Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with stakeholders associated with the project and an in-depth review of related documentation and reports of the project. The study found that Rwanda has developed basic telemedicine capabilities in using video conferencing to enhance a participatory approach in teaching and facilitate continuous medical education and training. The findings suggest that the commitment of government to telemedicine, the strategic choice of using low-cost and less complex technologies, and strategic partnerships with educational and technology companies are factors which have influenced telemedicine implementation in Rwanda. The paper concludes that low-cost innovations which are adaptable to the resource constraints in developing countries may be the appropriate path towards developing sustainable telemedicine initiatives.

Keywords-telemedicine, Rwanda, teleconferencing, ehealth

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This paper investigates the impact of mobile phones on the micro-trading activities of women traders in Ghana. The research develops a conceptual model analyzing the impact of mobile phones on pre-trade, during-trade and post-trade activities. A case study approach is adopted and the findings suggest that traders primarily use mobile phones to communicate and exchange information in pre-and post-trade activities. A few traders innovatively also use them to manage customer details and scheduling deliveries in during-trade activities. This innovative use of mobile phones is a function of their pre-knowledge which may have been developed through formal education and/or social networks. Improving information management through mobile phones directly or indirectly contributes to the economic empowerment of the trader. The study concludes that developing the capabilities of the poor to use basic mobile functions and services, beyond voice calls, should define the agenda of future research, polices and strategies towards the “mobiles for development” movement.  The conceptual model developed may inform future research in mobile phones and micro-trading activities.

Boateng, R. (2010). Enhancing Micro-Trading Capabilities through Mobile Phones: The Case of Women Traders in Ghana, International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 9.4, 20(1), 2-8.

I. Introduction

There has been a tremendous growth in mobile phone ownership and use globally. Statistics from the International Telecommunication Union [1] tend to suggest that mobile phone subscribers currently constitute 60 percent of the world population.  The report also suggests that there are now more mobile phone users in the developing world than in the developed world. In countries like Ghana, it is estimated that, there are 50 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, and further, the ratio of mobile cellular subscriptions to fixed telephone lines is 80 to 1 [2]. The rapid diffusion of this relatively low-cost technology has spurred a development agenda questioning how mobile phones can be harnessed more effectively for socio-economic development in developing economies and other resource-poor contexts.

Initial efforts to finding answers to these questions can be analyzed from two perspectives: the practitioner and academic research perspectives. The initiatives of mobile network operators, banks, entrepreneurs, governments and development agencies characterize efforts from the practitioner perspective. These efforts tend to focus on the design and adoption of mobile applications for micro-finance activities or to enhance access to financial services [3],[4]. Efforts addressing the impact of mobiles on development concerns and needs – combating poverty and stimulating economic growth – are quite few. This imbalance is also reflected on the academic research front [5]. There is a preponderance of research studies documenting the business models which characterize the initial efforts of practitioners, mobile operators and banks. Academics are yet to catch up with studies seeking development solutions through mobile phones [5],[6]. Some of the few studies making strides at correcting the imbalance argue that there are complexities of factors which affect the poor and hence, make it challenging for researchers to conceptualize the associated needs and impact of mobile phones with one theoretical model or theory [7]. This often contributes to the blurred distinctions between amplification and transformational effects and also between social and production (business) spheres in adoption and usage [3]. Thus, future studies will have to draw on a more comprehensive approach to evaluate the multi-stranded impact of mobile phones on the livelihoods of adopters.

This paper responds to this call for research. The paper investigates the impact of mobile phones on the micro-trading activities of women traders in Ghana. Extant literature has fairly covered studies on the mobile phones usage and mobiles for development in sub-Saharan Africa. The studies include mobile phones and fisherman and farmers in Ghana [8]; mobile phone sharing practices in Ghana [9]; mobile phones and development in Nigeria [6],[10]; and mobile phone ownership and social capital in Tanzania and South Africa [11]. Despite these studies there is a call for more studies to test earlier findings in different contexts and in different micro-economic activities in order to contribute to better understanding of the impact of mobile phones in developing economies. The underpinning research question is: What is the impact of mobile phones on the micro-trading activities of women traders in Ghana?

The paper is organized in six sections. Section one covered the introduction of the paper. Section two examines mobile phones and micro-trading to develop the research framework for this study. Section three presents the research methods for the study. Section four presents the case studies of two women traders. The analysis of the cases studies are presented in section five and the conclusions and directions for future research are discussed in section six.

Download here: IFIP 9.4 Newsletter, Volume 20, No. 1, February 2010

The world’s least developed countries (LDCs) remain in a state of a quandary as to how best to partake in the global information age.  These countries have historically lagged the world in most aspects of development, and the age of technology presents new challenges.  We offer what we believe to be the right strategies for the affected countries to catch up with the rest of the world.  It may be easy to say we should just flood the regions with modern technologies, but by and large this strategy has not worked for most developing countries, as it is tantamount to providing someone with fish rather than teaching them how best to fish [6, 10].  Actually, the fish simile does not adequately capture the ICT situation, considering the fact that technologies are not simple artifacts, and their meaningful use and application depend on local contents, culture, etc.

The success of SSA and other LDCs is in the interest of the whole world.  The 690 million people in SSA make up 88% of the world’s least developed countries [6, p.7].  Many of the examples in this paper are based on experiences in SSA, but they are applicable to other developing countries of the world.  Developing countries make up 75% of the world’s population and currently share only 16% of the world’s products [9, p.74].  Mainstream Information Systems research with a focus on developing countries and SSA is very rare [9, p.74].

One of the motivations for this paper is to enhance the understanding of the interactions that come to bear between some socio-economic development needs and factors generally innate to Sub-Sahara Africa and other developing countries that manifest to impede technological transfer, adoption, and diffusion.  We present an integrated view of the problems and recommendations to help policy makers, IT practitioners, donor organizations, private investors, and others to devise meaningful policies that would help the regions reach their potentials.  We believe that the programmed approach we are proposing would help transform these technological deserts (where many band-aid approaches have failed) into oases of technological use, development, and production.

Musa, P., Mbarika, V., & Meso, P. (2005). Calling for programmed technology transfer and adoption strategies for sustainable growth of world’s LDCs. Communications of the ACM, 48(12), 111-116.

says Siri Nchise, a 29‑year‑old customer service representative for an Internet service provider in the African city of Douala, in the Littoral Province of Cameroon. In the past five years, she’s had three cellphones stolen. She keeps buy­ing new ones, because they are the only practical way to connect to friends, family, and business associates.

On a continent where rolling blackouts, undrinkable water, and fetid mounds of refuse remain the stuff of every­day existence, wireless telecommunications services stand out as a rare, perhaps unique, technological success story. Tens of millions of ordinary Africans just like Nchise carry cellphones today, something not even the richest of them could have possessed barely a decade ago. And every month, millions more dial into the 21st century, with profound implications for African economies and societies.

It might come as a surprise that sub‑Saharan Africa— with 34 of the 50 poorest countries on Earth according to the United Nations—is now the world’s fastest growing wireless market. But there’s no arguing with the statistics: the number of mobile subscribers in 30 sub‑Saharan Africa countries, not including South Africa, rose from zero in 1996 to more than 82 million in late 2004, according to the latest figures from the International Telecommunication Union, in Geneva. The rate of growth for the entire con­tinent has been more than 82 percent per year compared with the 33 percent annual growth rate in the Americas; in Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, and Tanzania, growth rates are running in excess of 300 percent. Nigeria, Africa’s largest country, with 140 million inhabitants, has only about 500 000 landlines, or approximately 1 for every 280 people. In that country 19 million mobile phone subscribers have signed on since 2000, and the Nigerian Communications Commission projects the total number of subscribers to grow to 50 million by 2010.

Africa is going wireless for a very simple reason: its national telecommunications monopolies are poorly managed and corrupt, and they can’t afford to lay new lines or maintain old ones. So in most sub‑Saharan countries not even 1 percent of the population have landline‑connected telephones. That compares with more than 10 lines per 100 people in Latin America and more than 64 per 100 in the United States. Indeed, Tokyo and New York City each has more fixed‑line telephones than the whole of sub‑Saharan Africa. These numbers are even more daunting when you consider that fixed lines tend to be concentrated in capital cities, leaving rural communities totally bereft. For instance, while the country of Senegal has about 140 000 lines, 65 percent, or 91 000, of those lines are in the capital city of Dakar.

More than just inadequate landline networks and insti­tutions are fueling Africa’s wireless boom. Growing politi­cal stability has helped to attract foreign investors to a region decimated by civil wars over the past 50 years. And the far sim­pler logistics of getting a wireless network up and running are also an enormous factor in sub‑Saharan Africa, where even the seemingly straightforward can turn out to be anything but.

During our recent travels in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and our home country of Cameroon, we’ve seen why wireless networks have succeeded so spectacularly where landlines had failed so miserably. Landlines can take years to install even after the right palms have been greased, while you have only to buy a hand­set and prepaid cellphone calling card to get a wireless line. In addition, companies can erect base stations that cover a radius of 35kilometers for much less than it would cost to run copper cables from central exchanges to every customer’s phone.

But that’s only part of the story. The African cellphone revolu­tion thrives on a combination of a novel business model intro­duced a decade ago in South Africa and some clever calling tactics that have made cellphone usage affordable for a large segment of the population. As a result, growing numbers of Africans at the top, middle, and even bottom rungs of the economic ladder depend on the wireless sector for their livelihoods. But can the region sustain the wireless sector’s phenomenal growth rates and accom­panying prosperity? And does the capital flowing in and out of these countries via transnational wireless corporations represent a sustainable infusion of desperately needed foreign investment or neocolonialism dressed up as a free market bonanza.

This study theoretically and empirically distinguishes between two different dimensions of e-business outcomes: specific capabilities and value derived from e-business. It operationalizes the effects of national government institutions and commercial infrastructure on e-business outcomes and empirically tests for their effects. The study provides empirical support for conceptual arguments for the need of ICT policies specific to the needs of e-business.

Okoli, C., Mbarika, V., & McCoy, S. (Forthcoming) The Effects of Infrastructure and Policy on E-Business in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.  European Journal of Information Systems.

However, the current discourse on development of information systems education programmes in developing countries identifies a gap between proposed models for curriculum development and the adaptation to the local context. This paper argues for the need to address local adaptations when implementing a globally defined information systems curriculum for undergraduate education in sub-Saharan Africa. The case is made from a review of research on global information systems curriculum processes, lessons learned from development work in the sub-Saharan region in general, and from information and communication technologies implementations in particular. A question-based curriculum adaptation model is suggested which highlights relevant considerations in making sustainable and scalable local adaptations of a global curriculum model. The model provides a structural approach to aid the formulation of a locally adapted curriculum, where the global topics of an information systems education are merged with the areas of the local societal environment, the current status of information and communication technology infrastructure, and issues of sustainability.

This paper seeks to conceptualize the link between Web 2.0 and organizational learning through a framework that assesses its adaptability as a learning tool. The paper provides an integrated perspective on the broader contribution of Web 2.0 to organizational learning. The proposed framework can assist organizations in prioritization and evaluation of learning tools. Future research may extend its applicability and understanding by examining the constructs of the proposed framework empirically.

Boateng, R., Malik, A. and Mbarika, V. (2009). Web 2.0 and Organizational Learning: Conceptualizing the Link, Proceedings of the Fifteenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, San Francisco, California, August 6th-9th 2009.

African LDCs lag other regions of the world in utilizing information and telecommunications technologies.   The resulting digital divide has hitherto left African LDCs far behind other regions of the world in various aspects of economic development. Many technology-oriented constraints account for the low levels of teledensity in Africa.

The fact that the trend should not be allowed to worsen has led to calls for a debate on what strategies can be adopted to turn things around.   Possible options include the following:  (a) self-sufficiency approach by each country, (b) African Regional/Foreign Alliance approach to solve the regional technology-oriented constraints to teledensity, and (c) the ‘viagra’ approach of total and perpetual dependence on the West to come in and apply a band-aid fix to the problem, and leave behind an infrastructure with little or no local expertise to manage it.  In this paper, the term ‘viagra’ is used to imply a quick prescription in a guise of a “solution”.

Using Friedman’s test, factor analysis, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) statistical procedures, this study examines the perspectives or beliefs of telecommunications stakeholders of Africa’s LDCs on strategies for solving the technology-oriented constraints that have been documented in the literature.  The findings suggest that Africa’s LDCs should adopt a self-sufficiency approach and also create regional alliances for sustainable development of telecommunications infrastructure to spur the much needed teledensity growth in the region.

Mbarika, V., Byrd, T. A., McMullen, P., and Musa, P. (2002). Teledensity Growth Constraints and Strategies for Africa’s LDCs: ‘Viagra’ Prescriptions or Sustainable Development Strategy. Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Vol. 5, # 1.

The study, however, suggests a positive relationship between teledensity and other variables such as GDP per capita, telecommunications staff and length of wait times to acquire and maintain telephones.  Some strategies are suggested as steps to take in order to improve the teledensity levels of the countries used in this study.

Mbarika, V., Kah, M., Meso, P., Musa, P., and Warren, J. (2003). Predictors of Growth of Teledensity in Developing Countries: A Focus on Low and Middle Income Countries.  Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, Vol. 12, #1, pp. 1-17.