IEC Applications Can End Extreme Poverty in the World

IEC Applications Can End Extreme Poverty in the World

I am one of those involved in the concerted efforts for the eradication of extreme poverty in the world. And I have reached the advanced final stage in the development of the applications that can reduce poverty by 80 percent with IEC, Information, Education and Communication methods which I have seen during my years of working as an IEC field officer for the Center for Education, Population, AIDS and Drug Abuse (CEPADA), an NGO founded by Mrs. Hadiyat O. Shitta-Bey, a former award winning Program Specialist in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) when I did Market Based Distribution (MBD) surveys of the largest markets in Lagos, the most populous state in Nigeria and the largest megacity in Africa and when I was contracted as a public health illustrator and translator for the production and publication of family planning methods booklets in Pidgin English, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa for semi literates distributed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN) and as a national Program Consultant for the Child Survival and Development (CSD) projects of the UNICEF in Nigeria.

The first mobile app for all the users to GSM phones has been in development since 2014 and I have also completed the layout for a SaaS e-commerce and fintech app for interactive IEC through social network for wealth creation and distribution among all the users of mobile phones in Nigeria and other countries.

Imagine an app with X Amazon and Paypal combined.

My advocacy for the education of the millions of girls out of school in Nigeria is fundamental in the eradication of extreme poverty in developing countries, because surveys have shown that majority of the people living in poverty come from families with mothers who did not go to school or dropped out of school.

In Nigeria, we found out that almost 90 percent of the bandits and terrorists on rampage in northern Nigeria were born by mothers who did not go to school and without any formal education and thousands of their children were destitutes. Their rebellion against law and order was caused by lack of parenting and poverty with uneducated parents who did not have the information on family planning and family welfare. 

They continue to breed children they cannot feed and they cannot afford to send to school. 

Extreme poverty is largely due to ignorance and illiteracy.

With the use of IEC applications through mobile phones, millions of the people in poverty will be taken out of poverty.

The first MVP of the mobile app was among the top finalists for tech innovation awards in Africa in 2014 and the pitch for the SaaS e-commerce and fintech app was shortlisted for the a tech startups hackathon in Africa in 2022.

Both mobile apps will advance the decentralization of e-commerce and fintech platforms in all communities in Nigeria and other countries and downloaded without any payment by all those who can use mobile phones and the IEC applications will be in their own languages. 

- by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

The CEO, 

International Digital Post Network Limited