YellowPepper gets USAID grant for mobile financial services platform - Haiti
 
  
YellowPepper, a mobile financial services provider in Latin America, has received a grant from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to establish mobile financial services in Haiti, YellowPepper reported in a release without revealing the loan amount.

The grant will support the development of mobile money services through the Haiti Integrated Finance for Value Chains and Enterprise (HIFIVE) program.

The funding will enable YellowPepper to scale up its pilot project and provide its open-architecture mobile payment platform to create a payment ecosystem in Haiti. The platform allows users to store value, pay for goods and withdraw or transfer funds using wireless phones.

According to YellowPepper, the grant will further the company's efforts to foster financial inclusion in Haiti in a step toward providing banking services to the country's unbanked population.

Currently, 10% of Haiti's population is banked. After the earthquake that devastated the country in January 2010, one-third of the country's banks were destroyed, further limiting access to financial institutions.

YellowPepper is an integral partner in TchoTcho Mobile, which was the first mobile money service provider in Haiti through a partnership with Scotiabank and Jamaican mobile operator Digicel. TchoTcho received a US$2.5mn grant in January from the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI), managed by HIFIVE and sponsored by USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

HIFIVE offers technical management assistance to improve financial access. According to the initiative's director, Greta Greathouse, the technical assistance grants are available from HMMI and HIFIVE to help find solutions to the challenges of implementing mobile money services in Haiti.

Founded in 2004, Miami-based YellowPepper has more than 2.5mn customers and a presence in nine Latin American countries, including Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia.


Mobile money project coming this year - PM - Jamaica


The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) is undertaking a mobile money project in a move intended to boost the country's microfinance sector, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said during the 2011-12 budget presentation.

DBJ "has signed an agreement with a service provider to introduce a pilot project called Mobile Money as a means of providing access to financial services to micro enterprise operators, enabling them to conduct their financial transactions with their cell phones," he said without naming the service provider.

The move - for which DBJ is awaiting approval from the Bank of Jamaica - aims to reduce transaction costs with microfinance institutions, enabling them to bring down interest rates.

Last year, the government set up a special microfinance lending window and disbursed loans totaling J$229mn (US$2.69mn) to 4,215 micro enterprise operators and J$947mn in loans to 207 small and medium-size businesses, Golding said. The plan this year is to provide up to J$2.3bn in loans, "with a significant portion being earmarked for micro, small and medium-size businesses."

The mobile money pilot program is expected to further enhance the microfinance sector's operations, he added.


Roundup: Frost & Sullivan, LIME-Comverse, 4G Americas-Ahciet - Caribbean, Regional


The Latin American broadband services market is forecast to generate revenues of US$19.3bn in 2015 compared with US$7.7bn in 2009, according to a recent study by Frost & Sullivan.

"Significant investments in network coverage and infrastructure, high-speed connectivity, and reduced prices for the most popular broadband services will keep market competitive and thereby innovative," the study says.

"The majority of the broadband accesses in Latin America, such as asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) connections and telcos, are constantly deploying networks to amplify coverage and increase service quality," Frost added.

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Caribbean telecoms operator LIME has selected BSS, mobile internet, and value-added services provider Comverse's ONE billing and active customer management, as part of a global framework agreement, the latter said in a statement.

The selection will enable LIME to grow its multi-play offering, offering mobile, broadband, fixed-line services, pay-TV and hosting, among other things.

LIME provides services in 14 countries across the Caribbean.

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4G Americas and Ahciet, the Ibero-American association of research centers and telecommunication enterprises, have signed a memorandum of understanding for mutual cooperation regarding wireless communications activities in Latin America, the entities said in a release.

The cooperative relationship between 4G Americas and Ahciet was formalized on April 27 in Santiago, Chile, and entails the sharing of technical information, regulatory viewpoints and spectrum recommendations.

Both organizations have agreed to participate in wireless events and other regulatory forums to further mobile broadband's evolution and its support of social and economic development in Latin America.


C&WC signs contract with Indotel to be broadband network provider - Dominican R.


Cable & Wireless Communications (C&WC) has signed a contract with the Dominican Republic's telecoms regulator, Indotel, to become a local broadband network provider with an investment of 175mn pesos (US$4.6mn), according to a press release from Indotel.

Through a concession opened last October, the contract will allow C&WC to provide telecoms carrier services throughout the Dominican Republic under its commercial brand in the Caribbean, LIME.

Under the contract, CW&C will develop submarine fiber optic cable for the country's east-west cable (Cable Este Oeste) project and will provide services through installing, operating and maintaining an international transmission system.

Indotel expects the contract to help stimulate the broadband market in the telecoms sector. C&WC COO David Crawford said the fiber optic cable's installation is in response to growing demand for high-speed broadband from operators and business customers in the region.

According to Indotel executive director Joelle Exarhakos, allowing C&WC to operate in the Dominican Republic will contribute to improving connectivity in the country.



Venezuelan app developer Mobile Media plans Latin American foray - Regional



Venezuelan mobile application developer Mobile Media is planning to expand throughout South and Central America, as it sees increasing demand for content for the BlackBerry, Android and iPhone operating systems, company director Andres Vizcarrondo told BNamericas.

Mobile Media is based in Caracas, but has had an office in Colombia since October and is in the process of setting up offices in Miami and Peru. It also expects to launch operations somewhere in Central America within a year. The plan is to have five developers per office.

Growth has been steady. In Venezuela alone, Vizcarrondo expects revenues to nearly double to US$1.2mn in 2011, compared with US$650,000 in 2010.

The company is currently gearing up for a launch of an application that provides additional emoticons for users of the BlackBerry messenger system (BBM). The company has an exclusive agreement with Spain's Telefónica (NYSE: TEF) in Latin America and for Telefónica's Brazilian unit Vivo. The emoticons will come preloaded on BlackBerrys and have a banner at the top for advertising.

Other Mobile Media apps include what the company calls live photos, which allow users to put virtual frames on their photographs and send them via BBM.

Vizcarrondo expects huge interest in this app for Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and for the back-to-school period.

Then there is the McDonald's McEntrega app for the restaurant's online delivery service in Venezuela. Users can look up the online menu and make their order through a variety of social media options such as Twitter.

Mobile Media's business model is varied, but the company is particularly interested in the revenue share model with operators and advertisers.

OPPORTUNITIES WITH THE PLAYBOOK

Though the company works with all operating systems, it has considerable experience working with BlackBerry given that in Venezuela, the brand accounts for 70% of all smartphones.

For that reason, Vizcarrondo is confident of the potential for developing applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which debuted April 19 with the new QNX operating system developed by Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM).

The QNX incorporates Adobe's (Nasdaq: ADBE) Flash, which opens up the field for richer and more complex multimedia apps.

And as BlackBerry develops its social platform, which increasingly integrates social media, this will allow Blackberry users to interact more. For example, dominos is very popular in Venezuela, and Vizcarrondo envisages games going on between Venezuelans spread throughout the region, communicating through a chat feature that is integrated into the game.