Ghana's Digital Dilemma

Some random reader writes: "Here is a fascinating Technology Review article about information technology in the West African nation of Ghana. It's an illustration of how new technology relies on, and can be hampered by, old technology. It's also a testament to the ingenuity of the people there who are working to maintain and update the country's IT infrastructure. These folks are working with a terrible phone system and frequent power outages, but they still manage to succeed."

Comments

Re:two way satellite

[GigsVT]

I have two way satellite, Starband. The upstream is about the same speed as a 56K modem, the downstream is pretty fast (80-100kilobytes/sec). Latency is minimum 600ms.

It's great for downloading large files, and chatting on IRC, and web browsing isn't too bad.
It really sucks at certain things, like telnet or ssh, it's tedious to use those over a satellite link.

It all depends on what you need it for, but satellites in their current high earth orbits are not for every application.

Africa Rising

[The-Bus]

Another interesting article is 'Africa Rising' by John Perry Barlow . His argument is that Africa will sidestep becoming an Industrial country and go straight to being an information economy. The article is a very interesting read -- recommended.

Now, after I read that I talked with two relatives who had both worked in Africa (the Gambia and South Africa respectively) and they thought most of it was a bit hopeful. I guess all the problems created by colonization still exist and trouble the continent.

World aid and putting the cart before the horse

[ObviousGuy]

The article talked about a Ghanaian man who was interested in IT and who was biding his time in a data entry position, gleaning as much technical knowledge as he could absorb. Along comes some bureaucrat from some NGO saying that data entry is a dead end position and wasting the many talents of the workers.

I see this as completely backwards. Obviously they don't have either the infrastructure or the technical resources to be a computerized society, but they do have some investment in the form of Aetna putting in a somewhat technically advanced data center where locals can get a job entering data. They aren't going to be able to step up to bat at the IT table until they get the necessary infrastructure and educational systems in place.

When these NGOs look at a country like Ghana and proclaim that investment isn't enough because more people aren't living at the same level as their Western counterparts, they are looking through their own paternal prizm which is in itself racist.

Re:World aid and putting the cart before the horse

[Jason Earl]

In the end it always boils down to simple economics. The reason that Ghana can't compete with the West is that they don't have the infrastructure necessary to tie their economy to the rest of the world. Labor is ridiculously inexpensive, but without the roads, plumbing, phone systems, etc. it is hard to utilize that labor in anything but the pitiful local economy.

Geeks typically assume that this lack of infrastructure is the root cause, but this is not generally the case. Ghana could almost certainly attract capital. In fact, the article shows several examples of foreign individuals and companies that were willing to invest in Ghana. The problem is that the current political system is too corrupt to make large scale investments practical. As long as Ghana remains corrupt investing in the country is like pouring water into a sieve. The rich and privileged that control the system will derive all of the benefits, and the poor will stay in the same position that they currently are in. Even now the political leaders that are hoping for technology to enrich their nation are almost certainly looking at it with an eye towards controlling the bulk of those riches themselves. It's no wonder that entrepreneurs flee countries like Ghana. They know that if they do manage to make money the politicos will simply extort it from them.

The investments featured in the story required very little capital. Aetna's little form industry is a prime example of this. With the relatively small expense of a satellite link and a couple hundred used PCs, they are able to save a substantial amount of money getting their forms filled out. If the government decides to expropriate the business then very little is lost.

However, this type of business is not something you can build your economy on. For one thing, it is very easy to move this type of business. If problems do arise in Ghana the owners of the business can simply pack up and leave. Also the type of work offered is usually the easiest type of work to automate. As U.S. firms move more and more towards electronic forms obtaining electronic information from paper forms is going to become less important.

In the end, long-term growth is only possible through reforming corrupt political systems and inviting the type of investment that builds the economy. Until the people running Ghana figure this out, they will continue in the same rut as they are now.

Power Outages, Generators and UPS, Oh my!

[dlur]

But one afternoon, as Amaning helps a customer print a document, all of Cyberia's whiz-bang technology vanishes--when the electricity goes out. He tells the customers to be patient, and to stay at their computers. Then he runs down a long flight of stairs to the basement, kicks on a backup generator, dashes back upstairs and reboots all the PCs, one after another. That's not the end of it, though. Since the generator is too costly to run any longer than necessary, Amaning must constantly check on neighboring shops to see when their lights return. When power is restored, he tells his customers to halt their work again and shut down, while he goes back to the basement, turns off the generator and switches the café back to public electricity.

I'd think with the frequency of power outages that they seem to have, it'd certainly be in their best interests to purchase or build their own(I believe there was a slashdot article on this recently, but the search utility here blows). They already have a generator as far as I can tell. If every computer were wired up to a UPS they could switch from line power to generator relatively seamlessly and limit the amount of damage done to PCs and OSes by improper shutdowns and power spikes/surges from their crappy power company's power.

Interested in helping out in Ghana?

[slipandfall]

My sister just spent four months in Ghana working for a volunteer program called Geekcorps. The way it works is that you work a four month stint with a local company or NGO. One of the projects my sister did involved building the web site for the Ghanaian parliament. So, we're talking significant impact here.

If you have tech skills, four months to kill and are looking to make an appreciable impact in the future of a nation, check it out.

The Digital Dilemma -- Our Exploitation

[Vengie]

I think the most important point that /.'ers should take from this article is in the second page. "Local Ghanaian supervisors do much the same. Thomas Fabyan, smartly dressed in black suede shoes, khaki pants and a pressed white shirt buttoned to the neck, prods and cajoles his typists to push their limits. Fabyan sits in the corner of a large open room, with tall windows that overlook the city and give glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean. Along with a colleague, Fabyan is responsible for 275 employees who work over three shifts, round the clock. These typists are paid piece rate: the more records they complete, the greater their pay. The fastest workers can earn nearly three dollars a day, while the slowest take home little more than a dollar, still slightly higher than the pay of a local policeman." Essentially, we are giving Ghana better technology so we can find yet another way to leverage minimum wage differentials across the globe to increase the profits of an American Company. (Aetna) What are these "high tech" workers using their technology for? They are processing scanned documents into a database; They are doing outsourced data entry work! What normally would go for (at least) 6.00 an hour (more in most places) in the states is happening at _dollars per day_. This has nothing to do with "giving technology to the masses" -- it is a corporate strategy to get more "bang for their buck" -my US $0.02 (In Ghana thats $0.000000002)

Re:The Digital Dilemma -- Our Exploitation

[Vengie]

I honestly wasn't meaning to troll. There was nothing I wanted you to "bite" on. My point was, Ford Motor Co singlehandedly advanced living conditions when it set its wage at 5$ a day. It was an unprecedented move and it raised the living conditions of ALL its workers. Henry Ford was a brilliant industrialist. He knew that if he gave his workers something far better than they'd ever seen or ever gotten anywhere else, he'd reap the rewards. Again, corporate America seeing only the short term profits. What if they paid all these people 2$ a day + bonuses for piece work? That would be _more than double_ the police man's salary. Plus, since when have government officials been "highly paid?" New York City police officers (and I have 3 friends who currently are) don't exactly make a fortune. If nothing else, we should take a lesson from our own history.

Re:The Digital Dilemma -- Our Exploitation

[sql*kitten]

What normally would go for (at least) 6.00 an hour (more in most places) in the states is happening at _dollars per day_. This has nothing to do with "giving technology to the masses" -- it is a corporate strategy to get more "bang for their buck" -my US $0.02 (In Ghana thats $0.000000002)

You have completely misunderstood the difference in currencies. In the US, you pay $4 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks. A cup of coffee in a third world nation costs a fraction of a cent. People aren't working 8 hrs a day to afford a single Big Mac, in their local currency, they are well off! The reason for this is that their currencies aren't "hard", they are volatile, and hence FX market participants who hold hard currencies (USD, GBP, CHF, EUR and JPY) are relucant to exchange them for the local currency. The law of supply and demand means that you can buy a lot of local currency for a small amount of hard currency. Why would you want to? Either you want to spend some money in that country, or you are in that country and want to buy something outside of it. Since that doesn't happen much, relative to the rest of the global economy, hard currencies command a premium.

You are also forgetting that these workers would otherwise be unemployed, and that they are happy to have the work. They have changed the weakness of their currency from a burden to an advantage by exploiting the comparative purchasing power of their economy. This scenario is win-win: the locals are employed and have revenue coming in, the multinationals get their work done for a lower cost, and can therefore provide consumers in the West with cheaper products.

Eventually, as has happened in India, local tech skills will develop, and they will move up the value chain from data entry, to technical support, to programming, to complete systems development. Then you will find that these "poor, exploited" people are competing on a level playing field with Americans, and if they manage their economy skillfully, they will be able to do it while still remaining cheaper.

One-Way Satellite

[ShaggusMacHaggis]

Internet in Africa is flaky at best. I work on a project called RANET . It is an effort of serveral partners (ACMAD , NOAA, and USAID to name a few) to make climate and weather related information more accessible to rural populations and communites.

We use the Worldspace Satellite system to send climate information in HTML format (it's a 1 way digital radio system, that when hooked up to your computer, acts as a modem). The villages get the information, then in turn translate it to the local language. We have set up low power FM radio stations and then they broadcast the updated data over the radio waves. Wind up radios made by Freeplay have been given to the villages, and they can tune in to the broadcast, and find out if some of the local watering holes have dried up for example.

I was over in Niamey, Niger a few months ago training users from Ghana, Niger, Chad, and other african countries how to code HTML so then those local countries can upload their climate information to us so we can send it over the satellite system.

We ran into some interesting problems concerning the interent. The local internet provider charges by time spent on the internet. Well, since they understand they can make some money by doing this, they actually slowed down everyones internet speed so they would be on the net longer, and be charged more. When a local person complained about this, not only did they turn off his phones and internet at his workplace...they turned off his phones and internet at HIS HOUSE.

Found the problem...

[MarvinMouse]

convinced Ghana's government that the satellite would not steal business from the country's national phone company

Obviously the government is more concerned about holding the monopoly on the telecom then providing quality service to its citizens. I hate to admit it, but when a government get involved with an economy, it always seems to go this way. There is really no easy way to control an economy and still have quality service. (This happens in a laissez-faire economy as well, when rock-solid monopolies form.)

Basically, if they want better service, they are going to have to deregulate and let in other telecoms, or really get in gear and start developing better business plans. Otherwise they will continue to have this level of quality in Ghana.

Just my opinion of course. :-)

My Friend's Experience in Ghana

[omnirealm]

My old college roommate went to Ghana, Africa last summer to film a documentary on the Burulli Ulcer epidemic. He was there for about 6 weeks, and we made plans to communicate over the Internet. He occasionally went into an Internet cafe in Accra to get to a web site I had set up with a PHP chat server. I hacked the code to send a notification to my cell phone when he happened to get to it, and I would run to a lab to jump in on the conversation. I also set up a web cam so he could see me while we chatted.

He described both the bandwidth and the latency as horrific. When the chat session refreshed on my screen (about a second), it could take several minutes to refresh on his. Not only that, but they have constant rolling blackouts in Accra, and so he would occasionally suddenly disappear from the chat room when the power went off in the cafe.

However, from the problems my friend saw in Ghana during his visit, I would say that the telecommunications infrastructure is the least of their worries.

I've worked in West Africa

[David Off]

In 1996 I spent some time in the West African country of the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) working for a company installing Internet access at the Banque Africaine de Developpement (BAD . Basically Ghana and the Ivory Coast are neighbours, the former and ex-British colony and the latter ex-French. It is quite interesting to compare the two and the legacy of colonialism.

John Barlow's experiences in Ghana shouldn't be applied to all African countries. Kenya, although slowly being joked to death by corruption and the Ivory Coast had, at the time, relatively good infrastructure.

The BAD was located in the business district of Abidjan, this is basically a separate part of the capital surrounded by lagoons. The district had a fibre optic network although the rest of the country was on copper wire. Indeed they had just bought a new system from France Telecom - which turned out to be old exchanges FT were ripping out in order to roll out ADSL in France. The Ivorians were not too happy about this and wondered whether some money had changed hands between FT and the communications minister, a common way of winning contracts in Africa. There was also some fibre optic up to the capital city.

At the time there were at least two ISPs operating in the Ivory Coast: Africom and Africa On-line. I remember going out to a shanty town in the suburbs to see one of the IT guys. In his house he had a Pentium 100 with Windows NT 4.0 installed, NT 4.0 had only been released a few weeks previously! He also had an account with Africom and I sent some Emails home from his house.

However the local ISPs didn't have enough capacity for the BAD and we ended up installing a VSAT dish on the roof with a 2Mbps capacity, 384 kbps was dedicated to Internet use and the rest for teleconference links and LAN. This work was carried out by an company located in Abidjan and they had other contracts too.

However all this contrasts badly with what was available in Ghana and I believe this has something to do with the more hands-on paternalistic attitude the French take to their former colonies. There is also a great game being played out in French speaking Africa where America is attempting to extend its sphere of influence with costs and benefits to the people... genocide in Rwanda, technical aid to the Ivory Coast. The project I worked on was indirectly funded by a US government department attached to the CIA!

I travelled extensively in the country... by bus as car hire was too expensive and one either had to pay bribes to the frequent army road blocks or could be hijacked close to the porous Liberian border. Nearly all businesses and bars had telephones and it was never a problem to make a call within the country or from Abidjan to the world at large.

Like John Perry Barlow I went to West Africa with a bit of the white colonialist bwana attitude but was humbled by the experience. The locals were well educated and extremely interested in technology and were surprisingly well informed about the Internet and its possibilities. They would hold their own in Western companies. Again this is somewhat the fault of the French who imposed their good educational system on the locals in the hope of turning them into good French citizens. There were a lot of Ghanaians at the BAD who said that this was a major benefit compared to English colonialism. In contrast the Ghanaians I met were well educated but often at great expense, either taking English 'A' levels in private school or by correspondance.

If anyone on this group gets the chance to work in Africa I recommend it, it is a great experience and can only help understanding of this rich but troubled continent.

David

Ghana is not a black hole of Tecnology

[sun2day]

In his article G. Pascal Zachary got quite a few of the facts are wrong, and he totally misses the point. Far more important than an American Insurance company having people type for them is the fact that Unileaver, Guinness, Mobil, Total, and most of the other Global Companies that operate in Ghana - use software that has been written and developed in Ghana.

Where the figure of only 50 coders in Ghana comes from is a wrong - I personally know more programmers than that are based in Ghana. Some are good - some are bad and some are brilliant - in fact two of them are some of the best in world that I have ever worked with. In fact one education faculty produces about 2000 graduates a year in IT related fields.

I have no idea where he came up with the price of $1,000 to install a phone line - when I was last in Ghana at the start of this month - Ghana Telecoms where not charging for installation.

While mobile phone calls are unreliable they are not 10 times more expensive than the US - they are in fact about 1 cent more per minute than what I am paying in the UK.

The high costs are there for international calls- a minute from Ghana to the US will cost you 80 cents - from the UK to the US 3 cents. This makes it very difficult for the local software houses to get business from abroad.

Yes power is a problem (But is that much different for California)and that is why myself and a group of other African programmers (Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, and South Africa) are starting a new standard called Tropical Tolerance. This is to set a standard for Software and Hardware that will work under poor power - it useless having a large database if it takes 9 hours to recover from a shutdown - do not try sending multi-media files over the network, or any form of software that relies on a WAN - make it easy to use.

In the whole this article reinforce the concept that Africa is just a black hole.

Internet cafes in 1996

[toxcspdrmn]

"Two years ago, Accra lacked a single Internet café. Now the city boasts more than 600 of them,"

Not quite true. I was working in Ghana from 1995 to 1998 putting science equipment and Win 3.1 486 machines into schools to provide local science resource centres for the Ministry of Education and there was public internet access (albeit mostly for ex-pats) at a German-owned bar called Aquarius in Accra.

By 1998 there were several internet cafes in Ghana including ones in Navrongo and Tamale in the much poorer north of the country.

I had a dial-up account (my first) with Africaonline which was pretty much only usable for email.

Often the real problem is insufficient competition

[mike3411]

I think one of the major obstacles for advancement and development in Ghana, and similar countries, is the suppresion of free trade. In a free market, one would assume that if any given company (phone service, power service, isp, etc.) is failing to provide its customers with a reasonable service, the customers will take their business elsewhere. The article mentions "the country's national phone company", indicating that it has a controlled monopoly. IMHO, it is the creation of a dynamic and free market that is most important to long term and widespread technological and economic prosperity. Of course, the same kind of thing exists in many places in the US, the company we got cable tv from had poor signal quality, atrocious customer support, and high rates. Once the service was deregulated and other companies sprang up, we switched to one of them, and now pay 30% for more channels, better quality, and superb customer support.

Ghana is NOT Poor or Backwards...

[pamzella]

...like this article makes it sound. I spent 4 months in Ghana in the spring of 1998. I sent email to my friends and family from the university libraries, and get email from the friends that I made there all the time.

Ghana's electricity problems stem from the U.S. bastard baby, the World Bank. The World Bank thought it would be brilliant to build dams in Ghana for hydropower, creating Akosombo Dam and Lake Volta, which is a fantastic breeding pool for mosquitos carrying malaria and yellow fever. Ghana's northern half is in the Sahara Desert!! The only thing for sure in Ghana is sunshine, so if it was you or me there, we would have been in there installing solar power everywhere. The libraries had older DOS computers for the most part, but those old workhorses are better adept at handling the unexpected power outages (and planned ones, when the dam runs out of water) than my new G4 would be. The Geekcorps has been in Ghana for a while, so clearly they see potential.

Go there and find out for yourself what an amazing place Ghana is, delicious food, unbelievably friendly people. I was there during the biggest drought/electricity crisis in several years, and they just had rotating blackouts no different than my native CA did a year ago. Water had to be trucked in to be spread around, but you wouldn't believe how I could make a bucket of water last when I learned from my friends there. Ghanaians aren't all living in horrendous poverty. They do know how to make do with less than Americans, and really, it's not a reflection of them but of our excess. And they've got more culture than in all our bio-tech labs combined.