Mobile phones: Equal chance to the unlettered and lettered

HELPING THE UNLETTERED THROUGH MOBILE PHONE

When I was a kid growing up in Kumasi, one way by which people could communicate with their friends, relatives and loved ones was through sending the ‘message’ through someone. For those who were lettered, the post offered the best panacea. However, to the teeming masses, recording the message on cassette tape and mailing it used to be norm. Even with this method one has to own cassette recorder or player to record or play the message. Access to fixed telephone lines was a super luxury in the Ghana as it used to be associated with the economic status of the person. To admit this, we did not have a fixed telephone in our home.

Suddenly the dynamics changed and those who were in darkness found the light. Mobile phones came into the equation and wall that prevented the poor and the middle class from communicating tumbled down. From the University professor or the highest paid banker in Accra High Street to the lowest paid janitor everybody could use mobile phone for communication. Communicating through mobile phone became a classless occurrence in Ghana. As one of my friends has said “that your subject and verb does not have to agree, nor do you have to know how to derive Schrodinger equation in physics to be able to use a mobile phone”. This is to say that those educated and uneducated can use the device.

What’s more is what my friend Bright Simons from Imani Ghana devised whereby the authenticity of a pharmaceutical drug can be verified by either send the drug code or calling a toll free number.[1]

When I was interning in Ghana this summer, I met a friend of mine who is working on an automated ‘portal’ services where people could call in for answers to certain question concerning human rights, how to register your business or get building permit. For example, if a police stops an individual and wants to use his power to abuse you, the ‘suspect ‘ can call a toll free service and selecting the right option, you could get an answer to regarding your right in that situation. It is worth noted that in Ghana and in most developing countries, police and other security forces arbitrarily arrest people for minor offence or put differently abuse the public. By calling into the toll free number, one can listen and get quick review of the law. What that this mean? It means that people who cannot read or write can still invoke their constitutional and fundamental human rights whenever in need.

Prior before the coming of the mobile phone, every technology including fixed telephone, television, fax or attorney services were the exclusive preserve of the elite. It is therefore not an exaggeration to say that wall has fallen down. And now, in Ghana and in most developing world, mobile phone is touching life positively. Farmers can text to get weather update, market price for their product. Student can text to find out which school that he/she has been placed; and above all electronic payment system has brought a virtual banking services to the unbanked population.

Appiah Adomako

Heinz College

---

[1] "Kenya Launches Mobile Phone Application to fight Counterfeit Medicines - ModernGhana.com."Ghana HomePage - Breaking News, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. .