EXECUTIVE TALK

By Madanmohan Rao

THE most visible face of digital media in Africa today is the mobile phone. And a range of infrastructural developments are emerging to ensure a widespread rise of broadband mobile communications.

Mobile media is attracting attention from the highest levels of industry, government and innovators fora in Africa today.

Almost 70% of Africans live within mobile network range and thanks to competitive handset manufacturers and traders, many can get cheap phones.

According to a Reuters news post, “the mobile phone is turning into Africa’s silver bullet.”
Africa is home to 53 countries, a rapidly urbanising young population of close to a billion people with a third of the world’s natural resources.
There is a growing belief that the future of the continent is changing much faster than people expected.

In terms of teledensity, Africa’s overall mobile penetration is still below 30% with plenty of room for growth.

On the mobile data and service front, from mobile healthcare to microfinance, the SMS is like the entry point of new media.
But local opportunities exist in rich media and interactive content in areas ranging from news and entertainment to car sales and apartment rentals.
For example, Text to Change - a non-profit organisation founded in 2006, looks to improve health education and medicine adherence via mobile telephony in developing countries.

The project was pioneered in Uganda and now has branches in Kenya and Namibia.
Its healthcare objectives include creating a dialogue to increase awareness of the disease and achieve detailed knowledge levels among young people, reducing HIV/AIDS-related stigma and motivating people to go for HIV-testing and treatment.
TTC has developed an interactive SMS quiz with questions about health-related topics linked with a reward system.
Mobile texting campaigns are one of many ways to increase awareness, caution and safe practices with respect to HIV/AIDS.
Farmers in Uganda are using mobile phones to serve as communication hubs and banana-disease trackers for their rural neighbours.

The Grameen Foundation teaches them how to collect digital photos, establish global positioning system coordinates and store completed 50-question surveys from nearby farmers with sick plants. This data is sent wirelessly and instantly to scientists in Kampala.
The foundation has partnered with MTN to create AppLab Uganda, an initiative to explore ways to use mobile technologies to improve people’s lives.

According to Eric Cantor, a director at AppLab, building applications for agriculture seems logical in a country that is predominately rural and reliant on small farms.

Bananas, a staple food for more than 12 million people, cover about 40% of Uganda’s arable land. Losses from banana disease are reported to be between $70m and $200m each year.
Using mobile phones to connect the most remote farmers with scientists in Kampala can improve surveillance and the possibility of preventing its devastation.

Village leader, David Bangirana, uses networks of community leaders armed with mobile phones to educate farmers and collect data in remote villages on other topics as well. He finds answers using Google text messaging and an operator service.

“The use of the mobile phone has empowered the community to learn and ask any question concerning their surroundings,” Bangirana says.

Wireless communication services are being used in the education sector not just as SMS quizzing platforms or campus WiFi, but for disseminating results of examinations.

The Uganda National Examinations Board has contracted SMS Media to provide examination results by SMS. This notification service has reportedly cleared many campuses of the perennial jam and chaos accompanying the release of results of national examinations, as teachers and parents scramble to find out the results.

Ordinarily, once examination results were announced, head teachers or their emissaries would request for cash for transport, lodging and allowances to get to the city and collect the results. For some students it would take a couple of days to hear of their exam results. Many teachers have applauded this mobile solution for saving them from this “burden of endless waiting.”

Operators participating in the programme include MTN, Zain, uganda telecom and Warid.

Makerere University has also embarked on a programme to decongest the university by opening regional centres across the country. Students will access lectures via a video conference system at the five regional centres.
The programme reportedly follows an agreement between the university and uganda telecom.

Looking ahead, this year promises plenty of excitement for ICT in Africa, especially East Africa. The landing of undersea optic fibre cables is expected to vastly cut the cost of communication and increase internet penetration.

“We have no other path but to join the knowledge and digital revolution,” Tunisian president, Ben Ali, aptly put it, at the African Union summit.

The writer is a consulant
in knowledge management and the new media. He is attending the ongoing 8th annual digital Africa summit