GoMo News recently had the opportunity to meet innovative and exciting movers and shakers at the MLove conference in Berlin. One of the most notable in a sea of notables was the keynote speaker, Mr. Kazi Islam, CEO of Grameenphone IT. Until recently, Grameenphone IT was an internal division of Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone company, whose innovations in using mobile phones to improve the lives of Bangladeshis have won praise and awards from around the globe.
A native born Bangladeshi, Mr. Islam moved to the United States for high school and and university. After several years of work in Ford Motor Company and IBM Strategic Consulting, Mr. Islam was lured back to Bangladesh in 2007 to work in Grameen Solutions, the software division of the Grameen Group of companies. From there he came to head Grameenphone’s IT company and oversaw its spinoff into a separate business unit with the goal of expanding to new customers, and in light of the company’s social mission, growing Bangladesh’s IT industry along with it.
On Bangladesh, IT, and national development
Mr. Islam is confident that “within five years, [Bangladesh] will have a vibrant IT industry” that will be creating IT jobs, which will in turn spur development of educational institutions to prepare Bangladeshis for those jobs and leave society better off in the process.
The Village Phone is dead, long live the Village Phones
Another interesting fact is that one of the programs which made Grameenphone famous—the Village Phone initiative—is no longer at the forefront of Grameenphone, and that this is a good thing. He pointed out that when the Village Phone initiative started in 1997, mobile phones were an order of magnitude more expensive than they were now, while mobile service was several orders of magnitude more expensive. Under these conditions, a phone was a significant investment, and the Village Phone made enormous economic sense. In recent years, the prices of mobiles and service have plummeted, making it possible for more Bangladeshis to own their own phones. Essentially, Mr. Islam said, the Village Phone initiative had run its course in Bangladesh.
On Mobile data usage in Bangladesh
Having run the IT backbone of Grameenphone, Mr. Islam is certainly in a good position to comment on the evolution of mobile data usage in Bangladesh. He said that while data revenues are rising, they remain “insignificant” compared to the usage of voice in Bangladesh. There are several factors to blame—education, available services, perceived need—but Mr. Islam doesn’t dwell on these obstacles. Rather, he looks ahead and sees the current low level of data usage as an opportunity and they will be making a bigger push for mobile data in the future. At the moment, there are already 5 million dedicated mobile data connections, which Mr. Islam considers “a very encouraging number.”
On Microbanking and Microtransactions
Mr. Islam said that, given the importance of mobile-banking and Grameen’s own mission of banking for the unbanked, the company has created an internal strategic group dedicated to mobile financial services. From this group has come Mobitaka, a service that lets Grameenphone subscribers buy train tickets right from their mobiles, along with services to pay utility bills. Grameenphone also runs Cell Bazaar, an enormous market where users can arrange to buy and sell just about anything (from computers to cows) right from their handset. As for banking, while there is not yet a banking solution built into the handsets, Mr. Islam said the technology is ready, and Grameenphone is presently working with local regulators to make mobile banking a reality.
On The Future
Mr. Islam is unabashedly enthusiastic about the future, both for Bangladesh and for Grameenphone. Bangladesh’s population is both large and young, and a promising market for technology revolutions, as “innovation happens where populations are.” When it comes to Grameenphone maintaining its leadership position, Mr. Islam is equally confident. “I personally see Grameenphone as one of the most innovative companies in Bangladesh,” he said, “and one of the most caring companies”
He looked forward both to seeing what innovations Bangladesh and Grameenphone come up with, in addition to the world at large “With five billion users worldwide, the innovations will be shared more and more globally.” Interestingly, he said the best place to discover them was not through Telenor’s own global operations, but rather at mobile entrepreneurship events like MLove, which he described as a “melting pot” to see new ideas from all over the world.
A final observation: Throughout the interview, Mr. Islam would frequently end his statement with a remark on how something “will give us an opportunity to do a lot for Bangladesh.” Many companies speak of doing a lot in Bangladesh, but very few speak of doing a lot for it. As in India, business development and national development go hand-in-hand in Bangladesh, and it is exciting and inspiring to watch.
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How big is the Mobile market in Bangladesh? Do you see players like Airtel, Aircel etc. venturing into Bangladesh in the near future?
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