Wealth In Africa Mapped Using Mobile Phone Data 34
KentuckyFC writes "The remarkable growth of mobile phone use is transforming many parts of Africa. In Sudan and Gabon, more than half of all adults use their phones to transfer money, the activist website Ushahidi used text messages to map post-election violence in Kenya in 2008 and in Nigeria, mobile music services are a multi-million dollar industry. Now demographers have used the way people purchase airtime to map wealth in Cote d'Ivoire on Africa's west coast. They analysed a dataset from one of the country's largest mobile operators containing caller IDs, the cell towers used for each call and the time and amount of all airtime purchases. The researchers say an individual's airtime buying habits are a good proxy for his or her income. As a result, they were able to to map wealth across the entire country. Their map clearly shows the wealthy cities such as Abidjan, the largest seaport in West Africa. But it also shows an unexpectedly wealthy region in the conflict-ridden area that borders Liberia. This wealth probably arises from illegal activities on the border, such as drug, arms and human trafficking, they conclude."
Re:Wealth in Africa is... (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone who owns a mobile phone.
Not true. In Africa, even the very poor often have phones. They can buy used phones for less than $5, which are often refurbished first-world throwaways. Phone services are very cheap, and in Africa, phones are a critical economic tool. "Minutes" on your phone are more inflation proof than the official currency, and peer-to-peer transactions are often possible. So even a farmer selling his produce by the roadside will find that a cellphone is an economic necessity. So if he has to choose between the phone and shoes for his kids, he will choose the phone. The shoes can come later.