Within 2.5 years of buzzing in India we are exploring buzzing in Africa with a local partner. We cannot divulge more details until it is finalised but there is a lot of positive movement in that direction. We did a needs assessment study on the ground in Kenya along with the partner to see how Buzz India can be customised to the environment there. The good news is that Buzz can be implemented as is, given that the all the lessons learnt during the pilots and after that have been incorporated into its current form . The bad news is that the communities that we met seem to have the same problems that the communities in India are facing with regards to financial capability.
The people we met to have a conversation are at the base of the pyramid doing small business or are daily wage labourers in agriculture. In the picture above you see one such meeting with a community group near Limuru conducted in a government school. All of them seem to think that money is the only solution to their poverty. When they were asked what they would do with the money, what is their business plan, how much is their current income and what is the projected profits for the future given the influx of capital, all of them drew a blank barring 1 in the group. By the end of the conversation they all acknowledged that they do need some capability building to understand the nuances of business and to manage their finances. This was the validation for our process. It is a great feeling when the beneficiaries come up with the need rather than it being formulated in a meeting room.
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