Possibilities for the Use of Mobile Phones and More-than-voice Services to Improve the Economic Status of Female-headed Households at the BOP

Abstract

This paper considers a unique proposition; that given the evidence of women, with little access to formal finance, have been found to be much better at managing micro-enterprises and repayment when given the opportunity of microfinance at the emerging Asian bottom of the pyramid (BOP), whether the use of mobile phones and more-than-voice services could be used to improve the economic status of female-headed households at the emerging Asian BOP by ensuring appropriate information and access to manage their households. The initial results suggests that female-headed households are in fact economically worse off and that their phone use pattern, for economic-related services, is also less conducive for economic success than male-headed households in the emerging Asian BOP. This opens out a new area of thinking for development practitioners and commercial mobile phone service providers alike.