Small scale phone business to collapse

By Isabella Gyau Orhin

Space to space business, a flourishing mobile retailing business in Ghana and other parts of Africa may soon collapse just like the communication centres.

This is as a result of the introduction of low top up credits by mobile telecommunications networks.
All the mobile phone companies in Ghana such as Areeba which pioneered the space to space business, One touch, TIGO and Kasapa have introduced top up of units some as low as two thousand cedis.
The Coordinator of African Next Knowledge and Brokerage Interaction Dr. Amos Anyimadu, made this known at the recent E-governance conference in Accra organized by the Commonwealth Telecommunication organisation (CTO).
Dr. Anyimadu explained that while the space to space or umbrella mobile phone retailing business led to the demise of communication centres, the mobile phone companies themselves are collapsing the space to space business with very cheap top-up credits or units.
The space to space business provides job opportunities for Africa’s semi literate youth and many unemployed as well as unskilled labour force.
If people could top up with 2000, cedis which is the exact amount paid to the mobile retailer, then that person will just top up his credit and move on,” a participant at the conference said.
Dr. Anyimadu was of the opinion that it is important government put in place policies and measures to resuscitate the collapsed communication centres and the private businesses in the ICT sector to facilitate Public Private Partnership in the distribution of ICT services.
He said research in the fishing community of Moree in the Central region of Ghana has confirmed the demise of communication centres. Four years ago, there were no mobile phone networks operating in that central region town. However over the past six months, the intensity of penetration of mobile networks has virtually collapsed all communication centres including a popular one known as Shalom Communication centre.
He described communication centres as very important institutional resource in African countries which must be assisted to survive the ICT revolution.
He said in a country like Ghana that is yet to hit the 1000 dollar per capita income mark, Private public partnership in the form of communication centres must be helped to spread ICT services.


A German researcher Mr. Marcus Koll who did a study in Akatsi in the Volta Region last year also confirmed the collapse of communication centres in Akatsi including a popular one called Westphalia which is now a beer bar.


The essence of e-governance according to Dr. Anyimadu is putting the citizen at the centre of policy development. “E-government must be citizen focused,” he said.
“When a fisherman in Moree’s phone fell into the ocean, his knowledge of the possibility of repairing the phone brought to the fore how the ICT revolution is developing in Ghana,” Dr. Anyimadu said.
He also said there is the need to re-examine the mobile value chain which starts from the carpenter who makes the boxes for the mobile retail business all the way to the president who makes pronouncements on ICT policy directives.
“There is also the need to develop higher trust and broader social capital in our country,” he said.
Dr. Anyimadu also called on African governments to build trust in African ICT companies saying companies in Ghana like Softribe and others in Southern Africa have developed software’ programmes that are being used in all of Africa and other parts of the world.

Though mobile penetration in Africa does not yet match that of other continents, Africa is touted as the fastest growing region in the world for mobile phone users.
According to reports from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), by the year 2005, 60 percent of the world’s phones were in developing countries.
It is however argued that these may be accounted for in countries such as China, India, Brazil, etc, African’s are still suffering from teledensities less than 10 percent.

Mobile networks exceed fixed lines in Ghana and other areas in Africa. This is because mobile networks are in many ways easier to expand than fixed line which requires the expensive laying out of thousands of kilometers of cable.
According to the Horizon Magazine of Nokia, predictions are already appearing that mobile phones networks or devices will bring internet access to more Africans with a similar leapfrog over conventional computers which only a tiny percentage of citizens can afford.
The BBC recently reported that 61 percent of its international Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) users come from Nigeria with 19 percent coming from South Africa.
WAP allows mobile phone users to access information through their handsets.
The BBC says many people’s first phone are mobile phones instead of a fixed line and the coming years may show that many more will get their first look of internet on their phones and not on computers.