Doing business aided by mobile phone

Sitting ona rock at the entrance of Karambi market in Huye district, Agnes Ingabire, repeatedly goes through messages on her mobile phone as if trying to make sure that she remembers every detail they contain.The 28-year-old single woman waits for a taxi to transport two big sacks which contain tomatoes, aubergines to Nyamagabe and Gasarenda markets, a road she regularly plies with hope to make profits.It is a busy market day in Karambi, and it has become her habit that she always travels to Karambi where she purchases less-expensive vegetables directly from farmers and travels several kilometres to sell them to other traders in surrounding districts, mainly Nyamagabe.But as she waits, she constantly sends and receives calls and short messages on her mobile phone.“I am talking to my clients,” Ingabire says. “I want to make sure that once I’m there, I will find them ready to receive the merchandise. I also find time to discuss prices with them in advance.”But that’s not only what she is doing. She is also talking to fellow vegetable traders, scouting the prices in Nyamagabe and Gasarenda where she is taking the commodities.That’s how her mobile phone is helping her shape her business.Three years ago, Ingabire did not own a mobile phone. Later she realised that it was an important and indispensable tool if her business was to prosper. So, she bought one, which she still uses todate.Direct informationIn an area where prices of food commodities regularly fluctuate, Ingabire has found the mobile phone very helpful.“Before I got this phone, I incurred losses mainly because I would pay a lot of money unknowing that prices had dropped. That’s actually what pushed me to own one,” she reveals. “Today, I get update market information every time I want”. The information comes mainly from other traders.Ingabire is not alone. Twenty-seven-year-old Margaret Musabyimana, a vegetable seller in Nyamagabe district, says she finds it hard to work without a mobile phone.It is about two weeks now since she joined the business and she is already dreaming about owning a phone.But traders are not the only ones to reap from the technological advancement. Farmers too have benefited.Kagorora, a farmer, told The New Times that mobile phones help farmers to interact with buyers and directly get relevant market information.“Before I sell my produce, I talk to two or three individuals to be sure that I am buying or selling at the right price,” he said.Over the years, smallholder farmers have struggled to know market prices, something which negatively affected their income.However, as technology innovations continue to thrive new mobile phone-based services have helped address the problem. Farmers can now access market prices, thus enabling them to negotiate better deals and improve on the timing of getting their produce to the market.Advent of e-sokoOne such application is the e-soko, an electronic platform that gives farmers, consumers and traders up-to-date information about market prices for essential commodities via their mobile phones.For market prices to be accessed on e-soko, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture collect information or market prices on various products in 62 markets which they feed into their database. The public then gets access to such information by sending an SMS to 7656, at a cost of Rwf10.But since mobile penetration remains low compared to the total population, the system is still limited to those who own phones. According to the third Integrated Survey on Life Conditions, the percentage of Rwandan households with at least one mobile phone skyrocketed from 6.2 per cent in 2006 to 45.2 in 2011. In Kigali alone, mobile phone ownership per household was recorded at 79.6 per cent in 2011 from 33.2 per cent in 2006, representing a growth rate of 46.4 per cent.Due to the multiple services offered on mobile phones, their penetration is no longer the most interesting feature, but the correlation between their use and poverty reduction, according to experts. Experts say that owning a mobile phone must go beyond simple communication to improving individuals’ quality of life.Speaking early this month, the Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, said increased use of mobile phones in the country had improved access to services and boosted the economy. However, he noted that improving mobile penetration, especially in rural areas, remains a challenge.“I do not think anything beats the mobile phone in transforming businesses and improving access to information or delivering services faster to the population. When you look at all pillars of the Millenium Development Goals, be it reducing maternal deaths or poverty, the mobile phone plays a direct role on how both the government and private sector can deliver,” Nsengimana said in our previous interview.“The challenge now is making sure that every Rwandan owns a mobile phone so that no one is left behind in this historic transformation.”

National

Doing business aided by mobile phone