Zimbabwe's Swav gaining in African handset market

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=44A1620D-089C-3853-8199DDF13CDCF963

Despite the increasing number of imported and highly subsidized Chinese-made mobile handsets, Zimbabwe's only phone manufacturing company, Swav, is gaining ground in the African market.

Launched in 2010, the company is now exporting to East Africa's largest telecom markets, Kenya and Nigeria in West Africa, as well as Angola in Southern Africa, with plans under way to expand into several other African countries.

Although the markets in Kenya and Angola are recording limited success, the company is selling about 100,000 handsets in Nigeria every month. Nigeria is Africa's largest telecom market by investment and subscriptions.

The Swav line of products includes Smartphones sold under the Swav brand on the Android platform. The Android phones have touch screens, GPS, Wi-Fi, camera and 3G services.

As Swav steps up production, competition in the supply and sale of the handsets is expected to be stiff as the Zambian mobile manufacturing company M-Tel is also targeting the Eastern Western and Southern African markets, including Zimbabwe.

However, both companies are threatened with the influx of Chinese hndsets, sold cheaply in many countries in Africa. Efforts by the Zambia government to block the entry of the phones into the Zambian market have so far proved unsuccessful, threatening M-Tel with closure.

"The only way to put the Chinese phones out of the market in the region is for the two companies to manufacture high quality but affordable phones. Otherwise they will be forced to close," said Edith Mwale, telecom analyst from Africa Center for ICT Development.

Swav CEO Munyaradzo Gwatidzo has said the company is working at addressing price issues. The company's target, Gwatidzo said, is to make products that are relevant to Africa and try to come up with apps that are customized for the region.

The company intends to use Nigeria as a launch pad for other West African markets including Ghana and Ivory Coast while plans are also under way to set up offices in South African and Angola in order decentralize its distribution network.

Unlike the Zambian government, which increased customs duty on foreign manufactured phones to 15 percent from 5 percent in a bid to encourage local production of phones, the Zimbabwean government has refused to do so.

Meanwhile, M-tel Chairman Mohammed Seedat has said plans to export phones to the Southern African region have been put on hold because many African countries have not been spared from the influx of heavily subsidized mobile phones.

Harnessing ICT for smallholder development

http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2012-01-16-harnessing-ict-for-smallholder-development/

The story of overworked but poor rural smallholder farmers has been retold several times across Africa and Zimbabwe to be particular.

Smallholder farmers daily put in so much effort in their farming activities, but remain significantly poor. It has always disturbingly turned out other players in the value chain of products produced by these farmers get richer and richer.

Multiple studies have been carried out to examine this scenario, its causes and possible solutions. One of the prominent causes of poverty among smallholder producers has been the information gap.

Rural farmers, by the nature of their geographical location (remote and inaccessible), low literacy levels and dispersion are often left out in terms of information.

Without relevant information it is difficult to make profitable business decisions hence farmers do not know where to sell, prevailing prices or who is buying.

At the end of the day they sell to whoever comes to their door step offering low prices.

These middlemen take the produce away to sell at wealth-creating prices. If farmers had the information on prices and markets such daylight robberies could be avoided.

In light of the above there has been an effort to harness mobile phone technology to assist rural farmers.

At a workshop organised by the Market Linkages Association, a company called Esoko presented their Ghanaian case study.

The company developed mobile phone-linked software for farmers offering the following functions: price alerts, weather forecasts, matchmaking, inputs ― sources and prices, bids and offers ― market place, stock alerts and news alerts ― eg armyworms affecting certain areas.

Esoko is currently working with 10 000 farmers across Ghana and observations are farmers’ livelihoods and incomes have greatly improved as a result of the system.

While farmers sometimes have access to a cellphone, this service greatly expands information availability and also connects farmers to trained professionals tasked with sharing knowledge and information with them.

The prospect of successfully developing and using mobile technology in Zimbabwe are high considering the increasing rate of mobile penetration in Zimbabwe.

About 66% of the Zimbabwean populace use cellphones which is now the second highest in Africa after South Africa.

According to the African Institute of Agrarian Studies, 72% of agricultural land in Zimbabwe is held by smallholder farmers.

It therefore makes sense to conclude harnessing positive social impacts have also been recorded for example where the wife would now know at what price the husband was going to sell the family produce, hence how much income to expect for the family.

Other African countries have also successfully started mobilising the use of mobile phones to aid rural development.

In Kenya such technology has been extended to include mobile banking. Equity Bank is bringing mobile banks to some of the most isolated parts of rural Kenya that have no access to commercial financial institutions.

The mobile banks offer banking goods and services to many small businesses and smallholder farmers, providing their customers with the same financial services as in regular branches, including deposits and savings, money transfers and remittance processing and loans.

In Uganda, the Grameen Foundation started the Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) Initiative which is building a self-sustaining, scalable network of rural information providers who use cellphones to help close critical information gaps facing poor, smallholder farmers.

The CKW strengthens the information link to poor farmers by disseminating and collecting relevant information in these underserved communities.

Working closely with and complementing existing government agriculture programmes, CKWs are trusted local intermediaries serving farmers who frequently lack basic access to up-to-date information on best farming practices, market conditions, pest and disease control, weather forecasts and a range of other issues.

The CKW model is designed to improve farmers’ lives by enabling them to get the information they need to improve yields and have broader access to lucrative markets.

Upon request from a farmer, a CKW will use his or her cellphone to access actionable information to meet farmer needs.

In addition, CKWs collect agricultural information from farmers, providing a vital link between farmers, government programmes, non-governmental organisations and other entities focused on improving agriculture in Uganda and beyond.

This technology would bring immense benefits to small-holder farmers. More of the output from this sector can be mainstreamed into mainline national trade.

Cases of rotting vegetables at the back of Dotito village and bananas in Risutu will be reduced.

Farmers will know the prevailing prices and hence negotiate from the vantage point of knowledge thereby increasing incomes.

Credit should be given to work being done by companies like Econet and Telecel.

Their systems can be harnessed for this cause. Such products like EcoCash can facilitate rural payments for smallholder products delivered to markets.

The mobile information system cuts market inefficiencies like turnaround time and number of people involved in the value chain.

Zimbabwe: ICTs - Opportunity for Women Empowerment

http://allafrica.com/stories/201201230350.html

OPINION

When the Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre and Network issued out a call for women to register for basic computer skills training in November last year, the response was overwhelming, highlighting the hunger for technology among women in Zimbabwe.

The ZWRCN's "Women to Women" ICTs training is part of the organisation's effort towards enhancing learning and raising women's knowledge levels - empowering them to make informed decisions.

The call for applications opened a floodgate of phone calls, walk-in inquiries, written applications and emails.

To us, this was a manifestation that women are awakening to the fact that the fast-paced world we live in today has no place for technophobes.

A further probe into what is giving women the pressure to acquire technological skills revealed that computer skills are now a prerequisite if one is to secure formal employment, whilst university students are now required to submit typed assignments.

Many opportunities also lie within the Internet such as information on scholarships, business opportunities, online studies and distance learning options.

Technological changes the world over have become intertwined with how societies run their social, economic and political lives.

The buzzwords now are "e-governance", "e-learning", "e-banking" and "social networks", among others.

Gone are the days when the television remote controls and newspapers were part of men's personalised assets.

Gone also are the days when the telephone used to be answered only by the father of the house.

The proliferation of the mobile technology and social media has to some extent transcended gender boundaries.

Whilst one still has to type in their sex as part of the sign up formalities on most Internet platforms, the facilities themselves are neither blue nor pink, male or female. Once you are signed up, the functions do not discriminate against gender.

However, as Technology Zimbabwe's Clinton Mutambo writes in one of his articles entitled, "Are women afraid of venturing into ICTs?", the ICT sector in Zimbabwe, Africa and the world is still dominated by men and this has been the case since the telephone and transistors were invented.

A few women have recently begun breaking into the mould by challenging this convention.

Hats off to Tana Meecham, who is the Zimbabwe Online chief operations officer, and Njeri Rionge, who is the co-founder of Wanachi Group - one of the biggest Internet service providers in Kenya.

If there are women still struggling with technophobe today, they should emulate Rudo Mudavanhu, the Africom chief commercial officer who also scooped the 2010 ICT Achievers Businesswoman of the Year Award.

By the way, the chief executive of renowned PC maker Hewlett-Packard, Meg Whitman, is a woman, and the chief operations officer of the popular Facebook Sheryl Sandberg is also a woman.

It is also worth mentioning that Google policy manager for Africa Ory Okolloh is also a woman.

There are therefore unlimited opportunities for women to take up software development or to become successful ICT entrepreneurs or to create a global ICT network run by women.

Mutambo also argues that in a continent where women form a majority of the population and half of the workforce, it is an anomaly that the percentage of women working in technology is less than 15 percent.

"Technology is one of the key factors driving Africa's projected economic rise.

"As such, there is enormous potential for maximising the growth of technology through increasing the number and quality of women in technology," reads part of Mutambo's article.

While support mechanisms need to be put in place for women to access ICTs in Zimbabwe, women themselves can take the initiative and demand a bigger stake in the sector, beginning with organising themselves and acquiring the necessary skills.

ZWRCN is an information-based organisation committed to gender equality and equity. It is currently providing free basic computer skills training to women across all age groups.

ジンバブエの国境検問所で大暴れ、旅行者を恐怖に陥れるギャングたち

2012年02月01日 18:08　発信地:ハラレ/ジンバブエ

【2月1日 AFP】ジンバブエとザンビアにまたがる国立公園内にある国境検問所には、旅行者のバッグをひったくったりトラックの荷を略奪したりする不届き者の集団が日夜出没し、旅行者を恐怖に陥れている。

　ジンバブエのチルンド（Chirundu）にある検問所の係官は、31日付の地元ニュースサイトNewsDayに対し、「バブーン（ヒヒ）たちを何とかしなければならない」と語った。「やつらは旅行者の持ち物をめちゃめちゃにする。旅行者が持ち物を守ろうとすると、噛みついたり顔をひっぱたいたりする。女性のハンドバッグはひったくるし、食べ物を探して車を破壊することだってある」

　国境越えをするトラックにトウモロコシの袋が積まれていれば、そのにおいをかぎつけ、袋を裂いて中身を持ち逃げするという。「とにかく数が多いので、全く手に負えない。問題はやつらが人間みたいに振る舞うってことだ。本当に、大したスリだよ」と、係官は困り顔だ。(c)AFP