Talk is profitable in Ghana

In the West, the mobile phone is often thought of as a luxury or the latest gadget, but in Ghana, the device has been providing new opportunities to transform lives. The BBC reports.

[...] There are about 25,000 of these new cell phone minute vending entrepreneurs in Ghana.

Called "Space to Space" operators, they are said to be making more in one day than they used to earn in a month.

What they sell is phone calls at 2,000 cedis a minute on Ghana's rapidly expanding mobile phone system.

Minutes of call time to people who have not yet managed to scrape together the money to buy a phone for themselves. And only 8% of the population have access to a phone".

Related articles:

-- GrameenPhone in Bangladesh reaches three million mobile phone subscribers - Being the largest telecommunications service provider in the country, GrameenPhone is playing a crucial role in increasing the country's mobile telephone penetration rate, which is still one of the lowest in the world with less than four telephones per 100 people.

-- Bank gives beggars phones instead of cash - Grameen Bank, famous for pioneering micro-credit programs in Bangladesh, has launched a new idea to empower the poor: arming beggars with mobile phones so they can sell a roving service for cash.

-- GSM payphones bring communications to rural Rwanda communities - MTN Rwanda says that in the past year, it has provided over 1,600 GSM based payphones for rural communities, bringing communications to areas that are often not served by landline phone networks.

-- Mobile phones for Uganda's poor - Based on the successful Grameen Village Phone Programme - The "phone ladies" of Bangladesh -, MTN Uganda officially launched “MTN villagePhone” this week.

emily | 2:55 PM | Mobile phone projects - Third World |
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