I did my research in one of the area in Tanzania let share with you the following;The main aim of the study was to determine the impact of mobile communication on performance of agriculture based SMEs in Kilombero district. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected using structured questionnaire. Random sampling was employed to select 120 agriculture based SMEs. This was accomplished by SPSS version 16.0 computer software programme.
The study revealed that majority of SMEs (98.3 %) acknowledged to use innovatively mobile phone beeping, (93.3 %) loudspeaker, (88.3 %) voice recording and (80.8 %) camera with the intention of minimizing communication costs. The research found (99.2 %) of beeping originated from friend and relatives, (92.5 %) from customers and (76.7 %) from suppliers. In addition, 91.4 % reported that, mobile telephone usage had contributed to increased customers’ satisfaction and (90.5 %) gross profit.
The regression results suggests that, the increased number of customers, operating capital, number of years in business, uses of mobile phone and number of years of using mobile telephone in business can increase agriculture based SMEs output and hence increase businesses profit level with its resultant effects towards poverty reduction. The electricity was major constraint for mobile phone recharging and poor phone batteries were major problems facing owners of SMEs in the study area. Based on the findings of the present study, improvement on access and reliable electricity to rural areas by strengthening of the existing TANESCO and Rural Energy Authority (REA), provision of network coverage to the rural areas and reduction of the airtime to reduce the costs of making calls.
M. Valerian Kidole