Research, a Market Research company that has been in business in Kenya since the mid-nineties.

After finding them on Google I went in for a chat and we spoke about his perspective of the market.

We discuss the change in political conditions that brought about the growth in market research industry, how drones are assisting researchers and whether an insurance policy will pay out if an eagle eats a chicken.

 

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Here are some of the key quotes:

“We started in 1993”

Our first job was doing surveying for Standard Chartered. We now serve over 50 clients per year.

“Understanding market gaps is the main value”

Clients come to us to get insights into the Kenyan market and whether their product/ service will fit.

“FMCG companies are common clients”

Companies with many employees are serving many customers and therefore want to employ services in order to best understand them.

“Government is our biggest customer”

They spend a lot on surveys to understand citizen satisfaction for the public services that are being offered. Often this is for commercial projects (like providing electricity) where there is private sector competition.

“We use mobiles to conduct surveys”

Agents talk to people, typically in their home, and record the responses that come from the survey.

“They chat on Whatsapp before”

When conducting focus groups, the client doing the research has the chance to communicate with everyone in a Whatsapp group to cover the basics beforehand.

“‘If an eagle eats my chicken, will I get paid?’”

Boni was doing a focus group for a new micro-insurance company and this was a pressing question one of the farmers had. Turns out that as eagles are wildlife and belongs to the government, the insurance company won’t pay out as its the government’s remit…

“Historically there would be only one brand”

The government had a regime where there was, say, only one type of cooking oil. As such, there’s no need for market research, because that is the market. Markets were liberalised in 1992, SBO Research was began the following year.

“Our clients are international”

But our insights come from Africa. Typically a multi-national corporation looking to introduce a new product line.

“Insights from inventory”

We track stock levels for different shop owners, in doing so we are able to deduce the market share that different products have.

“Technology will be the game changer”

Competition is coming from non-typical sources, such as Facebook and other telcos. We’re also seeing drones being used to observe how consumers interact with a product.

“We’ll want to hire more researchers”

As the industry grows this is one of the skills that we will want to get into SBO Research as we grow. The skills are scarce though, so good researchers bounce around.

“Bottom of the Pyramid consumers need to be approached differently”

This is a paper that Boni wrote. The typical consumer thinks differently to the ‘elite’ customer.

“My cleaner tells me what to buy”

If you advertise to Boni what cleaning product to buy, I won’t know what it is. If the cleaning product is targeted to my cleaner however, then she will build loyalty and tell me what I need to buy. Cleaning product companies should therefore target the BOP customers rather than “elite” customers.

Social Media Follows etc.

Net Promoter Score

Understanding the African consumer paper

Website: www.sboresearch.co.ke

Other articles: from Business Daily