The village-phone scheme pioneered by GrameenPhone in Bangladesh has been successfully implemented in Uganda and Rwanda by South Africa’s MTN, and in the Philippines by Globe Telecom. The common thread to these replications is consulting advice from the Technology Group at Grameen Foundation USA.

After several years working out the kinks and writing manuals to ease implemenation, Grameen Foundation has now released a Village Phone Direct kit, which it sells to microfinance institutions around the globe. The kit includes:

• Nokia mobile phone with earpiece
• External booster antenna for areas without strong mobile signal coverage
• Custom designed cables to connect the phone to the antenna and the recharging equipment such as a automobile battery or a solar panel

To complete the Village Phone Equipment Kit for the microfinance client, a SIM card and prepaid airtime, which can be purchased through regular outlets.

Yet another in what is becoming a steady stream of articles on mobile banking in developing countries: Phoney finance in the Oct. 28 issue of The Economist (requires subscription). This article focuses on South Africa, where 500,000 people now use their mobiles as a bank. Again, the upside is huge: 16 million South Africans, over half the adult population, still have no bank account. And 30% of them have mobile phones.

What amazes me about this phenomenon is that people who until recently never owned phones or had bank accounts, are now transferring money by phone.

As in Bangladesh and elsewhere, the rise of a valuable new service is creating thousands of rural income opportunties. One non-bank provider of financial services, Wizzit, hired 2,000 unemployed young Wizzkids to bring in new customers.

Other mobile banking operations in South Africa in clude MTN Banking and Celpay, which started as a subsidiary of Celtel but is now owned by First National Bank. In the Philippines, where mobile banking started, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications have both developed highly evolved services.