ACCRA, Ghana (AP) - Anita Akpeere prepared fried rice in her kitchen in Ghana's capital as a stream of notifications for restaurant orders lit up apps on her phone. "I don't think I could work in my industry without a phone," she said as requests came in for her signature dish, a traditional fermented dumpling.
Internet-enabled phones have transformed many lives, but they could play a unique role in sub-Saharan Africa, where infrastructure and public services are among the least developed in the world, says Jenny Aker, a professor who has tackled the issue. studies at Tufts University. At times, technology has bridged gaps in Africa, including providing access to mobile money for the unbanked.
Despite growing mobile internet coverage on the continent of 1.3 billion people, only 25% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa have access to it, according to Claire Sibthorpe, head of digital inclusion at the UK mobile lobby group telephones GSMA. Cost is the main barrier. The cheapest smartphone costs up to 95% of the monthly salary for the poorest 20% of the region's population, Sibthorpe said.
Literacy rates are below the global average and the lack of services in many African languages (about 2,000 are spoken across the continent, according to Harvard University's African Language Program) are other reasons why a smartphone may not be an attractive option for some investment. .
"If you buy a car, it is because you can drive it," says Alain Capo-Chichi, CEO of CERCO Group, a company that has developed a smartphone that works via voice commands and is available in 50 African languages, such as Yoruba. Swahili and Wolof.
Even in Ghana, where English is the main language, knowing how to use smartphones and apps can be challenging for newcomers.
One new company in Ghana is trying to close the digital divide. Uniti Networks provides financing to make smartphones more affordable and guides users through the app platform.
For Cyril Fianyo, a 64-year-old farmer in Ghana's Eastern Volta region, the phone has expanded his business beyond calling and texting. Using his ID card, he registered with Uniti, paid a deposit worth 340 Ghanaian Cedis ($25) for a smartphone and paid the remaining 910 Cedis ($66) in installments.
He was shown how to navigate apps that interested him, including a third-party farming app called Cocoa Link, which offers videos of planting techniques, weather information and details on the climate change challenges that have affected cocoa and other crops.
Fianyo, who previously planted according to his intuition and rarely interacted with agricultural advisors, was optimistic that the technology would increase his yields.
"Because of the weather forecast, I know exactly when to plant," he said.
Kami Dar, CEO of Uniti Networks, said mobile internet can help address other challenges, including access to healthcare. The company has launched in five communities in Ghana with 650 participants and aims to reach 100,000 users within five years.
Aker, the scientist, noted that the potential impact of mobile phones across Africa is enormous, but said there is limited evidence that paid health or agriculture apps benefit people there. She claimed that the only positive effects are reminders to take medication or get vaccinated.
After studying farming apps and their impact, she said it doesn't seem like farmers are getting better prices or improving their incomes.
CERCO Group's Capo-Chichi said a shortage 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 in Northern Ghana, intended to help cocoa farmers contribute to their pensions, involvement was high, but farmers did not find the app user-friendly and needed additional coaching. Following the feedback, the pension provider adjusted the interface to improve navigation.
Others benefit from the Uniti platform. Mawufemor Vitor, a church secretary in Hohoe, said a health app has helped her track her periods to help prevent pregnancy. And Fianyo, the farmer, has used the platform to find information about herbal medicine.
But cellphones are not a substitute for investments in public services and infrastructure, Aker said.
She also raised concerns about the privacy of data in the hands of private technology providers and governments. With digital IDs under development in African countries like Kenya and South Africa, this could pave the way for further abuse, Aker said.
Uniti Networks is a for-profit company that gets paid for every customer who signs up for paying apps. Dar claimed he was not targeting vulnerable populations to sell them unnecessary services and said Uniti only offers apps that align with the idea of impact, with a focus on healthcare, education, finance and agriculture.
Dar said Uniti has rejected lucrative approaches from many companies, including gambling firms. "Technology can be used for terrible things," he said.
He acknowledged that Uniti tracks users on the platform to provide incentives, in the form of free data, and to provide feedback to app developers. He acknowledged that users' health and financial data could be threatened by outside attacks, but said Uniti has decentralized its data storage in an effort to reduce the risk.
Still, the potential to provide solutions may outweigh the risks, Aker said, noting two areas where the technology could be transformative: education and insurance.
She said mobile phones could help overcome the illiteracy that still affects 773 million people worldwide, according to UNESCO. Improved access to insurance, which is still not widely used in parts of Africa, could protect millions of people facing shocks on the frontlines of climate change and conflict.
Back in the fields of Fianyo, his new smartphone has aroused 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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