During a practical period in '84 in Kenya communication was mostly done by post. Thelephone landlines were scarce, expensive and the quality unreliable. If we had to call from Naivasha to the capital Nairobi we were still switched through a operated switch board at the post office. If the personal was having their break, no connection was possible.
Things have changes since then and it is known that Africa has skipped the situation for a good coverage of landlines directly to a good mobile network. Nowadays you can get simcards everywhere and call from almost each part of the continent.
So far it was only for calling. Last week I travelled through West Africa and when I passed the border of Burkina Faso to Ghana I switched my sim card to the MTN network and my PDA was directly downloading all my mail on my PDA from my E-mail account in The Netherlands! In a bus from Kumasi to Accra I did some bank transfers on our bank account through the local internet services on the mobile net.
From a terrace in Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo region in Ghana we had a conference call with Germany to discuss options to use mobile and ICT technology to improve the logistics and finance management in the supply of cashew farmers to the local processing industry. The use of ICT will give the farmers more info on the pricing and the options to sell. For buyers it will create the opportunity to make the collection and the use of working capital more efficient. In the midterm we should be able to start using the system as well for training...
In this continent the developments are really moving fast and ICT will increase the opportunities for development at a faster speed than we ever could have imagined....
Inspired by the movements on the continent I returned to Europe realizing our perception of the continent is single issue oriented and completely outdated... Africa is already completely connected...
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