Now, this is something very interesting. Every time we download a white paper or sales presentation, we notice how e-invoicing, electronic billing, purchase to pay, EDI and all those other e-thingies are said to make the world even greener than before mankind. We off course know that it only happens in Utopia. But that is just our little secret.
But what if e-billing (and all the other e-thingies) can actually help to save lives. We know that sounds nuts, but this one could actually be true. Just imagine, the e-invoicing service provider community (SWIFT, Huballiance, EESPA, Peppol, e-prior) as live saver. A Nobel Price and Time’s most valuable person title is just a around the corner. Bare with me.
Introducing RHoK: Random Hacks of Kindness
The RHoK is unique in the space of “apps competitions”, “hackathons” and “technology for social good”. Their mission is to make the world a better place through a global community of innovation developing practical open technology.
RHoK’s model is to start from identifying, defining and refining problem definitions provided by subject matter experts and local stakeholders. This ensures that volunteer time is focused on solving real problems for real people.
The e-billing solution for clean drinking water in Botswana
This is the situation in Botswana according to RHoK: a large percentage of Botswana’s population is a risk of having their water services disconnected simply because they do not receive their water bills. The national water utility struggles to provide timely billing based on current amounts. Regular bills are crucial for low-income households in order to adequately budget for all household needs. Delayed and accumulated bills leave households unable to meet their responsibilities.
Facts:
- The majority of Botswana residents have access to high standard water in their home.
- Cell phone access and coverage is close to universal.
- Literacy is high (84 %).
- SMS is cheap, even for lower income households.
Opportunity:
The Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) is ready to implement a solution at the end of the event.
The proposed solution:
A solutions that allow a customer with a basic cell phone to:
- Register their phone number to their water billing account by SMS
- Receive a monthly message with the amount they owe
- Allow an individual to send in their billing account number and get the amount they owe in real time
- Have the system send a SMS receipt of payment within 24 hours
So become the first BSPOK (Billing Service Provider of Kindness), join in and help Botswana here.
UPDATE 14/11/2011: It seems that the NMB Bank from Tanzania just launched such a mobile-phone bill payment service as requested above.
The service allows over 550,000 bank customers to pay their bills using mobile phones -Tigo, Vodacom, Airtel and Zantel – to access their accounts and settle their dues without visiting a bank nor revenue offices.
NMB mobile service already allows mobile-phone customers to access banking services such as balance view, money transfer service, mini-statement and mobile phone air time top up.
Philip Cohen on