How mobile technology is transforming Africa

Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr.

Africans and technology have indeed come very far. In the past, we were regarded as late adopters because we had to wait for the ‘tokunbos’ to land through the ports before trying out those technologies, but today all that have literally changed at least in the urban areas where mobility has brought about massive disruption.

Africa is known for the lowest rate of development and poor infrastructure. Majority of Africa’s population have access to key infrastructures, which are considered as the basic necessities in today’s world. This indicates the poor economic growth of Africa. The last decade, however, has shown some tremendous changes in the general trends of development on the continent of Africa.

Infrastructure has improved considerably along with the increase in employment opportunities. Although, various factors contributed to this transformation, but the most important one is the adaptation of mobile telephony. The poor population of Africa that found telecommunication services inaccessible now enjoys the different benefits of mobile telephony.

The reasons behind this are related to the increased population density in general and improved per capita income. The increased demand for telecommunication convinced the authorities to facilitate small cities with this service as well. At this stage, Africa contributes about seven per cent to the world’s telecommunication services. Consequently, this continent has experienced a complete transformation in the social and economic areas which we will discuss here.

Due to poor communication services, small-scale production firms in Africa always faced efficiency and financial issues. As they were mainly dependent on a limited number of supply chains, it was difficult for them to make a quick decision regarding production and transportation. With mobile telephony, not only the small firms but also the large organisations, are now able to communicate and coordinate better with their clients.

Market efficiency has improved a lot as the cost and time required for searching relevant information has decreased tremendously. For instance, a farmer can easily exchange market price and other necessary information with another farmer in a different city or location from where he is without visiting that place and bearing traveling expenses.

Other than the market efficiency, a large population has got employment in the telecommunication sector. Increased mobile telephony means that there are more service operators which need labor to share the workload. Mobile telephony, thus, has given Africa many employment opportunities and decreased the poverty rate. Residents of both urban and rural areas, now have good sources of income. Decreased unemployment directly relates with the betterment of the social aspect. Due to a stable job, crime rate has also decreased. Moreover, any dangerous incident can be reported immediately, due to easy access to mobile phones, to take appropriate action.

With the use of mobile telephony, Africa is now able to facilitate its natives with better infrastructure and communication services to interact within and outside the continent. The improved market position and job opportunities from that have supported the economic growth being witnessed in some parts of the continent quite well.

With mobile telephony, it has now become very easy to get in touch with family, friends and business associates in Europe, Asia and America as they are just one phone call away. Business deals are either initiated or sealed in record time over the phone. Mobile telephony has also made life easy for the citizens as they can now transact banking activities such as checking of bank balance, transfer of funds from one account to the other, make payments for the use of utilities, make payment for the purchase of items, and even opening a Zero balance account, etc, thanks to the advent of mobile telephony.

It is, in fact a spectacle to behold, when these days, you find the local pepper seller in the market using her mobile phone to call her son in a distant location to discuss domestic affairs or her wholesale pepper supplier to discuss one or two things about the business. The use of mobile phones has also reduced the continents consumption of fuel. This is because, it has reduced the tendency to transport oneself to see someone at another location for matters that can easily be finalized over the phone.

These days, phones have been designed to perform more than the traditional one-on-one call and fax facilities that the erstwhile dial phone system had. With Mobile phones these days, you can now perform a lot of functions. These other functions and services include sending and receiving short messages between individuals, popularly known as SMS, serving as a source of time piece. A lot of smartphones even have more functions, such as voice recording, video recording, serving as camera for taking pictures, and gives the user the ability to connect the internet, etc.

Internet connection through mobile phones has now given many more Africans the opportunity to access lots of information that are relevant for their individual and business advancement as well as join social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on, to keep abreast of goings on and contribute meaningfully to discussions, both in their immediate society as well as overseas. This has given Africans more awareness and consciousness of their immediate and remote environment. Care should, however, be taken in monitoring the use of mobile phones by students on the continent so they do not use at the expense of their studies.

It can safely be said that the advent of Mobile Telephony in Africa has really opened up the consciousness of the African people, to the opportunities that abound all over the world. Here’s what my friend and European partner said to me recently; “CFA, I believe Africa particularly Nigeria is where it will happen for the next 20 years.” His assertion only proves that we have indeed come very far.

 

Culled from punchng