Less than one month after Covid-19 was officially designated as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March of 2020, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that over half of adults in the United States (53 percent) said the internet had been “essential” for them personally during the coronavirus outbreak. Another 34 percent of those surveyed considered the internet to be “important,” meaning that even in the earliest stages of the pandemic the vast majority of Americans were aware of the critical purpose internet access served in their daily lives.

Today as we come to two years since the global Covid-19 outbreak first brought the world to a screeching halt, systems that were once thought to be temporary have since become the new normal for much of the world. While many social distancing guidelines and other such regulations have been lifted, the shifts they caused in the way we work, learn and move throughout the world have remained in place. It is clear that the internet is no longer just for consumers and entertainment – it has become a necessity for living in the modern world.

Technology has been heralded for many years as “the great equalizer,” solving a multitude of society’s problems including income inequality. Unfortunately, as the internet and its corresponding technologies such as 5G have advanced with increasing rapidity the gap appears to have only further widened, and the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the increasing global problem of the digital divide.

Access to the internet for many rural and low-income communities around the world has been nonexistent or severely limited for years, but as schools and jobs transitioned online in light of lockdowns and social distancing protocols, such limitations became even more acutely painful to those experiencing them. Suddenly, the internet was no longer a luxury that was unrealized, but a necessity that was inaccessible.

 “The digital divide has been widening for years as some places race forward leaving others in the dust,” said Hanif Lalani, a British business executive who is working in various developing countries on high-speed internet projects. “Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns and restrictions may have further broadened such divisions, but they have also brought such problems to greater public attention and hopefully instigated a drive for meaningful change.”

Lalani worked for over thirty years in the telecoms industry in the United Kingdom, is now using his experience in IT, telecoms and business process outsourcing in broadband and 5G initiatives across the globe from Central Asian as well as in the Middle East and Africa.

According to a report by the International Telecommunication Update the internet penetration rate for the developed world is 87 percent, but sits at just 47 percent in developing countries and an even lower 19 percent in the least-developed countries. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines the digital divide  as “the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard to both their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.” Basically, those who lack steady access to broadband (high-speed) internet are much more limited in their opportunities than those that do have it.

 “When essential activities moved online during Covid-19, inadequate internet service was no longer simply a barrier to a higher quality of life. For many households it became a crisis.”

Prior to the current public health crisis remote working was a small aspect of the digital divide, but the transition to telecommuting by a large number of societies around the world has made it a major factor in moderating the economic impacts of the pandemic. Those with poor access to the internet may have felt the ramifications of losing their job without having the ability to participate online. Additionally, internet accessibility contributed further to the gaps in healthcare, as those with little or no access were much more limited in receiving pertinent and real-time information about the disease and how to handle it. While for many the internet was a source of solace and support during social distancing and quarantining measures, those who went without were often unable to communicate with their loved ones or ignored the risks in order to do so.

But perhaps one of the largest societal problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the digital divide is in schooling. An estimated 1.6 billion children worldwide were unable to attend school in person due to closures by April of 2020, and according to the United Nations Children’s Fund at least 200 million children across 31 low and middle-income nations weren’t able to attend school at all because educators were unable to provide remote learning.

While developed countries such as the United States do have a better internet penetration rate overall, they are certainly not immune to their own share of the digital divide, particularly in rural areas. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, a study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics found that poor students are less likely to have the equipment needed to attend school online, with 7 percent of eighth-graders who are poor not having internet access compared with 1.6 percent of non-poor students. Without reliable internet, these economic inequalities will continue to grow.

Even as cases decline in much of the world, the digital divide remains. However, tackling the problem has the ability to do more than mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. According to a paper by Whitacre, Gallardo, and Strover, the availability and adoption of broadband service with higher download speed contributed to economic growth in the areas through higher median household income, lower unemployment, and positive impacts for rural businesses. Through widespread internet access –– especially in rural areas where this gap is often broadest –– home businesses can be further advanced, there can be a reduction in depopulation, and higher farm sales and profits can be realized.

“Recognising and addressing the digital divide enables me to engage with real people, understand their dreams, feelings and help them achieve their true potential in life”  

Through collaborations between governments and the private sector, there is a strong potential to see the digital divide shrink globally, addressing inequalities and creating meaningful, permanent change. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on many aspects of life, but it has also brought many issues to the forefront and served to highlight the weak points in our society globally. Covid-19 may have exposed the digital divide, but if we seize this exposure it can be used as an opportunity to transform the technological landscape of the world and ensure the gap is closed.

Connect with Hanif Lalani on TopioNetworks and his personal website(haniflalani.co.uk/).

How the fintech disruptor Philip Belamant has alleviated poverty in South Africa through ground-breaking mobile payment technologies and financial inclusion.

Many people know Philip Belamant as the CEO and founder of Zilch, the customer-centric buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) provider that makes payments simpler, easier, and more accessible for over 2,000,000 people. What’s less known is that before launching Zilch, Philip Belamant developed other tech-fueled financial tools that improved welfare and mobility in overlooked populations throughout South Africa. His pioneering virtual payment technologies changed the everyday lives of millions of remote consumers by enabling them to pay for their water, bills, electricity, airtime, and goods via mobile phones and virtual cards.

Here, we’ll explore how Philip Belamant has dedicated his career to empowering unbanked populations with revolutionary mobile phone-based payment systems.

Philip Belamant’s Entrepreneurial Roots

Fresh out of the University of Johannesburg with a degree in Information Technology in 2006, 21-year-old Philip Belamant had already developed an entrepreneurial streak and conceptualized technologies that could lay the groundwork for his future ventures. Having closely watched his father’s success in the technology industry, he found himself drawn to artificial intelligence as well as mobile technologies and developed a biometric security system for his university thesis project, which won Microsoft’s Project Firefly competition. He then went on to launch his first entrepreneurial venture, PBel, which he grew to over 6 million users, generating sales run rates of over $100 million.

PBel: 2006-2012

Having sought funding for PBel, Philip Belamant began developing social games for mobile devices, which rapidly gained traction in South Africa’s mobile technology arena. Users would make use of prepaid airtime to play games and buy virtual assets (similar to NFTs). The company also enjoyed a huge amount of interest in its airtime competitions and “mega promotions”, in which users would enter to win prizes or more credit, which they could transfer peer-to-peer as they pleased. Over time, customers showed more interest in PBel’s airtime competition and mobile payment technology capabilities than its mobile games, so the company decided to focus only on the former which laid the groundwork for the creation of a mobile payments business. This decision marked a major turning point for PBel, which had just come across an opportunity to expand into Namibia.

Moola Mobile’s Expansion Into Namibia (and Wider South Africa)

The CEO of Windhoek had taken an interest in the mobile technology enterprise and arranged a meeting with Philip Belamant to discuss how they might collaborate. Together, they identified an opportunity to roll out the airtime competition and payment model in Namibia. This enabled PBel to scale rapidly. The company became the largest reseller of airtime in Namibia in just four months post-launch and went on to become the largest airtime service provider in the country. PBel then worked with a handful of strategic partners to partner with mobile network operators like MTN, Vodafone, Orange, and Bharti Airtel, which enabled the company to roll out into more than 27 African countries, growing its reputation and credentials across the continent.

World Food Programme Partnerships

PBel then partnered with Mastercard, which enabled the company to progress into a more sophisticated model — virtual cards issued off the back of airtime. This solution made it possible for outreach programs like the IFC World Food Programme and Mastercard World Food Programme to distribute funds in real-time to individuals in third-world countries who were using green screen phones. By establishing strong partnerships with these World Food Programmes, Philip Belamant was able to leverage his fintech system to facilitate a clear net benefit to society.

Distributing funds this way offered a much more sophisticated, cost-effective, and immediate transfer method than cash. Instead, individuals received store value on their phones that they could use to purchase items from their local food, clothing, and healthcare shops. PBel distributed the card credentials but locked these down to certain merchants that sold essentials, which ensured that everyone accessing finance used their funds responsibly. This business model proved successful and is the approach that Zilch uses today.

The Convenience of Borrowing Airtime

As PBel grew, Philip Belamant researched his customer base to gain a broader picture of the consumers who were using the company’s services. Having recognized that customers were consistently repaying vendors, Philip Belamant got in touch with the customers to learn more about their buying habits. He discovered that they weren’t borrowing airtime because they lacked funds. Instead, they were borrowing airtime to reduce their need to travel and the costs and inconvenience associated with this. With PBel, customers didn’t have to travel long distances to reach vendors and then queue for hours to pay an electricity bill. Instead, they could access the airtime or pay their bills from home.

With PBel’s access and convenience benefits in mind, PBel launched new services,  lending prepaid airtime, electricity and water, to make life easier for consumers across South Africa. This way, customers no longer had to dedicate a whole day to purchasing airtime or electricity. Instead, they could borrow these services in an instant on their mobile phones and pay back later at a more convenient time. By combining mobile technology with payment technology, Philip Belamant effectively developed a unique system that helped to deliver a huge unmet need while tackling poverty in Africa.

Increasing Mobility and Financial Inclusion

While financial inclusion usually relies on the issuance of a bank account, PBel created a branchless banking opportunity for individuals in lower-income, often rural, areas. Most of these individuals didn’t have access to bank accounts and instead kept all of their funds in cash. PBel’s innovation of a ground-breaking solution provided both convenience and mobility for customers in under two years, decentralizing the antiquated banking system and improving lives across the continent.

The traditional business-to-business-to-consumer airtime distribution model typically saw multi-vendor businesses purchase airtime at a discounted rate and distribute it among their vendors, who would then sell to the consumer. PBel disrupted this model by lending airtime directly to the consumer and collecting repayments through the middlemen infrastructure, ensuring that the SME and SMME ecosystem was left intact all the while creating a fundamentally better service for consumers to access airtime, electricity, and bill payments instantly from their phones.

After six years, Philip Belamant sold PBel to Nasdaq listed Net1 UEPS Technologies and built the company up to over 200 employees.

Continued Growth: 2009-2017

In 2009, Philip Belamant launched Manje (meaning, “now”), which also served customers directly. While many big banks and larger companies of the time didn’t necessarily look out for their customers, Philip Belamant carefully positioned his branding to show customers that Umojay would keep their best interests at heart and facilitate new local economies through access to credit and microloans.

Manje’s value-added service gained traction rapidly through word-of-mouth recommendations, and users began borrowing airtime on Manje’s platform and selling this to their own customers using their phones, spawning its very own network effect. This way, Manje inadvertently crafted a virtual network of buyers and sellers that went viral before “going viral” had become a concept. Manje’s powerful technology opened doors to creative opportunities for many individuals, who used the system to build their own businesses.

Innovative Virtual Currencies

With virtual currencies superseding airtime and more consumers paying for goods and services from apps on their mobile phones, Philip Belamant advanced Manje by developing virtual cards and an advanced card scheme technology. This sophisticated payment technology ultimately enabled him to develop a high-level infrastructure and product that allowed consumers to transact using virtual currencies.

One of Philip Belamant’s biggest virtual card projects was the system he oversaw for the World Food Programme, which distributed virtual cards throughout South Africa and other African countries so people could purchase essentials. He also developed and launched South Africa’s first cash-to-Mastercard solution for Uber. This system enabled Uber to overcome its cash-on-delivery challenge and allow customers to pay for their taxi services virtually. Simply put, this system delivered the innovation needed to bridge the gap between cash on delivery and card scheme payments.

Banking the Unbanked

Philip then integrated the Magstripe card payment technology that his father had previously employed in his business with Manje’s virtual payment technology. This integration allowed him to paint an even broader picture of financial inclusion and develop a large base of empowered customers who could check their balances and make payments virtually. As a result, Philip Belamant was able to bank the unbanked and make it possible for virtually anyone in South Africa to access the credit they needed.

Killing Payday Lending

Philip Belamant also delved into his customers’ spending habits and analyzed which companies were billing these customers most. Then, he investigated how he could change the face of payday lending by developing an alternative product that would be more cost-effective for consumers. The product that he conceived emulated the technology he developed for the World Food Programme. This product enabled customers to shop at essential retailers, swipe their cards, and borrow money to make their purchases. Customers could then repay the funds over a few installments for a flat fee with no interest.

Manje soon became a Top 40 Fintech Company in Africa. Within six months, more than 8 million people were making use of this product, this strategic move, in turn, closed down over 50% of the then-payday lenders in the country over the next 12 months. Moola’s alternative solution to payday lending enhanced the local financial infrastructure, allowing customers to not only survive financially, but thrive, too. Given the success of this model, it’s no surprise that Philip Belamant has integrated the same fundamental concepts and framework into Zilch’s BNPL service today.

Partnering With Customers

When attempting to partner with retailers, Manje experienced pushback as retail companies hadn’t experienced this kind of industry change before. As a result, there weren’t initially any retailers who wanted to partner with the company. But by charging a flat fee for customers and selecting stores that customers used most (those selling food and clothes), Manje was able to evade retailer partnerships. This way, Manje helped consumers across South Africa move away from high-cost, traditional forms of credit, to low cost and no APR credit. As a growing trusted brand, Manje made airtime, electricity, and funds easily accessible to all consumers, who didn’t have to worry about the general lack of accessibility to credit for people on lower incomes.

This is the same kind of disruption that Philip Belamant achieved in his later fintech initiatives, particularly Zilch, which stands apart from the rest of the BNPL industry as it partners directly with customers (allowing them to spend where they wish) instead of the incumbents which built their business models focused on purely residing on the checkout of retailers and offering customers money for their purchases. Evidence Philip always considers creating products for people with ubiquity in mind. As a direct-to-consumer provider, Zilch connects with customers directly and in real-time, monitors their affordability to ultimately bypass the need for creating harmful interest and late fees for consumers.

Disrupting Ecosystems With Technological Innovations

Philip Belamant’s fintech ventures have improved access to airtime for over 20 million people. He has consistently disrupted ecosystems throughout his career by developing future-facing technological innovations and leveraging existing infrastructures to make them more convenient for consumers. As someone who comes from Africa, knows the various cultures and has spent vast time working to meet the needs of millennials and people from lower-income backgrounds, he is well-positioned to craft solutions for consumers who when paying for everyday shopping have the most rewarding way to pay in their hands, thus making the very best use of their money.

Philip Belamant Today

Having founded, developed, and sold a variety of value-added and mobile payment services in more than 25 countries, Philip Belamant is today recognized around the world as a fintech disruptor. Today, he uses the richness of his experiences in the mobile payment and technology industries to oversee the USD2bn BNPL provider Zilch, which he founded in 2018 to radically transform the traditional credit space with innovative products for payments that enable financial health and inclusion for all users. His previous efforts in killing payday lending and financing the unfinanced have fueled important parallels in the ways that Zilch disrupts the predatory elements of today’s BNPL arena that fundamentally are designed to work to the interests of the merchant, not the customer.

Philip Belamant was also the owner managing director of the information technology services company Net1 Mobile Technologies, which provides its UEPS universal electronic payment system coupled with Mobile Payment technology as an alternative payment system for unbanked and underbanked populations of developing economies.

Even though Yerkin Tatishev leads Kusto Group – a billion-dollar company with subsidiaries in 10 countries – he has not forgotten about his native Kazakhstan.

At the age of 46, the Kusto Group founder, Yerkin Tatishev, has already accomplished more than most people do in a lifetime.

In 2002, he established the international holding firm Kusto Group. The company has grown to become a regional leader in multiple sectors such as real estate, agriculture, and building materials.

While the company was founded in Yerkin Tatishev’s native Kazakhstan, Kusto Group’s headquarters are now located in Singapore. From there, it operates about 30 businesses in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Turkey, Israel, Georgia, China, Canada and Vietnam.

Today, Kusto Group has a turnover of more than $1 billion.

From the edge of bankruptcy to profitability with the help of Yerkin Tatishev

Yerkin Tatishev’s business adventure began in Zhitigara, Kazakhstan in 1998 – just seven years after the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.

While he studied at the Moscow State University of Management, he and some colleagues set their sights on a mining and manufacturing enterprise in Zhitigara that they wanted to renew.

The group of young entrepreneurs implemented many improvements in the enterprise, including a restructure of the business that made it more efficient.

Yerkin Tatishev and his colleagues also removed the leadership system of the business. They believed that it consisted of too many layers and ranks and that it was a contributing factor to the enterprise’s inefficiency.

With their innovative approach, the young entrepreneurs won the support of the locals and the workforce.

They focused on their employees’ health and safety, increased material productivity, and opened new doors domestically and internationally, among other things.

After a few years in the hands of Yerkin Tatishev and his colleagues, the mining and manufacturing enterprise in Zhitigara had gone from being on the brink of bankruptcy to becoming a profitable business.

Continued focus on Kazakhstan

While working on the Zhitgara enterprise, Yerkin Tatishev came up with the idea that would lead to the establishment of Kusto Group in 2002.

Kusto Group is active in five sectors: real estate, building materials, agriculture, oil and gas and employs more than 8,000 people worldwide today.

In 2013, Yerkin Tatishev became the chairman of Kusto Group and moved the holding firm’s headquarters from Kazakhstan to Singapore.

“Singapore is a market with a strong financial background, a good legal system and an efficient business environment that is fully supported by the government. When I have the intention of becoming a global corporation investing in different regions of the world, I immediately think of Singapore,” Yerkin Tatishev explains.

Despite the move, the Kusto Group founder has not forgotten about his roots and sees Kazakhstan as a diamond in the rough.

He believes that agriculture is a sector that Kazakhstan can become a global leader of.

Kusto Group opens international doors for KazBeef

Kusto Group is already contributing to the Kazakhstani agricultural scene itself through its meat manufacturing subsidiary, KazBeef.

Like with the mining and manufacturing enterprise in Zhitgara, Yerkin Tatishev and his Kusto Group team turned KazBeef around when they acquired it in 2018.

Kusto Group built a new feedlot according to American standards and made sure that it got the international certificates that would enable KazBeef to enter the international market.

Since then, KazBeef meat has been exported to Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan, among other countries.

Recently, KazBeef became the first Kazakhstani company to receive the GLOBALG.A.P certificate, which is the world’s most widespread farm certification scheme.

Family-friendly neighborhood underway in Kazakhstan

Kusto Group is also currently building a new neighborhood called Koktobe City outside of Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The project, which consists of four-story residential buildings and multiple public facilities, is expected to be finished in 2023.

Among the planned facilities in Koktobe City are supermarkets, kindergartens, gyms, a school, sports facilities, restaurants and a pharmacy.

Kusto Group aims to build a neighborhood that has everything a family needs.

“Many modern cities often lack sophisticated infrastructure. We are faced with housing projects and solutions in which there is no socialization of people. Zones for sports are missing, there is no separation of the traffic of cars and people, work and leisure,” Yerkin Tatishev says.

“Infrastructure can be considered thoughtful if it adheres to the basic principle – not to complicate. It is extremely important for a person that his entire environment is understandable, accessible and visible,” he adds.

Yerkin Tatishev named ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’

In addition to being a successful businessman, Yerkin Tatishev is a passionate philanthropist.

He and Kusto Group have, for instance, donated food, medical equipment, housing and technology to hospitals and people in Ukraine and Kazakhstan during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative saw the light of the day in the spring of 2020 and got the name Kusto Help.

Over the course of one month in 2021, Kusto Help donated medical equipment worth $135,000 to hospitals in the Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi and Zhytomyr regions of Ukraine.

Yerkin Tatishev’s actions under the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the reasons why he was recently named the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in Kazakhstan by the multinational professional services network Ernst & Young (EY).

The Kusto Group founder will now represent his country at the international final in Monaco in June.