Introduction

Beginning from the early 1990s, Ghana has witnessed an accelerated growth in her telecommunication and information technology sector. Prior to 1990, the teledensity1 in Ghana was less than one. Subsequent to 1990, the teledensity in the country has risen to about two. The number of payphones rose significantly from 480 in 1997, to over 3,500 in 2000 (Ghana Telecom Press Release August 3, 2001). Further, over 50 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been licensed since 1996 (Ahiabenu 2001), however only nine were operational at the time of my research. Both public and private investment in telecommunication networks in Ghana grew between 1990 and 1993, and laid the foundation for expanded telephone services (Databank Research January 2001). It is estimated that between 1999 and 2000 both public and private investments in the telecommunication and information sector was about $200 million2 . This level of expenditure surpassed even total investment in agriculture—the mainstay of the Ghanaian economy—for that period. However, since 1994, the rate of investment has fluctuated (ibid.). Notwithstanding the high levels of investment and expansion in the telecommunication sector, basic telephone services remain inaccessible to most Ghanaians.

This unprecedented expansion of telecommunication and information technology in Ghana reflects the influence of a global political and economic perspective that continues to tout telecommunication and information technologies as the key to redressing some of the deep-seated economic development problems of Ghana and elsewhere in Africa3 . A 1996 World Bank Report “Harnessing Information for Development” described Telecentres4 as a powerful engine of rural development and a preferred instrument in the fight against poverty” (Talero and Gaudette 1996). Ghana’s elite has embraced this view. The government has declared that “efficient management of information is a prerequisite for social and economic development, especially in a rapidly changing and an increasingly demanding national and global environment” (Briefing Paper 2001). Both the local political and economic elite continue to espouse the view that by embracing telecommunication and information technology, Ghana will benefit from a broader participation in the global trade and correct perceived underdevelopment in the nation’s economic system.

In contrast to the optimism expressed by the international community and Ghanaian elite some sociologists have argued that advanced technology including telecommunication creates, maintains and reproduces inequalities between people and societies (Giddens 1990, Nolan and Lenski 1996). This is because some individuals and communities become fully integrated into technological developments while others do not. Processes of inclusion and exclusion therefore occur within and between regions, and also among citizens of the same country. Further, even though advanced communication technology can facilitate interaction over long distances—making the coordination of political, economic and social action easier—life chances come to depend increasingly on one’s location vis-à-vis the mode of information investment, development, and production (Giddens 1990). Given that considerable stratification already exists within Ghana and other African societies, and given the trends that have begun to develop so far, it appears as though there is strong potential for telecommunication and information technologies to exacerbate, rather than ameliorate, historical inequalities.

This paper is concerned with “communication centres “in Ghana. These are small-scale private operations that retail basic telephone access, photocopying, fax services and in some instances email and Internet access to the Ghanaian public. Communication centres mushroomed in Ghanaian cities and towns beginning in the mid 1990s as part of the expansion of Ghana’s telecommunication and information technologies sector. The paper analyzes communication centres not only as commercial operations, but also as emerging cultural forms and locales for social interaction. These operations have generated multiple benefits to Ghanaian society including a rise in teledensity, employment for the youth and infrastructure expansion. However, overall Ghana’s telecommunication and information technology program is also the source of widespread social cost, which seems to eclipse these economic benefits. The paper argues that expansion in telecommunication and information technologies in Ghana has generated considerable stratification and inequalities among Ghanaians in which the less affluent have the least access to telecommunication facilities and in which they experience discrimination as a result of their class. These inequalities include urban bias in the distribution of telecommunication facilities and concentration of ownership in the hands of a predominant class. These various social consequences raise questions about the ability of telecommunication and information technologies to eliminate the deep-seated social and economic problems of Ghana.

Public places that provide access to telecommunication services have been referred to by several names such as “commercial telefax shops”, “call centers”, and “public call centers”. Such places are referred to as “communication centers” in this work. Communication centers are distinguishable from “cybercafes” which offer full Internet and World Wide Web connectivity and email services to customers for fees (Gomez et al 1999). This is a paper essentially about the advent of basic telecommunication technology including telephone, fax and photocopying facilities to communities that previously lacked such services.

Information for this paper is based on my personal observations in Ghana during a research trip between May-August 2000, and also in June-August 2001 and may be compared to my lifetime experience as a native of Ghana. Material for the study is also derived from interviews that I accumulated from 50 communication centres. The 50 communication centres form part of approximately 12,000 communication centres believed to have been established across the country between 1994-2000. Since neither a complete list of communication centres in Ghana nor their locations is available I selected these 50 centres as a convenient sample. The 50 communication centres were randomly selected, they differed with respect to their physical characteristics and geographical location. Many (20/75) of the communication centres that I selected were in Accra and Kumasi because these cities have the largest concentration of communication centres in Ghana. Another twenty-five communication centres were chosen from regional and district capitals including Koforidua, Sunyani, Obuasi and Nkawkaw. Finally, I also conducted research in five communication centres located in small communities with populations ranging between three to five thousand. To ensure comparative analyses the communication centres were chosen at random, from both affluent and non-affluent sections of various communities. Upon entering communication centres, I presented myself as any other “normal” customer. No mention of the research intent was made, although I made it clear that I was living abroad and was home on a visit and wanted to know more about communication centres. Then, I paid great deal of attention to the centre as a work setting, focusing on the interaction in that setting and the social organisation of the work.

Background to the Expansion of Telecommunication and Information Technologies in Ghana in the 1990s

Transformations in Ghana’s telecommunication and information technology sector and its consequences cannot be understood without situating them globally. This is because Ghana cannot embark on any kind of nationwide industrialization program without technological transfer and material support from industrialized nations. But this is a relationship that conditions economic and social changes at both the national and global level.

By the 1970s, computer chip technology had transformed the economy of the major industrial nations toward a service and information economy. Within these nations investments in communication and information technology have grown tremendously while computers and other devices that increase the ability to acquire, analyze and process information added their own impetus to the rate of change (Nolan and Lenski 1999). In addition, modern communication and information technology have been converted into capital goods which have broadened and enriched the lives of citizens. Info-industrialization has also made possible many of the commodity chains that sustain the lifestyle of people in rich industrial nations (McMichael 2000)5 . Whereas employment throughout the industrial revolution was dominated by manufacturing, in the 1970s employment in the major industrialized nations has shifted toward service occupations and the collection, storage and dissemination of information (Eitzen and Baca Zinn 1997). This is not to suggest that life in industrial societies is free of problems. Analysts have argued that the industrialization and rapid social changes have weakened family ties, hastened the consumption of non-renewable resources and the pollution of the environment (Ferrante 1999). Nonetheless, it is clear that modernization of communications and other technologies has resulted in a remarkable improvement in the standard of living of the average individual in the major industrial nations compared with those in developing nations.

In contrast, for Ghanaians and Africans elsewhere on the continent, beginning from the 1970s, the hope and anticipation of stable societies in the post war period has turned into despair. A variety of factors account for this: global social, economic and political developments generated international disorder, ethnic, and interstate war, and a widening of the economic and technological gap between the developed and developing nations (Zolberg 1989). In addition, African nations have been incorporated into the global market on disadvantageous terms—as producers of raw materials whose prices are subject to constant fluctuations (Amin 1972). In the 1970s, Africa’s share of world markets was reduced by half at the same time its debt burden multiplied by twenty (Attali 1991). However, during the 1970s, especially following the Ethiopian famine crisis of 1974, the rich industrialized nations could no longer afford to ignore the depth of impoverishment on the African continent. Several western nations and also various international organizations mobilized material assistance for needy African nations. In addition, many African countries submitted to structural adjustment programs in the 1980s, but with comparatively little financial aid (McMichael 2000).

By the 1990s, concerns about the growing technological gap between rich and poor nations fueled new concerns that the world’s poorest nations in Africa and elsewhere were being left even behind. Poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa were classified as “missing links” or “information poor” countries because the citizens have had either very little or no access to telecommunication and information technology (Gomez 1998, Fuchs 1997). But this description had validity. By the 1970s in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Uganda, Kenya and Guinea, the national telecommunication apparatus that were bequeathed to these nations by the erstwhile colonial regimes were vulnerable due to a general lack of maintenance. In these countries generations of citizens were growing up with very little or no exposure even to basic telephone service.

This disparity in the technological gap between industrialised countries and African nations generated a vision of development that would energise political and business elite in the industrial and African nations. Through diverse forms of loans, grants and international assistance along with improvements in mass communications systems, distant parts of Africa were linked to a network of instant communication systems (Zolberg 1989). Since then donor countries have also sponsored symposia and training courses for telecommunication and information service managers in Africa (ITU 1996). Ghanaians in particular have benefited from series of workshops entitled “African Internet Workshop” sponsored by Cisco Systems to boost the local information technology (Daily Graphic July 8, 2000). Between 1990 and 1993 multilateral assistance accounted for twenty percent of telecommunication investment in Africa, while additional support also came from bi-lateral assistance and other sources including grants, and commercial lending (ibid.). For example, the Acacia Initiative launched by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in the 1990s, has widened access to telecommunication and information technology to Ugandans and Tanzanians. This has taken the form of telecentres that provide public access to telephone, fax, electronic mail and the Internet (Opoku-Mensah 1998).

For African nations that have for decades been struggling with problems that often threaten to overwhelm them including a rapidly changing social environment dominated by industrial societies, expansion in telecommunication and information apparatuses has offered the opportunity to pursue national development. But Western donors especially traders and manufacturers have also reaped benefits from the improvement in Africa’s mass communications systems. Telecommunication revolution has facilitated an expansion of the global market and the flow of raw materials between Africa and the rest of the world. Analysts have noted that telecommunication services in Africa tend to be better developed for overseas services while local and national service remain unreliable (ITU 1996). The major contracts to lay fiber optic cables or to establish sophisticated exchange networks generate substantial business for manufacturers and suppliers in the developed world. Hence, in reality the global expansion of telecommunication and the consequent aid giving motives of the rich industrial nations transcends humanitarian motives to rather more subtle objectives that are motivated by self-interest and commercial objectives.

Further, pressure from the international community have compelled poor African nations to embrace new information technology and to all the challenges that follow in its wake. Unstable prices for Africa’s primary commodities on the world market along with the rising cost of imported technology and manufactured goods have left many African countries indebted to the West (McMichael 2001). As a consequence, poor African countries have had to use a substantial proportion of export earnings to pay for imported telecommunication equipment. These arguments are applicable to the Ghanaian case. Ghana had counted on a persistent flow of foreign assistance for establishing its telecommunication infrastructure. But the aid policy of western donor countries towards the development of communication and information technology in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa is ambiguous, and this has slowed the rate of progress. Pronouncements of western donors at international summits and modest assistance have helped legitimize both the demands and expectations of African nations for assistance towards expansion of telecommunication and information technology sector. At the same time the western donors have shown indifference towards the actual urgency of these demands through drastic cuts to their foreign aid budget. Consequent to the above, the telecommunication and information technology expansion program in Africa has suffered setbacks, a situation that has further deepened the inequalities between industrialized nations and African societies.

Ghana: Development Challenges and the State of the Communication Sector

Ghana, like other Third World nations in Africa and Asia, has been struggling to “modernise” and “integrate” as an equal partner in the global economic system. This process—agonising and difficult both socially and personally—is clearly incomplete. Ghanaian society is still plagued by epidemics, malnutrition, illiteracy, unemployment and a collapse of infrastructure. Standards of living continue to deteriorate in the year 2002 with about 31 percent of all Ghanaians living below the poverty line. The inflation rate is about 36 percent, while the unemployment rate is about 20 percent (World Factbook 2000). Mismanagement and corruption among state officials have led to wastage of resources. Frequently, the movement of cash crops from the rural areas to the ports for export, as well as the distribution of fertilizer to the rural peasantry, are hindered as a result of transportation problems (World Bank 1992).

With a per capita income of about $US 390 (1999 estimate), Ghana is among the poorest countries in the world (World Factbook 2001). Yet, rapid population growth has been a major obstacle to Ghana’s economic development. In 1980, Ghana’s population was 10.2 million. Population rose sharply to 14.4 million by 1990, and to over 19 million in 1999 (ibid.). While in Ghana, I observed that rapid population growth has worsened the employment situation in Ghana’s weak economy and has strained the already shrinking food supplies. As overall economic conditions have worsened, the government has been forced to limit the growth of education services, and the supply of basic instructional materials, despite rising demands from a rapidly growing population. I also observed that a downward trend in agricultural production and consequent shrinkage in foreign earnings have exerted enormous impact on vital sectors of the economy including the telecommunication and information technology sector.

In the early 1990s, Ghana received loans and grants from the US and multilateral donors in Europe to modernize telecommunication apparatus and expand services across the country6 . Commenting on US assistance to Ghana, a US envoy noted “while Ghana is relatively small in terms of global trade with the US, it remains a strategic market in West Africa and one in which the US government sees tremendous potential” (Accra Mail 2001). But this assistance was motivated largely by self-interest and the commercial objectives of the donors. For the most part, such loans and grants went towards the purchasing of inputs from the same donors. As an example, I found out that a significant proportion of loans obtained from the US were used to purchase parts and expertise to revive an abandoned earth satellite station, and also to construct a national information infrastructure—a seamless interconnection of telecommunications networks, computers and databases (Ghana National Policy for Information Technology 2001). As part of this project, between 1991-1992, Ghana constructed the Volta River Authority (VRA)-Network, an approximately 300-mile fiber optic network along the banks of the Volta Lake (ibid.). It is questionable whether a pre-digital society such as Ghana was ready for such an expensive fiber optic venture. At the time of my field research, the VRA-Network was not yet operational. By contrast, the basic but essential aspects of Ghana’s telecommunication and information technology infrastructure saw very little improvement. I noticed that the domestic telephone system depended on microwave radio relay, while international telephone depended on a single earth satellite station (World Factbook 2000).

By 1997, bowing to further globalization pressures, Ghana implemented a World Bank’s directive and ceded its control over telecommunication services in the country to an expatriate consortium—Ghana Telecom in return for its commitment to modernize the telecommunication sector based on advanced technology. Since that time the company has improved telecommunication services in the country by erecting public payphones in city neighborhoods and linking Ghanaian commercial centers to the national telecommunication network. By the beginning of the year 2001, Ghana Telecom has increased the direct exchange lines in the country from a meager 78,000 in 1997, to 220,000 lines (Ghana Telecom Press Release August 2001). Improved telecommunication apparatus has boosted private investments in communication-related operations. I saw that improved telecommunication network has paved the way for the establishment of several Internet Service Providers (ISP)--including the premier Network Computer Systems, followed by Africa Online and Internet Ghana. Another spin-off was the emergence of three cellular phone operations in Ghana. Another way in which expansion in Ghana’s telecommunication and information technology sector in the 1990s appears to have served the interest of donors has been the influx of American firms to Ghana. Since 1994, major American information technology firms including AT&T, Sprint, Microsoft and Cisco systems have all opened branches in Ghana. Moreover, improved international telecommunication links have attracted multinational courier businesses such as Federal Express, United Parcel Services and DHL to establish branches in Ghana, thereby breaking the monopoly of the national enterprise, Ghana Post, over the movement of mails and courier services. Hence, improved telecommunication apparatus has brought the Ghanaian economy significantly closer to the global economy than before.

While in Ghana I observed that, overall, Ghana’s developmental challenges have had an agonizing but uneven effect on citizens. This experience has shaped the response of the citizenry—both average Ghanaians and the commercial class and elite—towards investments in telecommunication and information technologies. Regarding average Ghanaians, for the most part their attitude towards expansion in Ghana’s telecommunication sector ranges from a lukewarm attitude to expressions of weak support. This is attributable to several factors. First, a large proportion of Ghanaians live in the rural areas, yet rural dwellers have consistently been denied the same privileges associated with citizenship that their urban counterparts take for granted. As shown in the following discussions, the evolving development in the telecommunication and information technology sector has excluded rural and urban poor and exacerbated social inequalities. Second, even for those with access to the telecommunication facilities, fiscal measures instituted since the 1980s as part of an IMF’s Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) have led to a substantial increment in the surcharges on telecommunication services and other facilities including water, power, gasoline and public transportation (World Bank 1988: xvii). Thus, average Ghanaians, such as salaried urban workers and unskilled labourers, continue to face great difficulty in making ends meet as inflation keep rising at an alarming rate. Given this situation, to some of these people telecommunication and information technologies are hardly a priority.

By contrast, Ghana’s commercial class and the elite—comprising politicians, army officers, private investors, representatives of multinational corporations, established traders and civilians with ties to the political machinery—are key supporters of telecommunication expansion in the country. Economic liberalisation policies have benefited this class whose capital accumulation has come at the expense of peasant farmers and wage labourers. The privatisation of national economic ventures including telecommunication, mining, water, transport, banking and food processing industries as part of SAP has created economic opportunities for the elite and commercial class. They have monopolised Ghana’s import-export trade due to better access to financial resources (particularly foreign exchange and government allocated import licenses). During my stay in Ghana I noticed that the elite and commercial class have established dominance over the distribution of telecommunications at the local level through ownership of communication centres.

Communication Centers in Ghana: Field Study

Communication centres are multi-purpose commercial entities where people come to purchase telephone, fax, photocopying and in some cases emailing services. They are also the place where majority of Ghanaians without residential phones come to receive telephone calls and other forms of electronic communication. I found out that for most Ghanaians, their first experience with the telephone tends to be in a communication centre. In 1992, two centres were established in the business district of Accra. Since that time, communication centres have come to dominate the Ghanaian scene by springing up everywhere along the principal streets of major cities, middle class neighbourhoods, but infrequently, in small towns and rural areas. Reliable statistics are hard to come by, but based on my field observations and information obtained from my interviews I estimated that over 12,000 communication centres have been established in Ghana since 1994. As a consequence, in the 1990s, Ghana’s telecommunication sector was the fastest growing sector in the country.

Communication centres are the result of the convergence of three important factors: scarce telecommunication infrastructure, exorbitant set up fees for residential telephones and the presence of a predominant commercial class who had the capital to invest in the telecommunication sector. First, I saw that shortages of telecommunication hardware and expertise have seriously crippled the extension of telecommunication network throughout the country. Even in major cities such as Accra and Kumasi extension of telephones into city neighbourhoods is chronically challenged by the lack of hardware. At the time of writing, only an insignificant proportion of Ghanaian homes had residential telephones. Second, perhaps reflecting the scarce telecommunication infrastructure, Ghanaians seeking residential phones face high set up fees. At the time of research in 2001, the fees were 1,200,000 cedis7 (the equivalent of about $166), which was significantly beyond the monthly earnings of even key Ghanaian administrators. Such a high set up cost appeared to have created unequal and differential access to residential telephones among Ghanaians. I noticed that only a small section of Ghanaians comprising the domestic commercial class, expatriates and representatives of foreign businesses operating in Ghana could afford the financial requirements for residential telephones. Communication centres emerged to satisfy the telecommunication needs of the average Ghanaian by retailing such services on retail basis. Third, with respect to ownership, telecommunication technology emerged on the Ghanaian scene at a time when the unequal distribution of resources in Ghana’s weak economy has engendered the rise of a commercial class who had the capital to invest in the new technology. It is this class who have dominated the investment and distribution of communication centres in the country.

I made the following observations regarding the structure and day-to-day operations of communication centers. In general communication centers operate as small businesses that may be independent of each other. Entrepreneurs intending to enter this type of business simply apply for a phone connection from Ghana Telecom, and then adhere to rules and regulations established by the Ghana Telecom such as prompt payment of their monthly bills to ensure continuous service. Some communication centers have leased commercial spaces along city streets, while others, particularly those operating in low-income communities, operate from wooden kiosks. Some are part of a cross-country chain of telecommunication operations. They are all organized to sell telephone services to customers. Within the centers themselves, things move from start to completion in a streamlined manner. A customer wishing to purchase telephone service generally writes down the number, and then proceeds to wait in a reception area while an employee at the center places the call. The customer is then signaled to enter a booth to speak to his or her party when the call is successfully placed. Another key aspect of the operation of communication centers that I observed is the close monitoring of activities. Employees keep a log of all the telephone calls, faxes sent and received, the quantity of paper used by the photocopier daily, and, where applicable, both incoming and outgoing emails. This practice not only enables owners to keep track of revenues and expenditures, it enables owners to exercise control over the activities of employees.

Among Ghanaians, communication centers represent a local adaptation to the need for instant communication in an environment challenged by the lack of telecommunication infrastructure and personal resources. By far the most popular adaptation can be described as the “center to center links”. In this adaptation, individuals will seek a semi-formal relationship with their neighborhood communication center and then give out the telephone number of the center to interacting parties including kin and associates. People wishing to call the individual (say, for example, someone named “Amma”) will place a call to the communication center. An employee at the communication center will either take a message for Amma, or go out into the local neighborhood to fetch Amma for the call. In another scenario, Amma will simply wait at the communication center for a pre-arranged phone call. Hence, the communication center becomes the message center or point of contact for residents in the neighborhood and their social contacts. Communication centers charge for all their services, another economic benefit for the center. I observed that this practice is not limited to individuals. Small business owners may also pass on the telephone and fax numbers of communication centers to potential clients as their sources of contact. In so doing, customers can more conveniently reach the small business operators.

Overall the Ghanaian market for telecommunication services is large, growing and lucrative. Telephone services offered by communication centers comprise local or intra-city calls, long distance calls and finally international calls. The information that I gathered indicated that about 70 customers would purchase telephone service in a communication center on a typical day. By far the most popular form of telephone service purchased by customers are local calls. At the time of my research the minimum charge for a local call ranged between 900 and 1000 cedis (about 11 to 15 cents), which purchased three minutes of talk time. After that the fee increased based on established rates per minute. Long distance calls between Ghanaian cities attracted a minimum charge of about 1500 cedis (or 16 cents) for the first three minutes8 . As shown in the later discussions, there are significant variations in the fees charged by communication centers for similar telephone services. Judging by the volume of services purchased on a given day, I recognized that communication centers are among the busiest customer-service establishments in Ghana.

At the time of my research, the average revenue of communication centers was about 2,800,000 cedis9 ($400) a month. However, some centers could earn additional revenue ranging from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 cedis (that is $142-$285) from providing photocopying, faxing, and emailing services. On the other hand, typically the operational costs including telephone bills and line charges by Ghana Telecom, labor, and electric power ranged between 40 to 50 percent of monthly revenues. Hence communication centers are profitable business operations. Considering that cellular phones are far beyond the means of the average Ghanaian, and also that public pay phones are unreliable, communication centers have very little competition and thus entrepreneurs find their endeavors lucrative.

I observed that two classes of personnel are connected with communication centers. These are the staff and owners. However, only a small proportion of owners work in communication centers, while staff spend the bulk of their time placing telephone calls requested by customers. Occasionally, youths work in communication centers on part-time basis while engaged in academic pursuits. Employees in communication centers are largely young females between 16 to 22 years of age. I found out that, this was due to a widespread presumption among employers that women were more suitable for fulfilling customer requests for telephone calls, photocopying, and, where the facilities exist, word processing and emailing needs. In part, the concentration of young females in this kind of work also reflected a longstanding Ghanaian tradition of recruiting females for low-paid service-oriented jobs. On average, employees of communication centers only earn about 90,000 cedis ($13-$14) a month which places them in the ranks of Ghana’s lowest income group. But gender adds another dimension to the low wages of those working in the communication sector. Some female employees that I interviewed told me that they earned less than their male counterparts. Thus, there is evidence to suggest that females working in communication centers experienced a sex segregated occupational structure in which females are systematically assigned lower wages.

Economic Benefits

Since the expansion of telecommunication technology in Ghana in the early 1990s, communication centers have played an important role in the economic and social development of the country. One important benefit of communication centres is the degree to which they have enhanced instant communication among Ghanaians on one hand, and also between Ghanaians and people in distant places around the globe on the other. Prior to the advent of communication centres a large segment of Ghanaians from all backgrounds including government administrators, law enforcement agents, hospital workers, university students had never used a telephone. Only a fraction of Ghanaians were employed in the communication sector. My own observations was that, subsequent to 1994, communication centres have widened access to telecommunication facilities remarkably by bringing telephones, fax services and in some instances connection to the World Wide Web to city neighbourhoods. As a result, communication centres are tightly linked to the rise in teledensity in Ghana.

Fuchs (1997) has argued that communication technology can serve as a “market maker”. Since it can provide a foundation for the private sector to eventually develop their entry into the marketplace. Fuchs’ observation is applicable to the relationship between communication centers and small businesses in Ghana. To small-scale businesses conducting their trade down the street or across the country, communication centers offer the know-how, the workers, and the equipment to deliver their communication-related needs. Small businesses that depend on communication centers include fitters, petty traders, and taxi drivers who conduct important aspects of their business on the phone. I also observed that freelance caterers, artisans, electricians, painters, photographers and videographers often depended on communication centers to reach clients. For the latter, communication centers provide low cost, economically viable access to telecommunication facilities. In so doing the communication center has become a convenient office for the small-scale business operator.

Another fundamental economic benefit of communication centers that I noted was the important employment opportunities that they have generated particularly for Ghanaian youth. The level of employment growth varies widely depending on the range of services and the nature of transactions handled by each communication centers. On the average, communication centers employed two workers who worked on different shifts. Judging from this, I estimated that at the time of research over 24,000 individuals were employed by the communication centers across the country. On the other hand, officials from Ghana’s Department of Labor with whom I spoke maintained that my estimates were conservative, in that I excluded second-round effects on the labor force through an increase in employment in other sectors of the economy. They cited the examples of the construction of wooden kiosks a popular form of communication centers in low-income areas, along with the retrofitting of offices for use as communication centers as sources of additional communication centre-related job expansion. Ghana’s Department of Labor officials maintained that communication centers have provided between 20,000-25,000 jobs to Ghanaians annually since 1995. Further, between 1995 and 1999, communication centers contributed approximately 8 percent of the labor force growth in Ghana, compared with approximately 11 percent in the manufacturing sector within the same period. The contribution of communication centers to labor-force growth remains substantial as the centers continue to spread across the country.

A number of secondary indicators of economic benefit are also of interest, given the unique nature of communication centers. Training is an investment that entrepreneurs make in their staff. People trained to operate communication centers acquire new skills, they are also able to offer new services—including customer relations, computer technology, word processing and the operation of communication technology—that can stimulate local economies. Communication centers that offer connectivity to the Internet has linked Ghanaian youth in particular to the information revolution and globalization.

Communication centers have helped “modernize” Ghanaian society in many other respects. They are linked to infrastructure expansion in Ghana. I found out that in some instances, the entrepreneurs have borne the cost of the posts and cables that extend the telecommunication link from the closest point to their facility. Further, in communities where residential phones are scarce, Ghanaians can depend on communication centers to contact emergency services such as the police and firefighters in times of distress or violence. Moreover, communication centers have made it possible for urbanites to increasingly participate in radio call-in programs. I witnessed the way that individuals would call-in to contribute to political discussions on the numerous local FM stations, to report abuse of power by authorities, or to report broken-down infrastructure services. By facilitating popular participation in the discussion of national or local issues, communication centers, have enhanced democracy in Ghana.

I observed that communication centers have become part of the local culture. They cultivate business relationships with local businesses such as suppliers of soft drinks, and packaged water. In fact, communication centers serves as a hub for diverse business activities. Some serves as convenience stores, some co-exist with barbers or salons. Others serve as a video library, or bookstore. In so doing, communication centers have helped businesses to tap into new revenue sources.

Social Costs of Communication Centers

The previous section has outlined the economic benefits of telecommunication and information technologies to Ghanaian society. Another concern of the paper has to do with the social consequences of these new technologies, particularly with respect to who benefits from telecommunication and information technology and who does not. Evidence from my research suggests that some Ghanaians have been included while others have been excluded in the distribution of the benefits reaped from these facilities. Although Ghanaian authorities have pledged that citizens would enjoy the benefits of telecommunication facilities equally, in reality, my observation was that access to the telecommunication apparatus has largely favored only predominant sections of Ghanaian society, thereby stratifying citizens in their relationship to the telecommunication technology.

Even though expansion in telecommunication apparatus has improved the teledensity in the country, rich and poor Ghanaians experience telecommunication technology differently. At the top and enjoying more access and benefits are the affluent and urban educated segments of Ghanaian society. Here is the evidence. According to a Ghana Telecom’s Press Release, those targeted for telecommunication services include corporate bodies, entrepreneurs, middle income earners, students, tourists and foreign business officials operating in Ghana (Daily Graphic August 2001). By virtue of their relatively higher academic attainments, skills, socialization and resources, those falling into these groups are better placed to patronize information technology services such as direct international telephone access, emailing, Internet and teleconferencing facilities. Moreover, it is mainly corporate bodies and highly educated urbanites with high incomes that are able to patronize these services on a regular basis—given the relatively steep user fees involved. Hence, unequal access to telecommunication facilities in Ghana is not accidental, in fact, these operations cater largely to the interests and lifestyles of more predominant members of Ghanaian society.

When it comes to the distribution of telecommunication facilities, considerable stratification exists by area of residence. I made the following observations. Upscale communities are well served with telecommunication services relative to other communities. Even though the number of cyber cafes in Ghana has increased, the majority of them are located in affluent sections of Accra and Kumasi (Ahiabenu 2001). A clear example in this respect is Dansoman, a middle class suburb of Accra inhabited by approximately half a million people. About one-third of Dansoman residents have residential telephones, high by Ghanaian standards. As an indication of how the telecommunication sector has kept pace with the demand for services by affluent Ghanaians, Dansoman has a large concentration of communication centers that offer a wide range of services including direct international telephone access, emailing and Internet services. Relative to other residents, Dansoman residents experience barely any delays in seeking various kinds of telecommunication services. Further, Ghana Telecom maintains a sub-station here to provide supporting services to the telecommunication operations. The net result is that within Ghana’s multi-tier telecommunication sector, the affluent enjoy a better quality and a disproportionate share of telecommunication facilities.

At the bottom, and experiencing limited access to telecommunication facilities, are low-income Ghanaians who have limited skills and training, who occupy the same social class positions as laborers, menial workers, farmers, fishermen and the unemployed. Overall the marginal access of these groups to telecommunication facilities reflects the combined disadvantages of marginal social economic standing and partiality in the distribution of telecommunication hardware. James-Town, a low-income suburb of Accra, offers a direct contrast to my observations at Dansoman. Even though James-Town has over 300,000 residents, the capacity of the telecommunication facilities has not kept pace with the demand for services compelling residents to depend on a few communication centers. Typically, a communication center at James-Town has one telephone line providing only intra city and long distance telephone services. In some instances, residents intending to place international telephone calls, send or receive a fax or those who need email services have to go outside James-Town to purchase such services. In sharp contrast to my observations at Dansoman, James-Town residents could encounter delays of up to 30 minutes before having the opportunity to place their telephone calls. Considering that communication centers are scarce, the few centers at James-Town seemed to enjoy a near monopoly status. As demonstrated by the disparities between Dansoman and James-Town with respect to the range, quality and cost of services, remarkable differences are evident in the way in which affluent and low income Ghanaians experience telecommunication facilities even within the same city.

Another source of inequality that I detected was the urban bias in the distribution of telecommunication apparatus. No matter how far apart they are, Ghanaian cities are well connected to the telecommunication infrastructure. This privilege is perhaps influenced by the fact that the cities are centers of political and economic power. Nearly sixty percent of all communication centers in Ghana are located in Accra and Kumasi the two major cities in the country. Moreover, all the ISPs in the country operate from Accra, hence the majority of users outside Accra have to make a trunk call to get access to the Internet (Ahiabenu 2001). This has given rise to a digital divide in Ghana where cities such as Accra and Kumasi, and a few regional capitals, enjoy varying degrees of internet connectivity, while small towns and rural communities have no such access whatsoever (ibid). Further, it is likely that the economies arising from the agglomeration of people and also small businesses have enticed communication centers to Ghanaian cities. In some instances the expansion of the telecommunication network has been boosted by entrepreneur’s demands for telecommunication infrastructure to fuel their profit-making operations. Entrepreneurs exert considerable influence on new developments in such a way as to direct telecommunication hardware to locations where they intend to establish their operations. Hence, the distribution of communication centers in Ghana is unfair, since it ends up serving only those who can afford them. The net result is that the national telecommunication program shortchanges Ghanaians resident in non-urban settings including small towns and rural settlements.

Even where services are available, non-urbanites are victims of relatively poor telecommunication infrastructure. The rising demands for telecommunication services in Ghana are confronted by severe shortages of hardware and trained personnel. Authorities have tended to prioritize the needs of urban centers over all other settlements. As a result, non-urban settlements are more likely to have outmoded or sub-standard equipment. Instead of recognizing the burden posed by sub-standard equipment, Ghana Telecom continues to discriminate against non-urban settings when it comes to maintenance and technical support. My research evidence suggested that it took a relatively longer period for Ghana Telecom to attend to network problems in the countryside compared to the speed to which they responded to network problems in the city.

Another inequality stems from the fact that residents in small towns have to pay more to use the services of communication centers compared to urban dwellers10 . Interviews with some customers in small towns suggested that there is evidence that unfair tariffs are also an issue in customer’s patronage or non-patronage of communication center services. Attitudes toward communication centers and their patronage vs. non-patronage form a continuum based upon perception of their degree of exploitation. Some of the customers in small towns with whom I spoke felt that communication centers are taking advantage of non-urbanites by charging them higher fees. Such individuals thus tend to use the services of the communication centers only for very pressing needs. Furthermore, my interviews indicated that a segment of small town residents feel that they are unfairly charged by communication centers for the same services as their urban counterparts, but they continue to use the services of the centers to communicate with relatives elsewhere. The latter feel they are victims of exploitation by communication centers. Some non-urbanites also maintained that communication centers in the countryside should charge similar tariffs as their urban counterparts for similar services. This differential cost for similar services can thus have an impact on the ability of non-urbanites to afford or benefit from the communication services.

In addition to the various forms of discrimination outlined above, there is another form of discrimination towards rural communities in particular. I observed that in general rural communities in Ghana have no access to telecommunication technology whatsoever. This observation holds true even for rural communities that are directly situated in the path of the cross-country telecommunication infrastructure. Why rural residents are denied telecommunication facilities stems partly from the same discriminatory distribution practices that have tended to exclude low income and non-urban Ghanaians, thereby placing them at a severe disadvantage. Yet, given the principle of access to telecommunication facilities based on ability to pay not on need, there is little action to address the gaps between urban and rural communities with respect to the distribution of telecommunication facilities.

Patterns in the ownership of communication centres provide further evidence of the stratification within Ghana’s telecommunication industry. When I asked employees of communication centres who their employer was, I found out that a significant proportion (39/50) were owned by Ghana’s commercial class. On the other hand, ordinary Ghanaians owned a small minority (6/50) of communication centres11 . The concentration of ownership of communication centres in the hands of Ghana’s commercial class is not accidental considering that the capital requirement for setting communication centres is significantly beyond the means of a majority of Ghanaians. At the time of research the initial capital outlay for a communication centre ranged between six to twelve million cedis (approximately $1000 to $2000). Because of the profitability of communication centres Ghana’s commercial class invest in it either as a sideline or as a full-time occupation. Some owned several communication centres within the city or across the country. As a consequence, while the commercial class are benefiting from the new wealth creation opportunities generated by the expanding telecommunication sector, majority of Ghanaians have become purchasers of telecommunication services totally dependent on the businesses of the former.

Proponents of telecommunication and information technology as tools for sustainable development have focused on its contribution to the material prosperity of poor nations, but it is impossible to predict all the various social impact of the transformations that it can induce. The incorporation of telecommunication apparatus into social interaction is an indicator of a profound transformation underway in Ghanaian society, a transformation that is redefining the primary mode of interaction and other forms of human interaction activities. Ghanaians are a very traditional people, to use Max Weber’s term. Close ties of culture, kinship and similar social values bind Ghanaians. In addition, face to face dealings are the centerpiece of social interaction or human activity. Prior to the widespread use of communication centers relatives either exchanged visits or arranged to meet in the market, church, lorry stations and other places that afforded the opportunity of face to face meeting. But, telecommunication technology has interposed physical distance between interacting the parties. Most (19/30) customers that I talked to said they have shifted to telephones for keeping in touch with relatives in other parts of the city. I noticed that this kind of social impact is widespread and indicates the conflict between rising dependency on the tools of instant communications on one hand, and the sustainability of a social system on the other.

The “center to center links” is illustrative of how communication technology is transforming social and human interactions among Ghanaians. I observed among some urbanites how the making and receiving calls in communication centers has become such an integral part of their lives that they would spend hours waiting in communication centers for their pre-arranged telephone calls. The pursuit of rising living standards has undermined a basic cultural practice of face-to-face interaction among individuals. Considering that telecommunication apparatus is expanding to more areas in Ghanaian society this homogenizing trend seems irreversible.

It is generally the case that the shift from primary interaction to information technology signifies modernization. But it cannot redress widespread social economic problems. Some analysts have argued that improved information technology would promote economic development in underdeveloped parts of Africa. This conception may be applicable to other forms of information technology but not communication centers in Ghana, since these are basically profit-seeking ventures. Communication centers do not necessarily work towards the alleviation of Ghana’s problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy and gross inequality and social imbalance. If anything, the communication centers have aggravated these problems because their pursuit of profit is closely related to social inequalities. Although, communication centers have generated substantial employment opportunities, however for the most part these have been low-level unskilled jobs such as front desk services, word processing and basic familiarity with computer technology. The industry has failed to impart medium to high-level technological skills such as computer engineering, software development and technological competency that can promote industrial take-off in Ghana. Workers in the communication centers encounter difficulties including low wages, long hours and poor working conditions. Hence, the profits of entrepreneurs are obtained at the cost of exploitation of workers. Within cities, concentration of communication centers has brought these businesses into competition with one another. Workers find that their work is defined by the ability of the center to maintain its market image and consistent supply of customers. So not only is the job insecure but it is also shaped by market conditions. Further, Ghana’s telecommunication and information technology industry has not generated any economic surplus towards eliminating widespread social and economic conditions of underdevelopment in Ghana including lack of safe drinking water, illiteracy, inadequate housing, shortage of modern health services. The development and expansion of telecommunication apparatus in Ghana is reproducing diverse forms of inequalities, as some individuals and communities prosper others are marginalised with respect to their social economic circumstances.

McMichael (2000) argued that globalization replaced development as the discourse and project of political and business elite by the late twentieth century. He maintains further that the increasingly finite world has also become the object of powerful countries and corporations concerned to improve their competitive advantage by capturing world resources. These arguments are applicable to the Ghanaian case. Although Ghanaians have always being connected to people in other parts of the globe through exchange of goods, tourism and media images but improved telecommunication apparatus has made it possible more intensively than ever before. But the benefits are uneven. It has made it remarkably easier for Ghana’s commercial class, more accustomed to international commercial culture to interact with the rest of the world and also participate in global processes that links them to a variety of economic opportunities, people and resources. Improved telecommunication apparatus has laid the foundation for the entry of several multinational courier giants into the Ghanaian economy. Hence, improved telecommunication apparatus has not only brought the Ghanaian economy significantly closer to the global economy, it has facilitated the efforts of powerful nations and corporations to gain access to it.

Conclusion

Thanks to their ability to overcome some of the bottlenecks facing Ghana’s telecommunication sector, the advent of communication centers has helped Ghanaians in their social and economic life. Neither the efforts of the Ghana government nor donor support provided by the World Bank and western nations to Ghana’s telecommunication sector can explain the massive employment opportunities that have been generated in Ghana’s information technology sector; why ordinary Ghanaians with meager incomes can afford instant telecommunication with their parties; why small businesses without communication technology facilities are able to conduct their business by phone. In each of these cases communication centers allow for the achievement of significant goals.

But the macro-changes that have accompanied the communication technology have come with social costs. The allocation of telecommunication facilities in Ghana is extraordinarily uneven. Within Ghanaian society considerable stratification exist by place of residence, income and education, and communication technologies appear to have reinforced these existing inequalities. Educated Ghanaians enjoy disproportionate access to the benefits of telecommunication technology relative to other Ghanaians. State policy regarding the distribution of communication technology has prioritized the needs of city dwellers over the needs of non—urbanites giving rise to a two-tier telecommunication service.

Rural areas have been ignored, even though they, and Ghana more generally, have the potential to benefit enormously through enhanced access to communication technologies. But if telecommunication technology has arrived primarily to eliminate the developmental challenges of Ghanaians, then it has failed. Inequality the distribution and usage of telecommunications have increasingly marginalized Ghana’s low income and rural populations.

Communication and information technologies provide a medium through which to obtain and exchange information, but they have not replaced the building blocks of social and economic development: basic education programs, improved healthcare, agricultural inputs and better terms of trade from Ghana’s foreign trade partners. Nor has new technology replaced the value of hard work and good governance. Regardless of its setbacks, with the advent of communication centers the framework and foundation for an inclusive communication and information technology program have been firmly established in Ghana that would enable information technology to grow and flourish, and perhaps to serve as a model for other nations.

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Endnotes

1. This measures the number of telephone lines per 100 inhabitants of a country.

2. Data on overall expenses in this sector is very difficult to come by. This information came out of interviews with officials at Ghana Telecom and DataBank in June 2001.

3. Notable among those who have promoted communication technology as tools for sustainable development in Africa are The United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the International Development Research Center (IDRC-Canada).

4. Telecentres provides services ranging from basic telephone and email to full access to the Internet and the World Wide Web. Additionally they may offer specialized applications such as tele-medicine or distance education (Gomez et al 1999.) Telecentres are community owned or financed by international and non-profit organizations.

5. Example in the case of Africa, huge companies can subcontract with growers to produce coffee, cocoa, mangoes and chilies that they export to Europe and beyond.

6. The then government of Ghana NDC did not disclose the amount of loans and grants and the terms under which these were given. Such information is only disclosed where it is politically expedient.

7. The cedi is the Ghanaian currency. At the time of research in 2001 one US$ was equivalent to 7,000 of the Ghanaian cedi.

8. Given the low incomes of Ghanaians these fees seemed high. Yet, the services of communication centers are more within the means of the average Ghanaian relative to cellular phones for instance.

9. This amount may be considered as low earning by Western standards but it is quite significant in the Ghanaian context, considering that the monthly minimum wage is $25, daily minimum wage was less than fifty cents, and also most middle level civil servants earned about $50 a month.

10. The same observation was at James-Town. I found out that a local call in the communication centers at James-Town center cost slightly higher than that of Dansoman.

11. Five respondents refused to identify their employers. Their reasons ranged from confidentiality to fear of reprisals. We sensed that those who were employed by key figures were especially reluctant to disclose the identity of their employers.