TELECENTRE SUSTAINABILITY IN GHANA

Despite the fact that there is no strong competition from other telecentres in the area, the Community Information Centre(CIC) in SALAGA is seeing its client base eroded by the spread of mobile phones, a direct result of liberalization of the Ghanaian telecommunication sector. It is interesting to know that, more people at the community level are now using mobile phones to access information, communication and for business transactions. This is view as a challenge for the centre as it is cheaper to access a mobile phone than to visit the information centre to access the web. In most cases, people who access the internet in the rural areas are the same as those who use mobile phones. Of late, the district assembly, NGOs, schools, hospitals and churches have interest in sharing the existing internet connection. This is seen as an opportunity for the project's sustainability. This will go a long way to enhance the operaton of the telecentre in providing relevant information to the isolated rural farmers.

IICD INTERNET INITIATIVE AT SALAGA CIC : GHANA

Source:	Bernadette Huizinga [bhuizinga(at)iicd.org]
Country:	Ghana [GH]
Sector:	Livelihood opportunities

In many of IICD’s projects internet connection is often unreliable, too slow and too expensive. An answer to this problem could be a high quality direct satellite connection but for most project partners, the monthly fees for such connections are too high. The Pay-As-You-Go system used in Ghana could be a solution for these problems.

At the IICD-supported Community Information Centre in Salaga (Ghana) internet vouchers are sold

A well known access model

Pay-As-You-Go is an access model to internet through satellite that’s already very well known all around the world. It can be found in airports, hotels or large shopping malls in western countries. People buy vouchers to log in to the internet for a certain amount of time or they can use a certain amount of data or time. They then type in the vouchers’ code on their laptop or at a PC on the location and get an indication of how long they can stay online until the card runs out. In Africa there is also a lot of experience with this prepaid model. Particularly in the mobile phone industry prepaid cards are sold frequently and in some cases even electrical companies offer the prepaid service.

Benefits of the system compared to a regular internet connection is that there are no contracts or monthly bandwidth obligations. The users can determine how much they use the internet and pay accordingly. This means that there is no chance of getting into debts and being cut-off. If all the vouchers’ value runs out, it simply runs out. Another advantage is that there is a continuous direct high quality connection that you can use with a voucher. This satellite connection is also very fast because it is direct. The Pay-As-You-Go system offers speeds of up to 512 kilobits per second.

Pay-As-You-Go in Ghana

IICD currently uses the Pay-As-You-Go system as a pilot in the Community Information Centre (CIC) leveraging programme in Ghana. In this project 230 centres are built across the country where farmers but also other members of the rural community can access the internet. IICD supports ten of the Community Information Centres. The centre in Salaga, a city in the northern region of Ghana is the first of the CICs to use Pay-As-You-Go. Salaga’s Community Information Centre has a satellite dish that receives the signal for the internet connection. This signal is then spread out to six smaller centres of local organisations. The signal can also be received outside of the centres with a laptop. So if a user of a laptop has a voucher, he or she can also log in while sitting outside.

The members of the organisations can buy vouchers at the CIC in Salaga. The CIC buys the vouchers from a internet company and sell them for a slightly higher price. Members of the smaller centres use the vouchers to log in to computers in their own centre or sometimes even on a laptop. With the voucher it is not only possible to surf websites and check and send emails. It is also very popular to use the vouchers for free-of-charge internet phone programs such as Skype.

A wide range of vouchers

There is a wide range of different vouchers available, starting from internet for just half an hour up to internet access for a year. The duration time of these cards is based on ‘normal’ data use. So if just emails are sent and websites are visited, the voucher will last as long as it says it will, but if websites are visited where videos have to be streamed or music or movies are downloaded, more megabytes are used and the card will last shorter. To give an idea: a one year voucher costs 600 USD and has a data limit of 15,000 MB. With 1 MB one can send about 2 to 3 emails or look at about 10 web pages. Watching a video on YouTube will use about 2,25 MB per minute. Downloading a music CD though costs about 50 MB and a regular movie will cost at least 700 MB. This also makes clear, that if the CIC internet connection is used for downloading movies daily, then the one-year voucher will not even last one month. The advantage of a system that works with data use is that it ensures that users have a good sense of how much data they are using. Especially in a country with little access, it is crucial that people are aware of the costs of internet and how they use it.

Challenges and sollutions

A disadvantage of the Pay-As-You-Go system is that a user can only see how much bandwidth he or she consumes and how many minutes are still on the card when logging in and out. This however counts for little compared to the advantage of not having to pay a monthly fee. Another issue to keep in mind is that it is quite expensive in the beginning to set up the pay-as-you-go system. It requires an expensive satellite, equipment and ICT support. When implemented correctly this does not have to be a problem though. The more locations participate in the system, the cheaper it gets because then also new customers will use the system. With the money that will be made eventually also someone can be hired for continuous ICT support. This saves the costs of constantly hiring external ICT specialists. The lack of capable ICT support locally is another challenge of this system.

Possibilities for other projects

IICD has paid for at least a half a year worth of vouchers for the CIC in Salaga. IICD has bought 200 vouchers of 30 minutes and 180 vouchers of 60 minutes and one voucher of a year. The one year voucher was used by the CIC themselves for activities such as giving courses to teachers, providing information to the general public about governmental regulations and to sell farmer market price information. The Community Information Centre in Salaga has already bought a new batch of vouchers. The CIC uses the vouchers for their own internet purposes as well as sell them against a higher price to the members of the local organisations. Since the centre in Salaga is an IICD pilot, it is closely monitored and could also be a solution to connectivity problems or high costs for some of IICD’s other partners.

SALAGA CIC OFFER'S ICT TRAINING

THE SALAGA COMMUNITY INFORMATION CENTRE OFFERS WIDE RANGE OF SERVICES AND ICT TRAINING IS NO EXCEPTION. THE ICT TRAINING IS AIMED AT ENHANCING THE KNOWLEDGE BASE OF THE PEOPLE AS FAR AS THE USAGE OF ICT TOOLS ARE CONCERN.
OUR TARGET GROUPS ARE THE INSTITUTIONS, ORGINASATIONS, STUDENTS, FARMERS GROUPS, WOMENS GROUPS AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
THE CIC OFFERS THE FOLLOWING COMPUTER PROGRAMS:

• INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER
• WINDOWS
• MICROSFT WORD
• MICROSOFT EXCEL
• MICROSOFT POWER POINT
• MICROSOFT PUBLISHER
• MICROSOFT ACCESS
• GRAPHIC DESIGN
• BASIC NETWORKING
• INTERNET/ EMAIL BASICS
• COMPUTER HARDWARE
  

THE CENTRE HAS ENGAGE THE SERVICES OF COMPETENT COMPUTER TUTORS THAT WILL SEE YOUR ICT DREAM COME TRUE.
A CERTIFICATE OF PARTICIPATION OR ATTENDANCE WILL BE GIVEN OUT AFTER THE PERIOD OF STUDY. THE CENTRE IS PROUND TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT(IICD), AN INTERNATIONAL NGO BASED IN THE NETHERLAND. THE CERTIFICATE WILL BEAR THE LOGO OF THE IICD AND THE CENTRE LOGO FOR INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION.
COME TO SALAGA CIC FOR YOUR ICT RELATED ISSUES.

SALAGA CIC IS MOVING THE COMMUNITY FORWARD

Upon its inception in a year ago the Salaga telecentre or CIC as it is sometimes called in Ghana, has made a tremendous improvement in the life of the people. The telecentre has brought a sign of good relieve to the isolated rural farmers. Farmers rural areas of Salaga are often aware of the value of their crops in main markets. The find themselves in a poor negotiating position vis-a-vis middlemen,who routinely under-represent the final selling price and overstate transaction costs, The same holds for the price of seeds,fertilizerand other inputs, with farmers paying an inflated price for inputs. Farmers may also be unaware of strategic opportunities within their own region , which crops and commodities are fetching higher prices i surrounding towns and which products are in high demand. Getting accurate and up to date price information to farmers, therefore, can have a dramatic turnover on their negotiating position in the agricultural economy and on their cash income. In this process, farmers in rural areas of Salaga can boost of accurate and up to date information on the prices of seeds, products, fertilizers in and around salaga through the help Community Information Centre(CIC) or telecentre situated in Salaga the district capital of East Gonja.

Salaga is a district capital of East Gonja District, it can be located on the eastern part of the Northern Region. It is away from the Regional capital Tamale by a distance of 115.2 kilometres. The Inhabitants are pure farmers and market women and it has so many tourist attractions like the Slave wells, Slave bath, where the shackles of the slaves were kept etc.