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Africa: Internet Creativity
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Feb 17, 2004 (040217)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
According to latest estimates, Africa still has the lowest level of
internet access among world regions, accounting for only 1.4% of
the estimated 700 million people online worldwide. The 10 million
in Africa estimated to have internet access are only a tenth of the
100 million that would match Africa's share of the world
population. But the African internet public is large enough to
provide much scope for an abundance of diverse ventures to make
creative use of new technologies.
This issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin highlights several such
ventures, taken from African projects that placed among the
finalists in the Stockholm Challenge, a program that annually
honors innovative use of information and communication technology.
The projects summarized below include free nationwide internet
access in Egypt, new marketing opportunities for Batswana
basketweavers, and innovative cellphone services for Senegalese
farmers and fishermen and Ugandan villagers. I have also added
several related references to ongoing projects of continued
interest.
For estimates of global internet access, including African
countries, see
http://www.internetworldstats.com. According to this
site, some 31% of Africans with internet access are in South
Africa, followed by Egypt with 19%, Morocco with 7%, Tunisia and
Zimbabwe with 5% each, and Nigeria and Kenya with 4% each.
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Many thanks to those of you who have already sent in your voluntary
subscription payment to support AfricaFocus Bulletin. If you have
not yet made such a payment and would like to do so, please visit
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For a recent mention of AfricaFocus Bulletin in the U.S. press, see
the Indianapolis Star for February 16, 2004. Professor Philip
Rutledge, professor emeritus at Indiana University, begins his
opinion column:
"What do The Washington Times and the AfricaFocus Bulletin have in
common? In editorial policy, they are miles apart. Yet, both
published articles during this Black History Month likely to kindle
heated discussion about a controversial but curious link between
reparations for American descendants of African slaves and
cancellation of African debt."
For the full text of Professor Rutledge's opinion column:
http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=9531
For "Africa: Who Owes Whom," featuring the AFSC's Life over Debt
campaign:
http://www.africafocus.org/docs04/debt0402.php
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Stockholm Challenge Finalists
http://www.challenge.stockholm.se/finalists.asp
Note: The following summary descriptions, of projects in Senegal,
Botswana, Uganda, and Egypt, are unedited extracts from the pages
on each project on the Stockholm Challenge website. The full list
of finalists from around the world also includes other African
projects in Egypt (Archaeological Map) and South Africa
(Tele-Health in Eastern Cape, and three additional projects in
Western Cape).
MANOBI:
Multimedia Market Information System for Senegalese Farmers
http://www.manobi.net
Dakar, Senegal
Farmers in the field and artisans and fishermen on the sea can use
their mobile phones to check prices before they set off and find
out where they will get the best offer for their produce
Manobi is a Mobile & Internet added value services operator for the
agri-business sector and rural communities. Manobi had developed
the T2M, a system that enable producers and as well as exporters
and public regulatory agency to use their mobile telephone, a PDA
or Internet in order to know in real time (i) the price and arrival
status of their products at the markets, and (ii) the availability
of the same products in the production sites. The price and arrival
changes of the products on the markets are collected by Manobi
twice a day. The data (45,000/day) which are sent and stocked at a
centralized base, are analyzed in real time before they are
broadcast to the users through a multi-channel platform specially
developed by Manobi to provide value added data services at lower
cost with the mobile telephony operators' first generation
classical vocal networks. Thanks to this system, Manobi has created
a win-win ecosystem where all the users are increasing their
efficiency and their revenues, the market is better supplied and
the operators is encouraged to better deploy its network in rural
areas
Lack of access to live information on market prices and conditions
one of the main obstacles facing the producers, fishermen and
intermediaries supplying the Senegalese urban and rural market
suppliers. It is one of the causes of impoverishment of the rural
populations who produce fresh products. Because people are not well
informed, they can neither well sell their products nor optimize
the management of their farms or fishing activity or efficiently
plan their work schedule. Furthermore, the rural populations are
not generally supplied with sufficient means of communications; in
particular, the mobile and fixed telephone networks cover a very
little part of the rural areas. ...
Botswana Basket Weavers on-line
http://www.botswanacraft.bw
Gaborone, Botswana
Botswana basket weavers formed a group to market their products on
the internet with help from Botswanacraft Marketing
As experienced art class baskets weavers we felt the prices we were
getting for our work was not enough and did not justify the work we
put into weaving. Weaving baskets is a lot of hard work and it can
take months or even a year to finish a large basket. we were tired
and ready to stop weaving! Botswanacraft suggested we form a group
and try to market our artworks directly on the internet. We now
have 24 women in our group and we are able to sell most of our
artworks to collectors from many different countries. We are keen
to continue with our weaving skills and if we can find more
customers we will allow more women from the community to join the
group. Maybe one day we can have the world university of basket
making here in Etsha!
The objective is to develop a world wide market for the intricate
art of the unique baskets woven in Etsha, Botswana. Using the
internet this group of 24 rural women can access and service a
world-wide market for their art-works.
Digital photos of the baskets are put on the web for clients and
customers to see and select for purchase. Orders are made by email
and the selected art-work is delivered within 14 days from date of
order.
Enables the weavers earn a living wage as there is no local market
for the quality baskets that they weave. Without this e-based sales
initiative the women would not be able to earn a living weaving
baskets.
AfricaFocus Bulletin additional note:
The designs in the online gallery of this coop are an extraordinary
visual treat, while the prices, including international express
mail, range from $20 for basic baskets to $200 and up in the Basket
Art Gallery [
http://www.botswanacraft.bw/gallery/index.html].
The intricacy of the patterns are illustrative of a subject that
also well represented in sources on the web: the history of
mathematics in Africa. See, among the many sources:
(1) African Mathematical Union, Commission for the History of
Mathematics in Africa
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/AMU/amuchma_online.html
(2) Plaited strip patterns on Tonga handbags in Inhambane
(Mozambique), by Paulus Gerdes
http://www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/gerdtonga
Non-mathematicians can enjoy the patterns and skip the math.
(3) Review of Women, Art, and Geometry in Southern Africa, by
Paulus Gerdes
http://www.maa.org/reviews/wagsa.html
Village Phone Uganda
http://www.tech.gfusa.org/villagepayphone.shtml
http://www.mtnvillagephone.co.ug
Creating new partnerships to provide low-cost telecommunications
services to poor rural Ugandans.
Grameen Foundation USA has formed a partnership with MTN-Uganda,
Uganda's premier mobile phone communications company, to create a
new company in Uganda called MTN VillagePhone. MTN VillagePhone is
partnering with microfinance institutions in Uganda to bring
low-cost telecommunications services to poor rural villages in
Uganda. Micro-entrepreneurs purchase a mobile phone, power
solution, and prepaid-airtime with a small loan from their
microfinance intitution. They then sell use of the phone to members
of their community on a per minutes basis. Over 100 phones have
been deployed to date and the program is on track to be fully
sustainable. The initiative has four simultaneous goals: 1) provide
the rural communities of Uganda with valuable communications
services to enable them to break the cycle of poverty; 2) to
establish a general replication model for the Village Phone
program; 3) to validate, measure, and document the model in a
single country; 4) Disseminate this learning to the commercial
telecommunications sector and the worldwide development communities
so as to establish a global Village Phone movement. Over five
years, we plan to introduce 5,000 new Village Phone business in
rural Ugandan villages.
Although cellular phone network coverage extends into a majority of
rural Uganda, very few people in rural areas can afford to purchase
a mobile phone. Cut off from easy access to information, poor rural
Ugandans are placed at an economic and social disadvantage. For
example, middlemen who come to purchase their goods often charge
exhorbatant rates. With access to telecommunication services, rural
farmers can receive fair market value for their goods,
entrepreneurs in neighboring villages can consolidate their buying
power for raw materials and services, and friends and family can be
quickly contacted. A partnership with a telecommunications company
is essential to provide rural telecommunications services.
Discounted airtime to the Village Phone operators enables them to
have adequate business margins to simultaneously repay their loans
and offer competitve rates to their customers. The
telecommunications company receives a benefit from the increased
volume from these Village Phones. The microfinance institutions
provide a channel to market with unique access to rural areas. This
innovative partnership has been made possible by Grameen Foundation
bringing the players together and developing a business model
specifically for the Ugandan business environment.
The project's greatest impact is enabling people with no access to
information services to reach out to the world outside of their
village for all manners of information. While voice communication
is the most common, a new exciting innovation has now been made
available. Current market price information for popular products
are available via SMS. For the low cost of 150 Ugandan shillings
(US$0.07), a rural farmer can learn the price of corn in the
capital city to negotiate a fair price with their local middleman.
The most obvious benefit of the village phone program is the
economic impact that this communications tool will bring to the
entire village. There is clear evidence of this impact from
Bangladesh, including higher prices paid to Village Phone users for
their goods and better exchange rates when repatriating funds. For
the cost of a phone call, a family is able to save the expense of
sending a productive member to deliver or retrieve information by
traveling great distances in person. Some creative and
entrepreneurial users of the technology identify new business
opportunities, including the resale of information to others in
their communities. The technology also serves to link regional
entrepreneurs with each other and their clients, bringing more
business to small enterprises. Phones have even been used in
emergency situations, accessing medical assistance during natural
disasters and, recently in Uganda, calling the police to enable the
capture a group of criminals. Grameen's experience in Bangladesh
has shown that information technology has enormous potential for
increasing local economic activity and business opportunities as
well as the health and safety of people in the community.
We plan to deploy 5,000 village phones over five years, bringing
telecommunication services to over 10 million rural Ugandans.
Egypt's Free Internet Project
Cairo, Egypt
http://www.mcit.gov.eg
Egypt's Free Internet Project is an initiative by the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology in Egypt, to provide
everyone nationwide with easy and affordable access to the Internet
at the cost of a local call and with no addtional subscription
fees.
In its effort to make technology more affordable, Egypt's Ministry
of Communications and Information Technology launched, on the 14th
of January 2002, the Free Internet Initiative. A unique Egyptian
experience, where Telecom Egypt, in cooperation with the majority
of Egypt's Internet Service Providers, started offering
subscription-free Internet services to users in Cairo via dialup to
special-prefix numbers starting with "0777" or "0707". During 2002,
an ambitious roll-out plan was implemented and as a result, in
September 2002, "Free Internet Services" were available nationwide.
Today, Internet users all across Egypt, are only charged for the
price of local phone calls associated with connecting to the net.
The Free Internet Initiative is based on an offloading / revenuesharing
model: Where ISPs are allowed to co-locate their access
equipment at Telecom Egypt local exchanges. Thus customers'
Internet calls are serviced at the closest local exchange and
re-routed to the ISP data backbone, resulting in major offloading
of Telecom Egypt PSTN network. In return for offloading, revenues
from the Free Internet calls are shared between Telecom Egypt and
the service providers.
The Free Internet Initiative represents a success story of
public-private-partnership, which has resulted in higher quality
and reduced prices of Internet dial-up services in Egypt, to the
best interest of the Egyptian citizen.
The Free Internet Initiative aims at laying the foundation for
Egypt's Information Society. Increasing the number of online users,
their usage patterns and boosting the infrastructure as a whole are
building the base for future e-Government projects. Before the
project launch in December 2001, Internet users were estimated by
1 million and International Internet capacity was 400 Mbps. Todate
statistics indicate a significant increase in the number of
Internet users, usage patterns,
International capacity and dialup infrastructure:
* Ports Installed Nationwide: 63 Thousand.
* Total Internet Minutes per Month: 700 Million.
* Number of Users Nationwide: 2.4 Million.
* Total International Capacity is: 845 Mbps.
Other objectives of the Free Internet Initiative include providing
high-quality affordable dial-up Internet services to users.
Introducing strong competition and continuous monitoring of service
quality by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, has
driven ISPs and Telecom Egypt to expand their infrastructure all
across the country to serve citizens in urban as well as rural
areas.
The Free Internet Initiative has increased the Egyptian citizen's
quality of life by providing an easy and affordable model for
online services:
- Users are offered a variety of Free Internet numbers to choose
from. Currently 225 Internet number, all starting with the same
prefix: 0777 or 0707.
- ISPs provide their customers easy-to-use dial-up services: no
authentication and no subscription fees, via the same numbers
nationwide.
- Competition between 8 NSPs, with large investments in network
infrastructure, and competition between 145 retail ISPs, are
resulting in high-quality reliable Internet service: with no busy
tones, no service interruption and good download data rates.
- Telecom Egypt, having specifically invested to upgrade its
billing system, provides the user with an easy billing model, where
Internet dialup usage-charges are collected with the user's regular
phone bill.
Transferability:
The Free Internet Initiative, having proved itself successful by
all measures, provides a model for replication in other countries.
The associated technical solutions, business models, and regulatory
frameworks are clearly defined by the various players and can be
copied by other countries and modified according to their specific
Internet market conditions and needs. This especially applies to
developing countries with moderate Internet penetration rates and
an emerging Internet market. Some countries of the Arab region such
as Palestine, Sudan, Syria and Iraq as well as other countries such
as Pakistan, have already expressed their interest in studying
Egypt's Free Internet Initiative. Some of them have also signed
agreements with Free Internet Initiative partners, for replicating
the model, some have requested official consultation on the issue,
while the others have requested enough information to study the
project.
Since its launch in January 2001, the Free Internet Initiative has
demonstrated substantial effect on increasing Internet use in
Egypt. Present statistics indicate that the number of users has
increased by 140% reaching 2.4 million, International capacity has
doubled to 845 Mbps and the total number of Internet dialup minutes
has grown up to 700 million per month. The objective in 2004 is to
reach 3 million users served by 1 Gbps International capacity.
Increasing Internet penetration rates and the number of online
users is expected to stimulate more e-government and e-business
applications. It is also expected to drive more online local
content as well as online local services, which will in turn boost
the Internet market of broadband services.
Additional Recommended Links and Resources
(1) Inclusive Information Society
http://www.africaaction.org/docs02/ict0211.htm
Documents from the Association for Progressive Communications.
Includes links to Schoolnet Namibia, still one of the most
innovative ventures in building internet capacity in African
schools. See http://www.schoolnet.na and try your hand at the
interactive Africa map at
http://www.schoolnet.na/games/map/africa.html
Schoolnet Namibia is also among the hosts, with the AllAfrica
Foundation and others, of the African Free and Open Source Software
Developers Meeting, taking place in Namibia in March. See
http://tacticaltech.org/africasource/
(2) Africa ICT Policy Monitor
http://africa.rights.apc.org
Current news and reports. See also the January issue of Chakula,
the APC's Africa Internet Rights ICT Policy newsletter, available
at http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/africa-ir-public/
(3) Digitial Solidarity Gap
http://www.africafocus.org/docs03/it0312a.php
and
http://www.africafocus.org/docs03/it0312b.php
(4) Time To Get Online
http://www.ttgo.kabissa.org
Learning resource for civil society on effective use of the
internet, from Kabissa, which also provides free internet hosting
for African NGOs.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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