I am excited to be able to comment on this forum. I agree with Worlali's submissions. The Busylab Esoko projects looks the only innovative project in Ghana that makes use of the mobile phones. Their platform has opened opportunities for farmers in Ghana and many other African countries to advertise their products and prices so that buyers can buy at competitive prices. Again Laura can throw more light on that. M-Pesa (a mobile money transfer through mobile phones) is likely to be introduced next year. Vodafone has bought into Ghana Telecom and would seek to introduce this service which has been a success in Kenya. There is more to come. I know of initiatives (yet to be deployed) to use mobile phones to give mocro-cerdits to rural folks. The idea is to transfer money coupons to the mobile phones of these folks to be retrieved at rural banks. These are my initial thoughts, thanks

My observation here in Ghana is that people in the rural areas use mobile phones to access and/or disseminate agricultural information. The TradeNet platform for instance (developed by busylab) has helped farmers to display prices of their agric products online and can be accessed using the mobile phone, so that you a text message away from finding competitive prices for farm products you may want to buy. Generally, the mobile phone has improved communication for farmers and other professionals in the rural areas and means increased business activity.

Hello everyone, I am a researcher from Ghana with a focus on ICTs for development. Currently i have been thinking of ways in which the mobile phone can help improve lives in rural areas and hopefully i shall be able to learn a lot from this forum.