ACCRA, Ghana — Anita Akpeere prepared fried rice in her kitchen in Ghana’s capital as a series of restaurant order notifications lit up apps on her phone. “I don’t think I could work without a phone in my business,” she said, as requests poured in for her signature dish, a traditional pasta dumpling.
Internet-enabled phones have transformed many lives, but they can play a unique role in sub-Saharan Africa, where infrastructure and public services are among the least developed in the world, said Jenny Acker, a professor who studies the topic at Tufts University. At times, technology in Africa has bridged gaps, including providing access to mobile money for the unbanked.
Despite growing mobile internet coverage on the continent of 1.3 billion people, just 25% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa have access to it, according to Claire Sibthorpe, head of digital inclusion at UK-based mobile phone lobby group GSMA. Cost is the main obstacle. The cheapest smartphone costs up to 95% of the monthly salary for the poorest 20% of the region’s population, Sibthorpe said.
Literacy rates below the global average and a lack of services in many African languages βββ about 2,000 are spoken across the continent, according to the African Language Program at Harvard University β are other reasons why a smartphone isn’t a must. investment for some.
“If you buy a car, it’s because you can drive it,” said Alain Capo-Chichi, chief executive of the CERCO Group, a company that has developed a smartphone that works through voice commands and is available in 50 African languages ββsuch as Yoruba. Swahili and Wolof.
Even in Ghana, where the lingua franca is English, knowing how to use smartphones and apps can be a challenge for newcomers.
A new company in Ghana is trying to close the digital divide. Uniti Networks offers funding to make smartphones more affordable and guides users through its app platform.
For Cyril Fianyo, a 64-year-old farmer in Ghana’s eastern Volta region, the phone has expanded his business beyond calls and messages. Using his ID, he registered with Uniti, paying a deposit worth 340 Ghana Cedis ($25) for a smartphone and will pay the remaining 910 Cedis ($66) in installments.
She showed him how to navigate apps that interested him, including a third-party farming app called Cocoa Link that offers videos of planting techniques, weather information and details on climate change challenges that have affected cocoa and other crops.
Fianyo, who in the past planted according to his intuition and rarely interacted with agricultural advisers, was optimistic that the technology would increase his yields.
“I will know the exact time for planting because of the weather forecast,” he said.
Kami Dar, chief executive of Uniti Networks, said mobile internet could help address other challenges, including access to health care. The company has launched in five communities across Ghana with 650 participants and wants to reach 100,000 users within five years.
Aker, the scholar, noted that the potential impact of mobile phones across Africa is huge, but said there is limited evidence that paid health or agriculture apps are benefiting people there. He argued that the only beneficial effects are reminders to take medication or vaccination.
Having studied agricultural applications and their impact, he said it does not appear that farmers are getting better prices or improving their income.
Capo-Chichi from CERCO Group said the lack of useful apps and content is another reason why more people in Africa are not buying smartphones.
Dar said Uniti Networks learns from mistakes. In a pilot program in northern Ghana designed to help cocoa farmers contribute to their pensions, there was high engagement, but farmers did not find the app user-friendly and needed additional guidance. Following feedback, the pension provider changed the interface to improve navigation.
Others find benefits from Uniti’s platform. Mawufemor Vitor, church secretary in Hohoe, said a health app helped her track her period to prevent pregnancy. And Fianyo, the farmer, used the platform to find information on herbal medicine.
But mobile phones are no substitute for investment in public services and infrastructure, Acker said.
He also raised concerns about data privacy in the hands of private technology providers and governments. With the deployment of digital identities in African nations such as Kenya and South Africa, this could pave the way for further abuses, Acker said.
Uniti Networks is a for-profit business, paid for each customer that signs up for paid applications. Dar claimed he was not targeting vulnerable populations to sell them unnecessary services, and said Uniti only features apps that align with the idea of ββimpact, with a focus on health, education, finance and agriculture.
Dar said Uniti has turned down lucrative approaches from several companies, including gaming companies. “Technology can be used for awful things,” he said.
He acknowledged that Uniti tracks users on the platform to provide incentives, in the form of free data, and provide feedback to app developers. He acknowledged that users’ health and financial data could be threatened by an external attack, but said Uniti has decentralized data storage in an effort to reduce the risk.
But the potential for solutions may outweigh the risks, Aker said, noting two areas where the technology could transform: education and insurance.
He said mobile phones could help overcome illiteracy which still affects 773 million people worldwide according to UNESCO. Increased access to insurance, which is still not widely used in parts of Africa, could provide protection to millions facing shocks on the front lines of climate change and conflict.
Back in Fianyo’s fields, his new smartphone has attracted curiosity. “This is something I would like to be a part of,” said neighboring farmer Godsway Kwamigah.
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Thompson reported from Dakar, Senegal.
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