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Peter's friends

simon marriott
Brad Burns
Manfred Hall
Diane Holt

Your Cellphone is a bank

posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 08:45 AM

My intention to join the i-genius is to network with other people doing amazing things in the world.I need to network with others to exchange experiences and expertise.
I am in a unique occupation of pro-poor self-employment in a poor continent where everyone hopes to develop through employment.

I think it is for the above reason that Elizabeth Hingley from Italy and many of i-genius mates accepted my invitation for friendship.
Ever heard of people who start and get into successful business by mistake?
It was in March 1994(as a student at Egerton University), after a trip I made to Kita Kyushu, Japan during Ship for World Youth Exchange programme that I got into my business by accident.In Japan I lived with a Japanese family in their home and I picked the home stay business concept.

My African Home stay agency links up tourists who want to Live, Study and Work in Africa with local hosts in rural villages and towns including in slums.
The idea of home stays could be relatively new in Africa but home stays, or cultural tourism, enable the gains from tourism(a multi- billion dollar industry) to trickle down to the ordinary people.
A home stay experience gives the international visitor the opportunity to live and be exposed to African culture.
I started off my African Homestay Services with one client, a Japanese, after visiting their country on an exchange program.I lived in the hostels and my home was 200 miles away from the university so I took my first guest/client to my lecturer's house. He paid $5 per day, and when he went back home, he sent nine other clients.
For this group, I had to look for homes in Nairobi. I found friends who were willing to host the guests would pay me and I pay them (the hosts).
The number increased to 20 Japanese in 1995 and in the following year, after traveling to Canada, I hosted 22 Canadians. Nowadays, I get at least 40 clients every month,they are mostly students,volunteers researchers and other low budget tourists.
During the World Social Forum held in Nairobi in January,I had 1,500 bookings and raked in over 100,000 dollars in ten days!
On average clients under the program pay a minimum $10 a day to the host.This daily charge can't buy a baby's meal in five-star hotels where food costs many times the retail price.
The program is usually 3-4 weeks but some are known to stay for as long as a year.
It's one of the best ways of learning someone's culture because you eat what they eat, sleep where they sleep ; enjoy their whole lifestyle.
When tourists apply for a visit, specifying the kind of experience they want, African Homestay searches for the host and makes security and logistic arrangements.
n five-star hotels where food costs many times the retail price.
When Elizabeth Hingley accepted my invitation,I thought she would come to Africa for the above project.Even during our long international phone conversations she hinted that she would come to do stories on my sustainable pro-poor homestay tourism project.
One day she called and emailed me about her M-Pesa(cellphone banking) project and travel plans to Kenya.The project focussed on how Kenyans use their cellphones as banks(to save,send and receive money,and even buy airtime at the speed of sending a text message).I encouraged her to come over and I lined up a number of contacts to help her in the project.
First ,she wanted to cover almost everywhere in Kenya;so I got contacts at the coast ,near Mt Kilimanjaro,Lake Victoria,Rift Valley and Nairobi.I wondered how that would be done to ten days!These areas are an average distance on 200 km apart!
Anyway,I managed to pick her and Benjamin from the airport..straight to the hotel...and to the first appointment.

Sadly, the slums she visited are no more following the post election violence that has rocked Kenya for two weeks.All the inhabitants of the Kibera slums are spending nights at an open stadium..(anyone interested to do homestay here?)I wonder whether there are MPESA (cellphone banking)agents at the stadium-the one she photographed was burnt down.
I must say that it was really a tough assignment to do since we spent most of our time in the car in trafffic jams than doing the real project.I wish we had mobile M-PESA(cellphone banking) agents in the traffic!
Lastly and not leastly....she ended up doing homestay in my home with my family!
Am not sure what she found interesting;M-PESA(cellphone banking) or Homestay"

Comments
Peter Ongera
Friday, May 30, 2008 09:16 AM

This is Liz's story posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 05:00 PM A mild shiver ran through me as I heard on the British news of the latest massacre in the Rift Valley village church in Kenya. Peter Ongera, an i-genuis social entrepreneur, had driven Colors magazine writer Benjamin and myself around the Rift valley in search of a story only two weeks before. If I had done my assignment any later I would have been evacuated along with all of the other tourists in the country. I proposed to Colors magazine to do a photographic story on the new Mpesa mobile banking system that is transforming the way Kenyan’s are able to store and transfer money. Instead of traditional methods of burying money in the ground and sending money with bus drivers, Kenyans are now uploading money onto their mobile SIM cards, sending it to their families and paying employees by a text message. Top world economists believe this MPESA system is the future of world currency. Of the 3,0000 kenyans using their mobile phones for banking, many have never even had a bank account, and are literally leap frogging techological developments. I spent seven days guided by Peter, photographing Massai tribes in the Great Rift valley sending money texts back to families in their village from town markets a few days walk away. We took a local matatu bus into the mountains to the village where Kenyan woodcarving originated and I photographed Benedetter Nduku the ‘Curio agent’ who recieves money from buisnessess in Mombassa and employs a woodcutter and sander to compile and ship orders of up to 200 painted giraffes. I lived with Peter’s family by myself for three days and even documented his families wedding where presents of money had been sent to the couple through text message. Living in Peter’s newly built house without electricty and water was a very comfortable experience although I was lucky to be served Peter’s wifes delicious ugali and greens without particpating in the four hours cooking preperation she did every day. A morning shower at 6am was a flannel and bucket of water, followed by delicious Kenyan tea. Kenya was definately an experience and not an easy place to be – despite thepotholed roads and multiple trips to fix the car at the garage, I felt my Homestay with Peter ended far too quickly.

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