Soubre, Côte d’Ivoire
Camara, from ANOPACI (l’Association Nationale des Organisations Professionnelles Agricoles) in Côte d’Ivoire, is quite a joy to work with--at once serious and dedicated to his job and yet consistently lighting up a room--or a corner of the market--with his huge laugh. He’s been an enumerator for ANOPACI, running the Point of Villagious (PIV) in Soubre, Cote d’Ivoire, since 2002. That means that he’s responsible for collecting price information from 5 markets—one main market in Soubre itself and its 4 satellite markets. He collects these prices once a week and then enters them into Esoko, which now has an impressive and constant list of price data thanks to ANOPACI’s deployment. The biggest challenge to his work, he says, is that there just isn’t enough time to develop a more evolved MIS. Projects end too fast, money comes and goes--and good ideas don’t get a chance to grow in an environment like that. Not to mention the fact that he and all of his colleagues are spread around the country, and it isn’t always easy logistically or financially to get together. Price information is important, he knows, but he’s excited that with a new program ANOPACI will be collecting offers to buy and sell and contacts from markets because too many times he sees buyers and sellers just simply not finding each other. In Africa, he says, everyone grows up around agriculture, so it’s not about whether you’re “interested” in it or not—everyone is invested in some way or another. ANOPACI’s lucky to have Camara and his colleagues, a dedicated group really trying to make MIS work in their corner of the world.
Accra, Ghana
Puoza der Gamaliel believes that no one should have to travel to get information anymore. This is why he's put so much time and energy into creating the SMS gateway that makes Esoko the powerful communication tool that it is. Simply put, a mobile operator connects to Esoko's database and passes us the subscriber text messages; we then formulate responses and send them back, in realtime, to the corresponding subscribers. Remarkably, Puoza grew up in a small village in Northern Ghana and didn't even lay eyes on a computer until his mid-twenties. He was immediately entranced by what he saw, and after learning about the mouse and monitor he taught himself how to write code in all the languages he could get his hands on. He is still so taken with "this device that gives you the ability to create anything you want" and after 4 years with BusyLab, he's still excited about the possibilities Esoko holds. Because in Puoza's mind, the possibilities of what technology can do are endless. So why not create products that can bring information to his friends and family in Nandom, Ghana, giving them the ability to make better business decisions just by picking up their mobile phones? No travelling, no trouble, but realtime information at their disposal, all thanks to Puoza's SMS gateway.
Chamba, Northern Region, Ghana
Kujo Azumah grew up farming and has never really considered exploring any other profession. As the oldest son in the family, he holds most of the responsibility on the farm, and takes that responsibility very seriously. He says what sets him apart from his parents is the fact that his generation is a lot more comfortable with technology than theirs--especially with mobile phones. That's why when he learned about Esoko's SMS price alerts through the SEND Foundation's project in Northern Ghana he was one of the first to sign up and start using the information in hopes of increasing his family's revenue in a community that has historically received low buying offers from outside traders simply due to their lack of relevant market information. When he got an SMS alert for groundnuts a few months ago, he was able to convert the kilos into local measures (bags in this case) and realized that the prices in the center of the country, and in Accra, where drastically higher than what the Northern traders where offering him in his small community of Chamba. He could have sold to the traders that visited his farm for 320 GHC (1 GHC is roughly equivalent to 1 USD), or he could ship the very same groundnuts to Accra, with the inexpensive transport cost of 4 GHC, and sell them for 672 GHC. Trusting the information he received on the alert, he shipped them down to Makola market in Accra, making an extra 348 GHC. Kujo is so proud to not only continue his family's work, but to put a new spin on it--he is now slowly taking power away from the Northern traders who have, for all of his life, taken advantage of his community.
Soubre, Côte d’Ivoire
