REVOLUTION, MOBILE PHONES AND POVERTY
Revolution, mobile phones
and poverty. What on earth do these three things have to do with each
other. Its easy to see how any two of them would fit together in a
real life situation, but all three seems a bit of a stretch doesn't
it?
Well here's how; mobile
telecommunication explosion [mobile phones] in Sub-Saharan Africa
over the last 12-15 years has revolutionized almost every aspect of
our daily lives [revolution] particularly the lives of the poorest
people on the continent [poverty].
Its about this point in
an article that you'd expect the author to hit you with some
statistics you don't really care much for and won't really help you
understand the big picture, but I'm going to try and keep it real.
Lets take three aspects
of daily life that have been 'touched' by the mobile phone
revolution; communication [obviously], commerce and social relations.
Communication
seems a bit obvious but thinking back a decade ago I can remember a
time when news of a relative who have passed on in some far flung
part of the country would take days to reach us, or contacting a
relative who lived abroad was a logistical nightmare or even worse
getting the state owned telecoms company [Zamtel] to get a phone land
line into your home (which would allow you to have some communication
freedom) was a long arduous ordeal. A decade down the road and I
might as well be on a different planet. Putting Internet connectivity
aside, mobile telecoms has recreated the communication landscape in
this part of the world. News of a relatives' death reaches me within
hours (if not minutes), my aunt living in the USA is a few button
clicks away and to hell with a land line connection I can get a cell
phone and a SIM card for under K60.00 (about $11.00) in 5 minutes.
Commerce in
Sub-Saharan Africa has long baffled outsiders. For decades a legions
of entrepreneurs and multinational corporations have spent millions
of dollars thousands of man hours trying to figure out how to make
money in the African market. Many a senior executive and businessman
watched their investment go up in smoke (sometimes literally LOL!!)
or crumble and disappear under the sheer weight of regulatory
bureaucracy, cultural misunderstandings and inability to reach the
very consumers they were targeting. The answer was stumbled upon by
the locals (us Africans), make business and technology work for the
people its intended for not the other way around (as had been tried
previously). Mobile telecoms fitted perfectly into this new way of
thinking and as a result have benefited more than any other industry
from the consumer spending power of the people of Africa. Here's
how; when mobile phone operators first came to Africa they tried hard
to implement a business model ie Post Paid Billing,
that had worked well for them in America and Europe and force it on
the local consumer. Needless to say they soon fell flat on their
faces. Customers run humongous phone bills, couldn't pay the bill,
were disconnected and simply put the phone aside and forgot about it.
In addition the phones were prohibitively expensive, as were the SIM
cards (up to $250). Customer bases remained small and bad debts piled
up. Finally they adjusted and gradually moved towards a Prepaid
Billing business model that was
more suited to their clients and eventually insanely profitable for
them. But there's more; empowered by a cheap, reliable means to
communicate, Africa's large informal sector economy took full
advantage and soon rural suppliers of crops were haggling with urban
market traders looking for the best deals, suppliers found it easier
to get the best price for their goods, business deals could be struck
without the two parties ever meeting, let alone being in the same
country. The old establishment businesses particularly the banks, so
no reason to try and harness this communication energized sector,
refused to come to the party and remained largely aloof. Thats a move
they would quickly regret as the now agile mobile telecoms companies
moved in to fill the gap. And so Mobile Money
was born, the idea that you could pay for goods and services using
just your (rudimentary) feature phone must have seemed insane at
first but now literally billions of dollars in transactions take
place every month via mobile money. Mobile bill payments is also
growing pretty fast, a product of the old banking establishments
attempt to come to the party all be it late. Mobile Money , Mobile
bill payments and Mobile bulk payments have enabled the poorest
people (and everyone else) to participate in the economic life of
their countries more fully than ever before. Farmers in rural Nigeria
receive subsidy tokens on their mobile phones from the government
which they redeem for fertilizer and seed, migrant workers send money
to their families using mobile money and I pay my water, electricity
and satellite TV bills using mobile bill payments through my bank.
Social Relations,
more complicated than the previous two but just as important (if not
more). That landline I mention early did finally got installed (at my
parents home) and the phone was placed in the living room area. I
have memories of my girlfriend in high school calling me in the
evening and my entire family being privy half of our conversation
including the obligatory “I love you” at the end (much to my
brothers' amusement). Now I can have my conversation in complete
privacy without worry of whose listening and what they shouldn't
hear. The point I'm trying to make is, mobile phones have introduce a
degree of freedom in terms of who we communicate with, where we
communicate from (anywhere, as opposed to the just living room). You
could clinch a multi-million dollar deal while seated on the toilet
and your colleagues would be non the wiser. You could also tell your
wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/husband that you're working late when
you're actually having a few drinks with someone . . . . I've often
been in a bus seated next to someone lying through their teeth about
where they are at that time to someone their on the phone with. The
jury is still out on whether mobile phones have improved or degraded
our social relations.
So
there you have it; Revolution, mobile phones and poverty . . . .
only in Africa can the three come together to such great effect.
I'd
like to hear how your life has changed, whatever part of the world
you live. Fill free to comment :-)
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