Ghana firm tackles missed business with mobile internet

印刷用画面を開く

Posted

Category: (Self-Study) Business

Switch to Watch View >

Storyline

Hide Storyline

Access to mobile internet is driving economic development in Africa but the cost of buying a phone is still a major obstacle for ordinary traders.

85% of the sub-Saharan region is covered by networks but only 25% of people use it according to the mobile lobby group GSMA, now a company in Ghana has a plan to close this digital gap.

Cyril Fianyo is a vegetable farmer in a village called Atabu in Ghana’s Volta region. He believes his business has the opportunity to expand now he’s able to use the internet on his phone.

Fianyo is being shown how to navigate apps that interest him, including a third-party farming app called Cocoa Link that offers videos of planting techniques, weather information and details about the challenges of climate change affecting cocoa and other crops. Previously he was restricted to calls and texts. Now he’s registered with a company called Uniti Networks.

Fianyo uses his identity card to register with the firm, he’s put on a deposit of 340 Ghanaian Cedis ($25) for the smartphone and will pay the remaining 910 Cedis ($66) in installments.

Fianyo, who previously planted according to his intuition and rarely interacts with farming advisors, is optimistic that the technology will help him increase his yields. “I like searching on the phone so much,” he says.

“When I got it, I saw that this phone is very smart, so I don’t find it difficult to get some information that I want.”

At a training session in Hohoe market, Uniti Networks’ Rita Quansah teaches a digital literacy workshop to a small group of men and women.

Quansah explains, “There are video tutorials as well in the app in Ewe so that those who are not able to even understand the English will be able to watch the videos in their local language.”

The mobile lobby group GSMA says the mobile internet has enabled the sub-Saharan region to “leapfrog” certain infrastructure and service gaps by providing access to mobile money where formal banks have failed.

Less than 50% of the population has access to a bank account, according to the World Bank.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Script

Hide Script

[Rita Quansah of Uniti Networks teaching farmer Cyril Fianyo how to use different apps on his phone]

[Fianyo tending his crops in field]

Cyril Fianyo (interview): “I like searching on the phone so much. So when I got this, I saw this phone is very smart. So I don’t find it difficult to get some information that I want.”

[Fianyo picking crop]

[Fianyo using his phone]

Cyril Fianyo (interview): “Last month we were given a data, a credit of 500 megabytes. We were given those things. So I think whilst we are on the project, that benefit will be coming to us.”

[Market traders attending a Uniti Networks digital literacy workshop]

[Rita Quansah of Uniti Networks addressing traders]

[Quansah teaching digital literacy workshop]

Rita Quansah (interview): “We do video tutorials in the local language so it could be, depending on the community we are in, so in this case, in Hohoe, we would have audio in Ewe explaining every text that we have written in English. There are video tutorials as well in the app in Ewe so that those who are not able to even understand the English will be able to watch the videos in their local language to be able to understand. And these videos are with them all the time. This is why it’s sustainable to the projects, so that when we are not even there, they are able to use the videos on their own.”

[Anita Akpeere, owner of Jaynita Catering and Services, standing in front of her restaurant with an employee]

[Akpeere preparing takeaway order for client]

[Akpeere checking orders on her phone]

[Phone]

Anita Akpeere (interview): “I actually get my orders from Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, Whatsapp, and normal text messages, and without internet you will not be able to get all these assets so I think having a mobile phone and a smart phone and internet, you can be able to work.”

[Akpeere checking orders on her phone]

Anita Akpeere (interview): “I don’t think I can work without a phone. Because even if I’m asleep, I still get orders, and when I wake up I pick the orders and work on it.”

[Quansah teaching digital literacy workshop]

[Market traders at session]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.

The related lesson for this video will be published next Tuesday.