Tag Archives: investment

Idea of Student Cards in Ghana is 'Loaded' with Possibilities

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[guest name="Tenu Awoonor, Herman Nyamunga and Imran Qidwai" biography="Entrepreneur Tenu Awoonor is from Ghana and lives in New York. He is an assistant vice president at the financial firm Merrill Lynch. Expert Herman Nyamunga is an independent development consultant and a blogger. Expert Imran Qidwai is president of Zaviah, a high-tech consultancy firm in Boston."]

America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

TENU AWOONOR, entrepreneur:

Tenu Awoonor

Tenu Awoonor

Khary Robinson and I met at the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania. Talking about our respective native countries – Jamaica in case of Khary and Ghana in my case – we came upon the idea of a system of cashless transactions related to education expenses. The concept is simple but has a great potential. Our proprietary system is based on a card, similar to debit card, that can be pre-loaded by parents, or someone else, with a specific amount of money and used by students for purchase of school supplies, books, food and other education-related items or services. The system is secure, and the card allows parents to set daily spending limits and track their children’s expenses.

Student Card Limited's product is already in use in Jamaica

Student Card Limited's product in use in Jamaica

In Jamaica, where Student Card Limited went first in 2007, we have entered into several partnerships, which also allow students to save and parents or relatives to re-load student cards from overseas.

The market in Ghana is similar. We have already talked to local schools and vendors. The big scoop for us would be to partner with the government on a nationwide school feeding program. The use of our system would enable monitoring of the expenses related to the program, thus making it more effective and accountable.

HERMAN NYAMUNGA, business expert:

Money management for parents, especially with regard to educational expenses, is a big challenge. This business provides a much-needed solution in that it will make it easy for parents to specifically allocate money for school supplies and track expenses without any problem. It also addresses the problem of theft, because it is safe to carry.
Such a card system makes it easy for other people who are interested in the students’ academic life to safely load their cards.

Generally, it is a concept which I think will greatly improve learning in that country and also help interested parties understand how much is spent on educational supplies.

Despite all these merits, this business has potential challenges. Firstly, you need uniform vendors across the country that will be willing to accept the card in exchange for goods. Secondly, there will be issues related to verification, especially in remote locations. For example, what happens if someone loses his or her card and he or she is in such a location? Thirdly, I see a problem with manageability – will the amount put in the cards be worth the processing cost incurred, considering the fact that many people in Africa make piecemeal purchases.

IMRAN QIDWAI, business expert:

It is terrific to provide such a convenient alternative in societies that still mostly deal in cash. It is great to see you focus on a specific market segment where your solution provides obvious benefits to parents and children. It appears that some of your features, such as pre-loading, topping up and daily limits, also start to teach fiscal discipline at an early age.

I presume that the system can be expanded to include scholarships from known or anonymous donors in the affluent countries, people who may want to help less privileged but eager students?

Learning Medicine by Videoconference in Nigeria

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[guest name="Fiemu Nwariaku, Barry Moltz and Rob Sprang" biography="Entrepreneur Fiemu Nwariaku is from Nigeria and lives in Dallas. He is a surgeon and associate professor at Southwestern Medical School. Barry Moltz is a small-business expert and teacher and the author of three books on entrepreneurship. Expert Rob Sprang is director for Kentucky TeleCare and project co-manager for Kentucky TeleHealth Network at University of Kentucky."]

America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

FIEMU NWARIAKU, entrepreneur:

Fiemu Nwaariaku

Fiemu Nwaariaku

There is a major deficit of skilled doctors and nurses in developing countries, where medical skills often lag behind developed-country standards. Producing new doctors takes too long, and upgrading their skills is expensive because they frequently have to be sent overseas for training.

Trigen Healthcare proposes to close the skills gap by training medical workers more efficiently using sophisticated high-definition videoconferencing technology. This technology will allow us to deliver lectures and skills training to more medical workers at a much lower cost. We will connect Nigerian doctors and nurses with medical experts at major U.S. and European medical centers, who will provide training. Participants in Nigeria will interact with overseas trainers in real time. Our local partner in Nigeria – Galaxy Backbone Plc – offers broadband Internet connectivity necessary for the videoconferencing technology to function efficiently.

In July 2009, we successfully transmitted a live surgical procedure from Texas to Abuja, Nigeria, during a training session for doctors. This trial run proved that our technology works. Our goal is to provide value for our customers while enhancing human development in sub-Saharan Africa.

BARRY MOLTZ, business expert:

Can medical skills be learned through videoconferencing? I suspect that some can and that more of the skills need to be learned in person through demonstration and participation. The entrepreneur needs to find out which skills can be learned through videoconferencing and which skills doctors want to learn this way. He should teach a narrow range of skills first to ensure the technology and the medical material are successfully learned.

ROB SPRANG, business expert:

Learning surgical techniques by videoconference

Learning surgical techniques by videoconference

The Kentucky TeleCare Network does a great deal of medical and other healthcare professional education via videoconference technology. It is my understanding that the proposal will be to use the technology to train healthcare workers to deliver a higher level of healthcare services than they are currently capable.

There is no reason that you cannot train healthcare workers via videoconference technology, but you must be sure that the competencies can be taught and measured using the technology. There are some clinical techniques that probably don’t lend themselves to videoconference teaching, but if the curriculum is appropriately structured, content is properly delivered and outcomes and competencies are carefully determined and measured, then this idea should be fine.

I would suggest that in order to test the strategies, you may wish to pilot test some of the training with a control group that receives the testing in a traditional face-to-face format and the experimental group that is simply in another room, but connected via videoconference technology. This may require that the content and teaching methodologies be modified to distance learning so that the objectives may be met. Simply broadcasting the same lecture that is done face-to-face may not be effective.

Our 3rd year medical students who travel to rural communities for clinical rotations utilize the technology to connect for their weekly Problem Based Learning, Journal Club, lectures and other teaching, so there is certainly a precedent for this kind of activity.

Beginning in 2010, the Rural Leadership Track will select 10 students who have performed their first two years of medical school at the University of Kentucky (UK) to be placed in a rural community hospital where they will receive their final two years of medical school education. They will participate in many lectures and educational programs with their classmates at UK via videoconference technology.