
Ground-level intelligence on financial inclusion technology and emerging market fintech written by someone who's built agent networks across 9 African countries, not watched from a distance. Home of the Agent Network OS.
| Platform | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Weekly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 128 | Founded | 3 years ago | Last Issue | 10 days ago |
| Active | |||||

For ten years, African fintech pulled the two levers everyone agreed on: make it cheaper and make it closer, and adoption will come. The market was never asking for either. It was already served by something it trusted more, and it had been...
Agent networks are sold as a way to extend access. That is not what they do. They aggregate trust, and the informal economy got there first.
One last time, the counter. Look past the customer now, at the person taking the notes. That agent...
Everyone reads the adoption curve as a story about time. It is a story about trust, and we have been reading it backwards.
Go back to the customer at the counter, the one who paid the extra thousand shillings without a flicker of hesitatio...
I remember watching a customer hand over an extra thousand shillings to an informal mobile money agent. Everyone around me saw an expensive transaction. I saw the cheapest insurance policy in the market.
Nobody argued about the fee. Nobody...
The African agent network is the most valuable thing an operator owns and the operator is the only party who can't put a price on it.
The buyer names a number. The market marks it up at the counter, a thousand shillings at a time. The acco...
Subscribers, engagement, traffic and sponsorship for The Barefoot Economist.
| Subscribers | Engagement | 69 | Monthly Web Visits | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accepts Sponsors | Estimated Cost per Ad | ||||
The writers behind this newsletter.
I help fintechs to reach last-mile customers using alternative channels
You can find recent issues that have been published by The Barefoot Economist on Reletter by scrolling up to where it says Latest Issues. Tap on the link for any of the most recent emails or hit More Issues to see older ones.
To see how many people subscribe to The Barefoot Economist, simply upgrade your Reletter account. We provide readership numbers and lots of other stats for this newsletter so you can decide if it's worth reaching out to.
Newsletter advertising can be extremely effective when it's done right. Before you pitch The Barefoot Economist as a potential sponsor or partner, make sure that you've done your research and checked its newsletter stats with Reletter.
Then, personalize one of our winning pitching templates and send it to the right person using the contact info provided.
Newsletter ad rates (or CPM) vary depending on many factors, including industry, number of subscribers, open rate, ad placement and more.
To find out how much an ad will cost, contact The Barefoot Economist using the contact information provided and ask for a copy of their media kit.
Scroll up to where it says Related Newsletters to see other publications like The Barefoot Economist. You can also search our email newsletter directory to discover other newsletters that cover the topics you're interested in.
Reletter provides this newsletter's website URL above, where you will often find their contact information. We also provide links to associated social media accounts and pitching templates so you can reach out fast.