The mobile phone is enabling people at the bottom of the pyramid to widen their markets.

For instance, it provides vendors timely information about crowd gatherings, a potential market. It comes in handy for the watermelon vendor during the nine months of off-season when he can find work as a repairman.

Indeed, thousands of artisans are finding that the mobile connects them to their markets and even opens new markets for them.

Your friendly neighborhood ‘sari-sari’ (mom and pop) store will soon sport a new look, thanks to Microventures Inc.’s pioneering Hapinoy Project.

Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV, president of Microventures, on Friday said the one-year old company would begin the makeover of 1,000 Hapinoy stores in Luzon next week as it deepens efforts to alleviate poverty in the country “one ‘sari-sari’store at a time,” as its tagline says. The firm is targeting 8,000 Hapinoy stores by yearend.

A World Bank Group initiative will help bring light to 250 million Sub-Saharan Africans who don’t have electricity. The Lighting Africa initiative includes the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, other development organizations, and local lighting suppliers and service providers.