Smartphone4good

Today, only roughly 10% of phones currently locked up in drawers with the EU communities are being recycled. One reason being that we often tend to buy a new phone before the old one becomes obsolete. Meanwhile, less than a half of people in Africa own a smartphone. Also, the percentage of women who owns smart is much less than men.  It is this imbalance that we want to address and the challenge we have chosen to take on. Our
innovation is to reuse refurbished smartphones as well as existing raw materials in the form of out-of-use smartphones in the EU, and morph this hibernating resource into finance and empowerment in Africa. Our scaled solution will not only bring affordable smartphones to those excluded in Africa but also by reusing and recycling, we can eliminate wastes that come from used smartphones materials by more than 50%.

A smartphone is often the primary mean to access the internet, and to become digitally included in Africa. Nonetheless, 300 million adults in Africa do not have access to digital information on health, education and economic opportunities that can be access normally through the internet normally by smartphones. Smartphones ownership is very limited among women (33% Nigerian women own a smartphone). Through us, female entrepreneurs in our African partnering countries get a chance to lease refurbished smartphones at affordable prices. 

Smartphone manufacturing is known for its negative impact on the
environment. For instance, producing one smartphone can create up to 86 kg of waste. To reduce waste from smartphones, we are looking to get phone donations from people who otherwise have their smartphones locked up in the drawers within the EU. The phones will be given new lives in the hands of female African entrepreneurs, who will be able to lease them at affordable prices. We are currently challenging ourselves and people within our circles to collect as many used phones as possible to lead the way towards a regenerative global economy!

Our current partnering countries include Cameroon, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia, and we are soon to start collaborations in Zimbabwe.

At Aion Sigma, we are currently working with farmers especially women entrepreneurs to improve their lives by combining multiple data sources we can estimate the financial output of the farmer and provide a credit limit as well as digital tools to improve production practices in precision farming. Challenges such as informal jobs in the emerging markets in Sub Saharan Africa are faced by hundreds of millions of people that lack IDs, have no bank accounts, no permanent jobs and do not have credit scores. Getting hundreds of millions people IDs, bank accounts and credit scores are only part of the problems in emerging markets. We propose an already piloted, realistic and implementable path forward how a digitally and financially excluded peoples may start their journey towards social progress and affluence. We envision a financial identity that builds trust at societal level in all daily encounters, where assessment of counter-party trustworthiness is valuable. Owning  smartphones might be a first step toward financial and economic stability for many people. Smartphone4good is our currently key initiative to bring smartphones to those who cannot afford them in Africa.

Smartphones are not affordable for many people in poor and under-develop ed areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa especially for poor and disadvantaged groups such as women. At the same time, 200 million phones are sold annually in Europe, 150+ million of the old ones litter our homes. An amazing estimate of 700 million phones hibernate at homes in the EU. By recycling the smartphones in the EU we might be able to make smartphones more affordable for poor people in areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the value chain for smartphones around the world is mostly linear starting with mining of raw materials ending with the disposal, export or hibernation of the smartphones. This linear cycle is increasingly subjected resource and environmental constraints which made the production of smartphones more costly both socially and environmentally. Hypothetically, if all the 700 million devices are recycled, approximately 14,920 tonnes of gold, silver, copper, palladium, cobalt and lithium with an estimated value of over € 1 billion. Nonetheless, by current estimates, only 12% to 15% of mobile phones are properly recycled in the EU. Alternatively, if 65% of recycling rate applied of all devices, the recovered material could amount to 123% (cobalt) 11% (copper) of all EU annual imports in 2017. Recycling and refurbishing smartphones can not only be environmentally friendly but also make smartphones more affordable for disadvantaged consumers in poor and developing countries such as Sub-Saharan Africa. By our own estimates, a green and sustainable smartphones made from recycled materials can save the planet as much as 50% of the CO2e emission.

Aion Sigma has been solving the problem of affordable smartphones in Africa for 4 years. We make phones affordable simply via fair finance. Instead of paying it in one off, you pay it over time.  We came up with the idea to bridge sustainably the abundance of old phones in Europe with those excluded in Africa.

A smartphone connected to internet is what everyone of us needs for essential civic & cultural participation in today’s digital world. Aion Sigma’s mission to narrow the gap of 75% of Africans unable to afford a smartphone under the current market conditions.

The market opportunity is now. In Nigeria, we have been able to provide software to local local phone distributors, telecom operators (9mobile, Airtel - soon MTN), phone shops (Slots, 9mobile). We have been enabled to finance of smartphones to more than 7000 households (gathered in 9 months).

In Cameroon, Aion Sigma launched in 2020 with agricultural co-operatives. It is to sign-up distributors in Rwanda, Zimbabwe as well and in Zambia where a large partnership is in place with a Pay-as-you-go solar company. We also aim to focus women entrepreneurs in Anglophone Cameroon and Ethiopia.

Aion currently does not finance, but offers a software platform. With the introduction of S4G, the company is able to supply second hand financed phones in these markets. First trials of phone collections have been organized in Bonn and in Helsinki in the form of phone donation rallies.

Smartphone4Good is a game-changer. The project unlocks the value of up to 500 million out-of-use smartphones in the EU. Nobody else besides recyclers is focusing on the Android phones especially from tier 2 vendors that have reuse value, but no trade-in value.  There is no service that calls to the motives of people to keep their phones and would coordinate the value chain of smartphones for reuse, refurbishment and recycling while producing value add to all the stakeholders in the value chain. While providing an extended life for smartphones there is much reduced need to extract tantalum, lithium, gold and other metals to produce new phones. Simultaneously the value chain contains ethical continued life for second hand phones and manages the end of life recycling in the EU and in Africa for waste that is ecologically and financially sustainable.

S4G incentivizes people in the EU to sell or donate their out-of-use smartphone by appealing to the societal good rather than only the environmental and financial value.  The societal good of focusing on women entrepreneurs in Africa calls on altruism and emotions that a mere recycling or refurb trade-in value of a few tens of euros does not accomplish. The timing is right as studies indicate that COVID is resulting in higher interest in purchase of second hand phones in the EU. S4G functions as the go-to-place for second tier brands with low resale value as consumers discover most out-of-use phones are worthless in trade-in programs.

Main technical KPIs are that technologies of partners are integrated, piloted. In 2023 S4G has successfully demonstrated to commercial funding parties that the objective of sustainable financing is reached. The phones have minimal manual diagnostics, erasure effort as most of them take place immediately at onboarding. Leases are originated with JAM and 1400 village basic internet spots are installed by BIF. By 2024 S4G scales in Nigeria, Zambia, Cameroon and Rwanda; and starts in Tanzania, Uganda, DRC, Mozambique and Ivory Coast to 50,000 lease. 

In the KPI setting it is noteworthy that the business models of each business consortium member are in alignment. Also BIF offering aligns with the goals of JAM and AIO. Key in success is the S4G consortium’s ability to operate in Africa, attract cooperatives and NGOs in rural and semi-urban villages. They all benefit from S4Gs ability to raise phones from Europe that is supported by University of Leiden’s research.

The Green Deal specifically concentrates on innovations that fuel the societal transition towards sustainability while supporting the EU's competitiveness and leadership in clean technologies. S4G transitions the smartphone industry to extend the life-cycle by methods of circular economy that preserve and restore ecosystems and biodiversity. The S4G combines these goals with technology and business processes that promote and scale the adoption of these systems in context of the Green Deal, while offering the perfect set-up for the partners to further scale their business.  S4G introduces a hybrid business model innovation comprising software automation for the business process of second hand phone handling and ecommerce, extended use value of the phones in Africa and end-2-end finishing off the life of the phone that ensures the phone returns to the EU for recycling. Our research indicates that by recycling and reuse smartphones, we can reduce as much as 50% of the CO2e emission that is associated with smartphone usage and production. According to IMF research, expanding internet access in sub-Saharan Africa by an extra 10 percent of the population could increase real per capita GDP growth by 1 to 4 percentage points. Further more, there is a discrepancy in smartphone ownership especially within low-income and less educated women.  In the 5 years span, we should have looked back and should be proud of the how many less economic privilege lives we have touched by include them in the digital inclusion process. 

Full time staff: 6

Part time staff: 4

Contractors: 5

Project team

Project team consists of decades of combined experience in the relevant market, technological and academic background. The team composition is 50%/50% gender balanced.

The partners representatives from all partners have participated important projects such as this. The common understanding is to have strong project leadership that follows up on each task and deliverable to the point of pain with partners. Financial reporting, auditing, and project reporting in general is a major task that requires continuous vigilance with the finance coordinators of each participant to ensure that resource utilization is reported monthly as that forms the basis for the rest. There is an agile 24/7 Kanban, backlog owned by the project coordinator who also acts as the product owner. She monitors progress of each WP with WP teams consisting of partner representatives via bi-weekly meetings and project updates with each then active work package. The executive board equals also the partner general assembly and consists of main contact from each partner. It forms the decision making body around approving also any changes allowed within the agreements.

There is an increasing body of evidence that diverse teams that include multiple racial and ethnic make-ups produce better results. They typically perform better financially, are more adept at gaining a competitive edge when recruiting top talents, experience fewer employee turnover, and offer greater benefits for those that they serve. Without representatives that reflect the diversity of these communities, especially those who are struggling with social-economic inequalities, the teams will most likely not operate at anywhere near its full potential. Also, they will not be developing solutions that can effectively address the needs of the populations that they are striving to serve.  Especially in today’s hyper competitive global markets, serious innovations drive and sustain growths. But what drives innovation? Researches have revealed that the engine to create a diverse workforce comes from leaders who embrace differences, encourage disruption, and foster a stand-out culture. Inclusive leaders welcome diversity, embrace differences and at the same time be able to bring them together for common goals. By encouraging a proliferation of perspectives, leaders who foster a stand-out culture also enable their organizations to see from different perspectives, realize their biggest efficiency and cut costs. We strongly believe that to be able to operate in different markets and have views from multiple backgrounds come from a diverse workforce that includes people (future leaders) that come from different backgrounds (ethnicity, race, gender, education as well as skills). Our current team comes from different backgrounds, 50-50 gender balance, and represents multiple countries and continents.

A smartphone connected to internet is what everyone of us needs for essential civic & cultural participation in today’s digital world. Aion Sigma’s mission to narrow the gap of 75% of Africans unable to afford a smartphone under the current market conditions. With our smart loans we already helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs across Zambia, Nigeria and Kenya get access to smartphones and develop their day-to-day business. Aion Sigma has been solving the problem of affordable smartphones in Africa for 4 years. We make phones affordable simply via fair finance. Instead of paying it in one off, you pay it over time. The Corona stopped our work in Nigeria and Zambia, so we decided to do something novel. We came up with the idea to bridge sustainably the abundance of old phones in Europe with those excluded in Africa. These are lofty goals, we are applying to solve to look for mentorships as well as partnerships to help solving these challenges.

Digitization commonly known as the mass adoption of digital services by using devices such as smartphones and tablets by people has in recent years as a key driver that can help accelerate growth and job creation. Nonetheless as stated above in poor regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, because of the affordability issue smartphone ownership is still very limited especially among disadvantaged groups such as women and lower income.

At Aion Sigma, we are currently working with farmers especially women entrepreneurs to improve their lives by combining multiple data sources we can estimate the financial output of the farmer and provide a credit limit as well as digital tools to improve production practices in precision farming. Our key partners will be satellite data providers, banks, microfinance, telecoms, farmers cooperative, University of Turku in Windhoek (Namibia).

Challenges such as informal job in the emerging markets in Sub Saharan Africa are faced by hundreds of millions of people that lack ID, have no bank account, no permanent job and do not have a credit score. Getting hundreds of millions people an ID, a bank account and a credit score are only part of the problem in emerging markets. Aion proposes an already piloted, realistic and implementable path forward how a financially excluded person may start their journey towards social progress and affluence. We envision a financial identity that builds trust at societal level in all daily encounters, where assessment of counterparty trustworthiness is valuable. 

Challenges and Potential Rewards of working towards Affordable and Environmental Friendly Smartphone in Africa.

Recently, Rwanda President Paul Kagame has expressed disappointment about his country’s low smartphone penetration and said that more efforts should be done to address the issues of cost and quality of smartphones.According to a research done by Pew Research Center in Spring of 2017, finds that the majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa own phones but smartphone ownership is still pretty limited. More recent researches done by GSMA confirm the lack of smartphone ownership and the wide gaps in term of smartphone ownership between men and women.

A smartphone unlock the many opportunities especially for women. Having quality smartphones mean be able to access to information regarding health, education, human rights and economic opportunities. We are actively looking for help and support in bringing equal opportunities to African women. 

At Aion Sigma, we are currently working with farmers especially women entrepreneurs to improve the their lives by combining multiple data sources we can estimate the financial output of the farmer and provide a credit limit as well as digital tools to improve production practices in precision farming. Our key partners will be satellite data providers, banks, microfinance, telecoms, farmers cooperative, University of Turku in Windhoek (Namibia).

Challenges such as ASM informal job in the emerging markets in Sub Saharan Africa are faced by hundreds of millions of people that lack ID, have no bank account, no permanent job and do not have a credit score. Getting hundreds of millions people an ID, a bank account and a credit score are only part of the problem in emerging markets. Aion proposes an already piloted, realistic and implementable path forward how a financially excluded person may start their journey towards social progress and affluence. We envision a financial identity that builds trust at societal level in all daily encounters, where assessment of counterparty trustworthiness is valuable. Our emotional tone is to incentivize, not to discourage.

Part of our total solution will be an AI system for fair credit scoring using alternative data mentioned above.

Credit scores are reductive, an estimate of financial risk associated with a person or a company.  We propose Aioneer application using Gained Aion Trust Score (GATS), standing for customer centric, personally owned, sovereign score of trustworthiness. It is decentralized and in control of the end customer, not controlled by a central authority; therefore utilizes blockchain technology. We believe in trusting others while maintaining a safety net that ensures that trust is not broken. The vision is all-encompassing; we have started the journey with a proven and actionable challenge. We are convinced that best opportunity is in tangible, life improving, financial and digital inclusion via smartphones and loans with fair credit scoring. More than 2 billion people will buy a smartphone in next five years, Africa’s add-on alone is 500 million - we already have secured key partnerships to this end and are live with our service in Nigeria and Zambia.