[kictanet] Social Impact of mobile phone/GSMA Report
Grace Githaiga
ggithaiga at hotmail.com
Thu Sep 29 20:32:47 EAT 2011
Hi Chris I hope Gabriel Solomon who made the GSMA presentation will respond to your query. I have copied him into this email. RgdsGrace-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have the strength to survive, you have the power to succeed. Life is all about choices we make depending upon the situation we are in. Go forth and rule the World!
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:42:48 +0100
From: cgfoster at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Social Impact of mobile phone
CC: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
To: ggithaiga at hotmail.com
Dear Grace,
Thanks for flagging this interesting article up. Does anyone know if
the two reports mentioned are going to be made publically available
for download?
Thanks
Chris
--
Christopher Foster
PhD Researcher, Centre for Development Informatics (CDI)
University of Manchester, UK
On 27/09/11 16:39, Grace Githaiga wrote:
Social Impact of mobile phone
By Mutwiri Mutuota
NAIROBI, Kenya, September 27- In the often
stated world order, innovation is ‘ordained’ to flow from
Western nations to their Southern counterparts.
However, the mobile phone industry has
provided the South, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, the
rare opportunity to impart on their illustrious Western
counterparts pioneering advancements in Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) that if replicated
worldwide, the social impact would be astronomical.
On Monday night, a report released by GSMA,
the umbrella body of all mobile phone operators worldwide
in Nairobi spelt out the staggering scale of what
Government initiatives aimed at promoting mobile phone use
can have on their populations.
The GSMA conducted two studies, titled
Mobile Telephony and Taxation in Kenya and Mobile
Taxation: Surtaxes on International Incoming Traffic where
the positive and inhibitive impact government policy can
have on the advancements of the industry were spelt out.
In the first report, the decision by the
Kenyan government in June 2009 to exempt mobile handsets
from Value Added Tax (VAT, pegged at 16 percent in the
country) spurred unprecedented growth in the industry that
in turn accelerated economic growth.
That pronouncement was made by the
country’s Minister for Finance, Uhuru Kenyatta, tucked in
his long annual budget speech and its importance was lost
at the moment.
“The social impact has been astounding.
Economic growth has been boosted by eight percent in Kenya
as an example with services such as M-Pesa and Airtel
Money making such a huge difference in people’s lives,”
Gabriel Solomon, the Head of Public Policy at GSMA said.
He was alluding to the mobile money
transfer services pioneered by Kenya’s leading
communication service provider, Safaricom (M-Pesa) and
rivals Airtel (Airtel Money) who followed suit with the
concept catching on worldwide.
“It has improved production efficiency and
social cohesion tremendously and such an impact can be
replicated worldwide if mobile phone and mobile broadband
technology is adopted worldwide,” Solomon added.
According to the report, the economic
impact of the growth in mobile telephony in Kenya has seen
contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shoot up
by whooping 250 percent since 2006 with the industry
expected to churn some $3b (Ksh300 billion) or 5.6 percent
of the entire GDP to the nation’s breadbasket in 2011.
The decision to slash VAT on mobile
handsets has led to a 200 percent growth in sales in the
past two years. It also saw the market expand to include
two other Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) namely Orange
and Essar (YU Mobile) added to the Safaricom and Airtel
duopoly.
The corresponding price drop on the handset
pegged at 70 percent has seen mobile coverage increase to
cover 96 percent of the population, one of the highest
penetration rates worldwide.
“Kenya and
sub-Saharan Africa have shown to be leaders in innovation
in the developed world and we are seeing a shift of
innovation from the South to the West and this levels the
playing field if ultimately replicated worldwide with the
world doing business,” Solomon remarked.
Subsequently, MNOs in the country have
played their part in motivating the growth in productivity
of the country’s economy as a whole by contributing such
increases by providing services such as mobile banking,
M-Agriculture and M-Education in addition to initiating a
number of social projects in Kenya’s rural areas.
Events such as the annual Safaricom Lewa
Marathon held at the Lewa Downs Wildlife Conservancy where
besides promotion of the rare black Rhino at the 5,000
acre lush of Savannah in Northern Kenya, the race also
raises money for eradication of eye disease trachoma among
the nomadic Samburu community.
“The experience of the Kenyan government’s
removal on taxation on handsets indicates there could be
significant benefits for consumers from removal of mobile
specific taxes,” the report features.
On the other side of the spectrum, the
second study on Surtaxes on International Incoming Traffic
(SIIT) illustrated the adverse effects state levies on
mobile telephony were having on particularly rural African
society that continues to be left behind by the digital
boom.
Gabon and Congo Brazzaville have borne the
brunt of the introduction of SIIT by their governments
with the price of inbound mobile call traffic rising by
111 and 82 percent in that order.
“MNO in Senegal noted that the number of
international call minutes terminated on its network
decreased each month the taxation is in place when the
prices rose by 50 percent,” the report cited.
Similar reversals were witnessed in Ghana
where prices rose by 58 percent when SIIT was introduced
where in addition to the reduction of incoming calls,
operators in African countries are reciprocating by higher
termination prices.
Of more worrying concerns, the findings
state, “Operators have reported significant cases of
illegal traffic since the introduction of SIIT. This takes
away the revenue from operators and governments since
illegal SIM boxes work in a way that congests a
disproportionate amount of spectrum and reduces the
average quality of service for illegal calls.”
“Governments should liberate the mobile
phone industry to allow private sector investment for the
benefit of the consumer as Kenya demonstrated by dropping
the tax on mobile phone handsets,” Solomon asserts.
During the launch of the report where Kenya
was cited as a model example of government’s active
involvement in advancing mobile telephony, the country’s
Information and Communication Minister, Samuel Poghisio,
noted;
“The world should think of mobile
technology as an agent of social development and there is
need to worry about cyber security and such steps are for
the sake of mankind.”
While proclaiming the country was in the
process of rolling out an ambitious M-Education and
M-Health programme, he added, “We should think of the
mobile phone as an agent of rural development.”
While the figures stated above are beyond
the comprehension of the commoner, Jane Mwai, who owns a
small stall for mobile phone handsets and accessories in
Kinoo, a settlement 15km from Nairobi’s Central District
perhaps best sums the impact of devices whose stated
average weight are given between 200 to 800 grams.
“Before I ventured into mobile phone
business three years ago, I used to operate a shop on this
very premises that was not bringing much and I had to rely
more on my husband,” she narrates.
“However, since I changed to phones, I’m
making enough to keep me going and with my savings, I’m
looking forward to opening another stall in Kikuyu (some
5km away). Every day, there is a new mobile product in the
market and customers are always there so I made the right
choice,” she added.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have the strength to survive, you have the power to
succeed. Life is all about choices we make depending upon the
situation we are in. Go forth and rule the World!
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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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