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Viewing cable 09NIAMEY943, Niger: Poor, but not too Poor for Cell Phones

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09NIAMEY943 2009-11-28 11:10 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Niamey
VZCZCXRO2004
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHNM #0943/01 3321110
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 281110Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY NIAMEY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5485
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NIAMEY 000943 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/EPS, AND EEB/CPS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECPS ECON SOCI PGOV KWIR NG
SUBJECT: Niger: Poor, but not too Poor for Cell Phones 
 
1. Summary:  Cell Phone usage is Niger is expanding rapidly, despite 
high costs to users with very limited means.  With four service 
providers, cell phone growth has left landlines far behind.  A 
Government of Niger (GON) survey indicates that men are twice as 
likely as women to have a cell phone, although use is roughly the 
same.  Half of cell phones users are rural residents, who decrease 
housing, food, and/or clothing expenditures to afford use of cell 
phones.  Cell phone accounts are prepaid, and use prepaid cards to 
add credit; card sellers earn as much as mid-level GON employees, as 
do cell phone repairers.  Finally, cell phones play a key role in 
livestock and grain trading.  End summary. 
 
A Booming, Competitive Industry Despite Costs 
--------------------------------------------- 
2. Cellular telephone service has been growing at exponential rates 
in Niger, with national service now provided by four companies: 
Celtel (now Zain), Moov/Telecel, Orange, and Sahelcom.  Despite a 
per capita income less than USD 300 and poverty rates above 60 
percent, the number of cellular telephone accounts increased an 
average of 171 percent per year during the period of 2000-2005, and 
reached a national usage level of 12 percent by 2008.  Even with 
competition among companies, the cost of mobile calls in Niger is 
the second highest in West Africa.  Costs for national fixed-line 
telephone calls are the highest in the region, and there has been 
virtually no growth in the number of fixed landline subscribers. 
Over 97 percent of telephone subscribers in Niger use mobile 
telephony. 
 
Informational, Social, & Economic Gains 
--------------------------------------- 
3. Benefits of growth in cellular communications include access to 
information, facilitation of business transactions, organization of 
social and family activities, and employment for youth, particularly 
young men with minimal schooling.  Urban re-sellers of prepaid cards 
report average monthly earnings in excess of the monthly pay of 
mid-level bureaucrats. 
 
GON Statistics Office Reveals Cell Phone Market Trends 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
4. The Institut National de la Statistique (INS) recently released a 
report on the economic and social impacts of mobile phone use in 
Niger.  Titled "The Impact of Mobile Telephony on the Living 
Conditions of Users and Market Participants," the report is based on 
a survey of cellular phone users and individuals who provide related 
products and services, including resellers of prepaid charge cards, 
vendors of mobile phones and accessories and repairmen.  The survey 
included individuals in the Niamey urban area and two rural 
communes. 
 
More Men than Women Use Cell Phones, Many Rural Users 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
5. Cell phone owners are almost twice as likely to be men (65.3 
percent) as women (34.7 percent), but women who do own cell phones 
typically use them as much as men.  Rural users accounted for just 
over half of cell phone owners surveyed (Note:  Over 80 percent of 
Nigeriens live in rural areas, where landline telephone coverage is 
extremely poor.  End note.)  Half of the individuals surveyed 
reported a monthly income under USD 115 and monthly cellular 
spending averaging 10 percent of that income.  While 39 percent 
reported spending much more money than they did before acquiring a 
cell phone, 41 percent reported that their spending had not 
increased significantly but rather they had cut spending on housing 
(25 percent), food (20 percent), or clothing (14 percent) to 
compensate. 
 
Accounts Prepaid, Recharge Card Sellers' Earnings 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
6. Most Nigeriens use prepaid cellular accounts and recharge their 
accounts by purchasing prepaid cards from street corner re-sellers 
who line the boulevards of Niamey and other urban areas.  Most 
vendors of prepaid cards are young (average age 21 years) and 
single.  Despite lack of education or prior work experience, they 
reported an average monthly income of USD 165, which is higher than 
the salary of a mid-level government worker in Niger.  Almost half 
of the card resellers surveyed reported that they had been victim of 
theft by individuals who left without paying for them.  Repair of 
cellular phones provides employment for a smaller number of 
individuals, who reported slightly lower monthly income than the 
re-sellers.  Cell phones and cellular accessories are sold by 
resellers on the street and in market stalls.  Of the equipment 
sellers, 70 percent are self-employed; they reported almost the same 
average monthly income at around USD 130 monthly, as did re-sellers 
who work for someone else. 
 
Role of Cell Phones in Livestock/Grain Trading 
--------------------------------------------- - 
7. The survey evaluated the impact of cell phone use on livestock 
and grain traders.  Traders reported that before the advent of 
cellular communications they had to visit the markets every day to 
learn prices and availability of livestock and grain, and found it 
impossible or inconvenient to contact customers to advise them of 
 
NIAMEY 00000943  002 OF 002 
 
 
the arrival of new merchandise.  All of the grain and livestock 
traders surveyed reported that they now use cellular communications 
to contact clients; almost half reported using cell phones to 
contact those from whom they obtain products to schedule delivery to 
the market, and 22 percent of livestock merchants reported using 
cell phones to compare prices at various markets in order to take 
their stock to the market with the highest prices. 
 
Poor Use Cell Phones, But in Different Ways 
------------------------------------------- 
8. The survey found that even though the poor use cellular 
communications, they do so in a different way than those with more 
money.  Unemployed and rural workers do not use cellular 
communications with the same intensity as those employed in the 
public or private sectors.  The elderly, rural users, and the less 
well educated use cell phones less than the young, urban users and 
the well educated, but the increased availability of communications 
is a benefit to all. 
 
ALLEN