Exploring cell phone and internet use explosion in Africa

by Adam Edwards

Africa Calling!
Telecom explosion in the world's poorest continent.

IN LIGHT of the recent tribal violence in Kenya, one could be mistaken for thinking little changes in the so-called "dark continent". News reports and other television programmes are constantly compounding the stereotypical perception many in the West have of Africa as a land of conflict, poverty and starvation; bypassed by the modern world. Yet whilst such issues may rack the continent, Africa is also experiencing a technological boom, which appears to be gradually transforming the region.

Since the millennium Africa has been the fastest growing market for mobile phones in the world. In Kenya for example it has been estimated that the number of mobile phones subscribers has rocketed from approximately 15,000 in 1999, to about 8 million by early 2007. During several visits to Southern and Eastern Africa, I was astounded by the apparent ubiquity of mobile phones within relatively poor and underdeveloped communities, in which few people own less technologically advanced mediums like televisions or radios, or even basic necessities like shoes for example. In Tanzania, for example, advertisements for mobile phone manufacturers and network providers never seemed far from sight, as multinational telecom companies grapple for their share of this lucrative emerging market.

Whilst the emergence of an African market may be of obvious benefit to multinational corporations like Nokia or the Vodafone Group, one might question what advantage the increasingly widespread use of mobile telephones offers the worlds poorest continent and its people. However it is believed that access to technology like mobiles or the Internet is of great significance for the continent.

For example mobile phones and the Internet are making it possible for African businesses to keep in regular contact with suppliers and retailers, and access information from across the globe in order to benchmark ideas or identify niche markets for instance. However perhaps the most significant benefit increased communication confers upon African society, is through the opportunity it presents its people in accessing information on market prices. The majority of Africans are reliant on either agriculture or fishing for their survival, and have traditionally tended to receive very little for their produce as a result of unscrupulous middlemen taking advantage of their lack of awareness on the varying prices their goods could receive in different towns or villages.

Farmers and fisherman are increasingly using their phones to bypass middlemen, by sending texts to network providers to discover the prices certain commodities are selling at in different towns across the region, in a similar way to how we in Britain can text "football" to network providers to find out the latest football results for example. However by texting "tomato" or "potato" to one of the African networks, farmers can receive information which could transform their lives, allowing them, rather than middlemen, to make a profit on their produce by selling their goods in the town which will see them realize the highest prices.

Developing countries are appropriating technology like mobile phones in other unique ways in an attempt to address problems within their respective societies. For example, mobile phones are being used by conservationists trying to save Africa's endangered elephants, as low cost alternatives to radio collars. Whilst in Kenya and Tanzania doctors based in big cities are using mobile phones and email in a scheme piloted by the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), to diagnose patients living in rural areas, whom would otherwise be unable to access high quality medical treatment.

Perhaps most interestingly though, in March 2007 the Kenyan network provider Safaricom launched an innovative new service known as M-Pesa which allows mobile phone users to transfer small amounts of money (between 74p- 259), to other phone users through text messages, which can then be used to pay for items in shops in much the same way as a debit card. It is believed that this service has the potential to transform banking in countries like Kenya, where fewer than 20% of the population have access to the formal financial sector.

Various organisations, which have researched into the effect mobile phones and the Internet are having in developing countries argue that increased access to communication technologies has the potential to transform the economies of developing regions like Africa. That examples such as farmers and fisherman being able to access information on market prices, or businesses being able to benchmark ideas and communicate more effectively with suppliers and retailers from across the world, are crucial to economic growth in developing countries and present the opportunity for improved living standards and poverty reduction in the third world.

Carlos Fortin, the Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) argues that mobiles "have the potential to assist developing countries leap frog entire stages of development." Interestingly, research carried out by the London Business School, into the relationship between mobile telephony and economic growth in developing countries, supports this idea, indicating, "that an extra ten phones per 100 people in a typical developing country increases GDP growth by 0.6% points".

Although an increase of 0.6% per annum may seem quite a low rate of growth. If one considers that 23% of Kenya's population are believed to own a mobile phone, then this figure represents an increased GDP growth rate of 1.38% per annum, equating to an increase in Kenya's GDP of nearly $1 billion per year at the current level of mobile phone ownership, illustrating the potential mobile telephony presents regions like Africa, and in particular, the poorest members of society, such as subsistence farmers or fisherman.

Of course the potential mobile phones and other technology can offer has still to be realised by the majority of people from developing countries. The cost of mobile phone handsets and computers are perhaps the most obvious barrier preventing access to such technology. Interestingly mobile phones are more expensive in African countries like Tanzania, where the majority of the population earn less than $1 a day, than they are in countries like Britain, where network providers subsidise the cost of handsets. Whilst other constraints such as poor infrastructure in developing countries, are preventing potential consumers, especially from rural areas, from being able to participate in the telecommunications revolution.

However technological advances and other initiatives have the potential to address such constraints. In Kenya for example, some people living in rural communities with no electricity are using solar panels as a means to charge their phones. Whilst companies and charities in Britain are reconditioning unused mobiles, which are then sold at a reduced cost in Africa, thereby presenting individuals from countries like Kenya with the opportunity to access information on successful health, business or agricultural practices being used in other parts of the world, which have the potential to drastically improve the lives or some of the world's poorest people.

DID YOU KNOW?

Only 3% of Africans have landline telephones.

Between 1998 and 2003 mobile phone subscriptions in Africa increased by 1000%

UN estimates suggest there were 12 million Internet users in Africa by 2003

Grameen Bank found that in Uganda a mobile phone is often shared between 71 people

The first mobile phone call in Africa was in made in Zaire in 1987

97% of Tanzanians live within range of a mobile phone network

Morocco has gone from no mobiles in 1995 to 24% of population owning one by 2003

Motorola have created handsets for Africa which retail for less than $40

Philip's are working on a new range of chips that will take handset prices below $20