An information and
communication technology, or ICT revolution is taking place in Africa. The
World Bank and the African Development Bank said there are some 700 million
mobile phone subscribers in Africa, making the market bigger than either the
European Union or the United States. How are ICTs influencing the lives of
Africans?
In a locality called
Dzekwa, in northwest Cameroon, villagers celebrated recently the second
anniversary of having access to mobile phones and the Internet.
It was only two years
ago that the government opened a multipurpose Community Telecenter in
Dzekwa. Most residents, mainly uneducated farmers, said the
transformation is revolutionary and changed their lives.
Marketing
cattle
"Now, I take
pictures and even images of my cattle with information on the weight and send
to buyers through this center," one man said. "Before now, I covered
long distances with my cattle to the market and had to return with the
unsold cattle. Now I take to the market only what my customers want.”
"A long time ago
it was difficult to send money to my children," recalled one woman.
"At times, some people I sent even removed the money from the
envelope. But see now, I have just been told by my son that he received
money, five minutes after I sent it to him."
"If you have a
message for someone in the city, you just come here and tell him that this is
what has happened. That was impossible before," said another user.
Most of the farmers
previously were dependent on brokers who took quite a lot of money for their
services as middle men to purchasers. The farmers never knew the prices
their produce or animals truly fetched in distant markets.
But today through the
telecenter, they can communicate with buyers directly and set prices.
A group of Americans,
called Connect Africa, came to Dzekwa after finding out about the telecenter on
the Internet. Connect Africa head Maxine Muffet said her group wants to
map out ways to collaborate to help the villagers out of poverty.
"You may have a
woman that maybe sells earrings or maybe sells furniture and she may find a person
in Switzerland for example who may possibly buy her products," she said.
Many uses
The community
telecenter not only provides communication technology, but also a range of
Internet services on education, training in business and health. The
villagers contribute between one and two U.S. dollars each day they solicit
services.
Students like Ndukong
Janet are making frequent use of the facility.
'We have an accounting
software we are using here. It really facilitates my job here. I do
everything through the internet and it is really easy," said Ndukong
Janet.
Dzekwa residents said
one of the only bad things about the center is when they can’t access it.
That happens usually when the lone power source, a generator, goes bad or lacks
fuel.
But Dzekwa residents
are luckier than most others in rural Cameroon who do not have access.
The country’s national institute of statistics says that only eight percent of
the population use information and communication technologies.
The government of
Cameroon said it wants to change that with plans to construct more than 200
more multipurpose community telecenters by 2015.
Sources :
http://www.voanews.com/content/cameroon-village-celebrates-two-years-of-internet-access/1648659.html
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