Mobile telephony applications for business efficiency and the

							      Mobile telephony
       applications for
    business efficiency
                and the
         development
      process in Africa
                        Raphaël Dard
         E-Trade Development Unit, ITC

WTO Information Technology Symposium
                 Wednesday 28 March 2007
         Mobile phone boom in Africa
        Million users, from 1998 to 2005


        120

                                            Fixed phone

          80                                Internet

                                            Mobile phone

          40




           0
               1998                  2005



Source : ITU, 2006
     Mobile technology & Western Africa
   Conclusions of the research included:

      Mobiles are the most common IT
   Mobile Applications are widespread
                             for leisure,
                           not business
 Great potential for development in the
                      Agricultural Sector
   Huge need for business and market
                           information
        tradeathand
            affairesmobiles
Real-time market information for exporting SME
tradeathand objectives
             Balance the asymmetrical
             access to real-time business
             information

             Use existing mobile phone
             networks to increase SME
             exports

             Strengthen food suppliers,
             enabling them to defend their
             position on their own value
             chain

             Generate additional revenues
what does tradeathand provide?
           marketPrices                   marketAlerts
Source:    Marketplace         Source:    Local TSI

Content:   Product prices on   Content:   Business opportunities
             foreign markets              Brief market reports
                                          Information on events


 De: AffairesMob
                                                      Sent by: MEBF
 Rungis
                                                       La Maison de
 du 21.05.2007
                                                      l'Entreprise vous convie
 MANGUE Kent Mali
                                                      au séminaire sur le
 avion carton
                                                      management de la
 Euros le kg
                                                      nouvelle entreprise le
 moy: 3.00
                                                      10/04/07 à partir de
 mini: 2.80
                                                      15h30 à l'EPC de la
 maxi: 3.50
                                                      CCIA-BF. Coupon exigé
 (Source SNM)
tradeathand outcomes
     All Burkinabe and Malian fruit and vegetable
     exporters receive daily price quotes from
     Paris Rungis Market (mango & green beans)

     12 Trade Support Institutions, in 3 countries,
     start to inform exporters with market alerts
     via a tailored Web-to-SMS application

     Exporters say they negotiate better deals

     and improve their market approach after
     analyzing newly available information
    tradeathand: signs of interest
• Referred to in The    • Selected as a
  Economist in Jan.07     Nominee for the
                          Global Mobile
                          Awards in Feb.07
tradeathand: new directions
mobile applications are still in their infancy!

             • PC laptops become smaller and
               phones acquire more and more
               computer capabilities.
                (Many more mobile applications to come!)

             • The size of the mobile-transaction
               market (m-commerce) will probably
               surprise us.
       tradeathand: new directions
         and we plan to expand geographically

• in Mali (Dutch funding)
• in Mozambique (Canadian funding)
• in Senegal, Benin and Liberia scheduled to start
  this year…
    Thank you
     for your
     attention


Email: dard@intracen.org