Browsing by Author "Mothobi, Onkokame"

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    Cost of smartphones continues the digital divide in Tanzania
    (Policy Commons, 2017) Mothobi, Onkokame; Moshi, Goodiel Charles
    The Tanzanian mobile market has been one of the most vibrant markets on the continent as a result of higher competition and an enabling wholesale cost environment. Consumers have been the beneficiaries of fierce pricing strategies yet this dynamism has now been stultified by operators’ continued efforts to extract revenues from traditional services where prices remain relatively high. Although competition in Tanzania’s prepaid mobile data market keeps the overall cost of communicating low, the country has slipped from first position in the last quarter to fourth out of 49 African countries in the RAMP Index. Although prices are lower than many other African countries, the prices are still unaffordable for many Tanzanians, limiting efforts at digital inclusivity and the associated dividends.
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    Mobile money and financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa countries
    (Elsevier BV, 2018) Mothobi, Onkokame; Moshi, Goodiel; Deen-Swarray, Mariama
    Mobile money can potentially contribute to the well-being of people at the bottom of the pyramid by providing them with the necessary platforms to access financial services. The mobile money platforms allow individuals to send, receive or save money in their mobile money wallet, services which they cannot access in the formal banking system. However, there is a shortage of evidence on the impact of these services on issues relating to financial inclusion, such as the ability to smooth consumption on the poor, making it impossible to derive evidence-based policies. Supply-side data is generally limited, as it is impossible to discern crucial estimates, such as age, gender and income, which are crucial to the development of policies. We use an After Access Survey that collects information on access and use of ICTs in seven African countries, in 2017. Our results suggest that mobile money services are more likely to be used by individuals who have no access to bank account. Supporting the notion that these services provide the poor with services that formal banks cannot offer. We find that individuals who live in households that have a relative who migrated to other places in the country are more likely to use mobile money services. Relatively wealthier and the employed individuals are more likely to transfer money to their dependents using mobile money services. At a local level, mobile money can be seen as a tool to drive financial inclusion, but it only allows users to make transactions and does not allow consumers to borrow for consumption smoothing.