The first place that I went on my return from Ghana was Tim Horton's (yes, I stopped by Canada on the way back to Austin to spend time with my family). Did I ever have egg on my face when I remembered that Timmy's is basically a cash-only environment. So much for take the cash out. Good news is that the prices are published, and I could get a half dozen doughnuts for under $5. Bad news is that they were not at all interested in negotiating.
I did breath a huge sigh of relief to be back in AT&T coverage zone so that I wouldn't get killed with their awful pricing structure. For those that count / care about these things, if I had used my AT&T phone to call or receive calls while in Ghana, the going rate while on International Rate Plan is $2.49 per minute. If I used my little local pay-as-you-go Ghana phone, the rate was approximately $0.05 per minute. NOT KIDDING.
It was glorious to be able to use my iPad for anything other than watching movies. The wireless connectivty that we encountered is more accurately described by what we DIDN'T encounter. The USB sticks we used for Internet connectivity were good (not fast, but reliable) but sadly none would work with an iPad.
What else?? Oh yes, coffee! Live and learn - Africa as land of coffee does NOT include Ghana. Not good coffee there. Except for the US Embassy/State Department. They had great coffee. Too bad it was not easy to get to!
What do I miss? Working with a team where we were all sitting in the same room! Business by email is no good for me, and even phone calls are not as effective. I am going to put in effect a new rule for my day-to-day activities though - more than three emails on one topic and I am going to insist on a phone call. We are in danger of becoming too disconnected, from our teams and sometimes even from reality.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Final Readout Today
Our final "readout" (presentation) is today in just under two hours. This is the culmination of the work we have been doing here in Accra for the last 2.5 weeks and the work we did over six weeks in the lead up to our time here in Ghana. We have interviewed over 70 stakeholders, from within the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), from trade associations, federal government groups, and global NGOs (the World Bank, USAID in particular). I have filled up more than half of a notebook with my handwritten notes from our interviews. We have reviewed reports, thesis, articles, anything we can get our hands on to help us understand the problems identified by the residents and citizens of Accra and Ghana. And most importantly, we have listened to their recommendations and opinions and made that the cornerstone of our findings.
We have a 100 page presentation with our recommendations. So we have already fallen afoul of the executive disease - information exchange via Powerpoint (and slight grumble that I was the only one with Symphony so we had to use ppt). We do go in to detail with our recommendations - enough detail that the AMA can take ownership of the steps and timing to build their own roadmap and strategy for the city. Its just that our details happen to include LOTS photographs, pictures, and clip art. It does make for a very pretty and readable presentation.
Our key recommendation is to "take the cash out". Accra, and Ghana in general, is a cash society. Credit cards are pretty much never used. I have used mine once, in the hotel, and it was so painful that I have resorted to cash for everything. No major economy in the world is still a cash-based one. Moving to electronic payment, mobile payment, heck, even cheques, will reduce the temptatation to take the cash out of circulation between the payor and the AMA coffers. This recommendation requires a fundamental shift in how the people of Accra go about their daily routine. It will require changes to how people pay their local fees and taxes, it will require changes to how these are collected, and it will force changes to the widely accepted fraud within the system due to the presence of a traceable chain of custody for all monies collected.
HOWEVER, taking the cash out of the system, and introducing transparency to system will increase the monies collected by the AMA. This will in turn increase the money available to provide social services (sanitation and waste removal being VERY high on the list), which will in turn reduce tax dodging, which will increase revenue, meaning more comprehensive services, and so the upward, "virtuous" cycle will go.
Mind you, reducing fraud and bribery can also be done with some pretty simple steps. For example, we recommend more widely publishing the rates that people must pay for traders licenses. Directly involving traders or their union & association representatives in the rate setting is a key recommendation (sadly rate setting is called "fee fixing" here -not a good term to use in this concept if you have a Western mentality or if you have followed the trials of Wall Street). This should have the effect reported by the World Bank in the Ghana eServices launch last Friday: "There is evidence that publishing the rates of fees and taxes reduces bribery and corruption"
We have made recommendations for eight key process areas (Identify & Register, Assessment and Valuation, Collection, Accounting, Monitoring and Audit, Compliance and Enforcement, Communication, Social Services) and then put our recommendations in to the context of People, Business and Technology.
We have also provided examples of the steps required to improve each of the process areas, including timing of these steps (when to start, how long it should take). This is a complicated problem with many moving parts and the solution is not easy. But it is do-able: we have provided an overall roadmap to move Ghana from a "Foundational" state, through "Advanced" and in to "Leading Africa" by 2015.
To paraphrase our overall conclusions to the Honourable Mayor: This is an aggressive roadmap. But it IS achievable. It will turn Accra in to a leading city in Africa, one that others look to as a model to be emulated. It requires a very strong leader to own, sponsor and drive. And it takes the political will and vision to drive these changes through. It won't be easy, but the benefits will be more than worth it.
We have a 100 page presentation with our recommendations. So we have already fallen afoul of the executive disease - information exchange via Powerpoint (and slight grumble that I was the only one with Symphony so we had to use ppt). We do go in to detail with our recommendations - enough detail that the AMA can take ownership of the steps and timing to build their own roadmap and strategy for the city. Its just that our details happen to include LOTS photographs, pictures, and clip art. It does make for a very pretty and readable presentation.
Our key recommendation is to "take the cash out". Accra, and Ghana in general, is a cash society. Credit cards are pretty much never used. I have used mine once, in the hotel, and it was so painful that I have resorted to cash for everything. No major economy in the world is still a cash-based one. Moving to electronic payment, mobile payment, heck, even cheques, will reduce the temptatation to take the cash out of circulation between the payor and the AMA coffers. This recommendation requires a fundamental shift in how the people of Accra go about their daily routine. It will require changes to how people pay their local fees and taxes, it will require changes to how these are collected, and it will force changes to the widely accepted fraud within the system due to the presence of a traceable chain of custody for all monies collected.
HOWEVER, taking the cash out of the system, and introducing transparency to system will increase the monies collected by the AMA. This will in turn increase the money available to provide social services (sanitation and waste removal being VERY high on the list), which will in turn reduce tax dodging, which will increase revenue, meaning more comprehensive services, and so the upward, "virtuous" cycle will go.
Mind you, reducing fraud and bribery can also be done with some pretty simple steps. For example, we recommend more widely publishing the rates that people must pay for traders licenses. Directly involving traders or their union & association representatives in the rate setting is a key recommendation (sadly rate setting is called "fee fixing" here -not a good term to use in this concept if you have a Western mentality or if you have followed the trials of Wall Street). This should have the effect reported by the World Bank in the Ghana eServices launch last Friday: "There is evidence that publishing the rates of fees and taxes reduces bribery and corruption"
We have made recommendations for eight key process areas (Identify & Register, Assessment and Valuation, Collection, Accounting, Monitoring and Audit, Compliance and Enforcement, Communication, Social Services) and then put our recommendations in to the context of People, Business and Technology.
We have also provided examples of the steps required to improve each of the process areas, including timing of these steps (when to start, how long it should take). This is a complicated problem with many moving parts and the solution is not easy. But it is do-able: we have provided an overall roadmap to move Ghana from a "Foundational" state, through "Advanced" and in to "Leading Africa" by 2015.
To paraphrase our overall conclusions to the Honourable Mayor: This is an aggressive roadmap. But it IS achievable. It will turn Accra in to a leading city in Africa, one that others look to as a model to be emulated. It requires a very strong leader to own, sponsor and drive. And it takes the political will and vision to drive these changes through. It won't be easy, but the benefits will be more than worth it.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Connectivity and Blogging
I haven't written anything in several days, for several reasons. To find out what we are up to, check out Lucy Chan's blog - she is an industrious blogger!
For the rest of us, connectivity has on many days gotten the better of us. We have ethernet in our hotel rooms and there is supposed to be wireless access in the hotel. However, I can count on one hand the number of times the signal has been strong and consistent enough to be useful. I suspect that this is a hotel issue, but only partly. We have been trying to make up this gap using 3G USB sticks - which is where I had "put my money" and faith for connectivity. I had been very much counting on wireless access everywhere, and was not prepared for the lack of it. I made this assessment based on the assumption that Africa would have skipped the laying of cable/copper/fibre and moved straight to cell/wireless technologies. This is true and was valid. What I hadn't counted on was that even though there is 3G coverage, this too would be spotty enough, and slow enough, to impact our connectivity.
We have also been dealing with a skills gap with the local IT team maintaining the hotel network and access. We had no connectivity for over 36 hours until some other hotel guests (German systems integrators also on "long term stay" at the Alisa) got with the team and pointed out some IP address conflicts that were blocking access to the local DNS server.
So this is my excuse for no blogging. I am going to use this in a glass half full way to highlight what we are all hearing -LOTS of issues to overcome, and LOTS of work to do with skills development. This translates to LOTS of potential in and for Africa. If we all are willing to work hard to make it happen.
For the rest of us, connectivity has on many days gotten the better of us. We have ethernet in our hotel rooms and there is supposed to be wireless access in the hotel. However, I can count on one hand the number of times the signal has been strong and consistent enough to be useful. I suspect that this is a hotel issue, but only partly. We have been trying to make up this gap using 3G USB sticks - which is where I had "put my money" and faith for connectivity. I had been very much counting on wireless access everywhere, and was not prepared for the lack of it. I made this assessment based on the assumption that Africa would have skipped the laying of cable/copper/fibre and moved straight to cell/wireless technologies. This is true and was valid. What I hadn't counted on was that even though there is 3G coverage, this too would be spotty enough, and slow enough, to impact our connectivity.
We have also been dealing with a skills gap with the local IT team maintaining the hotel network and access. We had no connectivity for over 36 hours until some other hotel guests (German systems integrators also on "long term stay" at the Alisa) got with the team and pointed out some IP address conflicts that were blocking access to the local DNS server.
So this is my excuse for no blogging. I am going to use this in a glass half full way to highlight what we are all hearing -LOTS of issues to overcome, and LOTS of work to do with skills development. This translates to LOTS of potential in and for Africa. If we all are willing to work hard to make it happen.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Kiva Micro Financing and Ghana
Hopefully title will work later....
I have been a long time Kiva member, but today I made a loan to a woman in Ghana that had a whole new meaning for me. I don't know the woman, but I have seen many women just like her all around Accra. The loan is to a woman who is going to buy more plastic bowls to sell. Just plastic bowls, you say? Nothing else? Yup, just plastic bowls. And she is either selling them out of a tiny little shack or carrying them around in a bucket on her head. And that is ALL that she is selling. And I have no idea how, but she is making a living out of doing this. Now I will say that Kiva's partners in the Cape Coast area have been having trouble getting repayment from their loans - but again, having seen the conditions in which people are trying to make a living, I'm not surprised.
So if the lender has a poor payback history, why did I loan to Felicia? Was it just that she is in Ghana and I am in Ghana now? Or is it that having seen the tenacity of people here, I have more faith in Felicia's ability to use the money wisely? I hope its the latter (especially given the lack of wise money stewardship we are observing in Accra) but either way, I hope that like all gestures made in good faith, it has the ability to improve someone's life.
I have been a long time Kiva member, but today I made a loan to a woman in Ghana that had a whole new meaning for me. I don't know the woman, but I have seen many women just like her all around Accra. The loan is to a woman who is going to buy more plastic bowls to sell. Just plastic bowls, you say? Nothing else? Yup, just plastic bowls. And she is either selling them out of a tiny little shack or carrying them around in a bucket on her head. And that is ALL that she is selling. And I have no idea how, but she is making a living out of doing this. Now I will say that Kiva's partners in the Cape Coast area have been having trouble getting repayment from their loans - but again, having seen the conditions in which people are trying to make a living, I'm not surprised.
So if the lender has a poor payback history, why did I loan to Felicia? Was it just that she is in Ghana and I am in Ghana now? Or is it that having seen the tenacity of people here, I have more faith in Felicia's ability to use the money wisely? I hope its the latter (especially given the lack of wise money stewardship we are observing in Accra) but either way, I hope that like all gestures made in good faith, it has the ability to improve someone's life.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Condolences to Ghana
My condolences to the people of Ghana on the sudden and unexpected passing of His Excellency, President John Atta Mills.
Right now we don't know what this means for the rest of our work here. Thankfully we had decided to not go out for dinner tonight and are all safely in our hotel (across the street from the Danish embassy). The crowds that are forming near the hospital in Accra where the president had been taken are apparently huge and traffic is reported to be very bad (and it is not normally what I would call good).
In the meantime, everyone is safe, the country is in shock and mourning. We will figure out what tomorrow brings when tomorrow comes.
#ibmcsc ghana
Right now we don't know what this means for the rest of our work here. Thankfully we had decided to not go out for dinner tonight and are all safely in our hotel (across the street from the Danish embassy). The crowds that are forming near the hospital in Accra where the president had been taken are apparently huge and traffic is reported to be very bad (and it is not normally what I would call good).
In the meantime, everyone is safe, the country is in shock and mourning. We will figure out what tomorrow brings when tomorrow comes.
#ibmcsc ghana
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Why so many pictures of markets, vendors, women with stuff on their heads?
Because each and every one of these is a revenue source for the AMA. Depending on where they are, each one of these vendors will pay tolls of at LEAST 20 peswas (about $0.05 USD) a day for the right to trade. Those in stalls/stiles or other more permanent business structures will also pay a yearly Business Operating Permit fee (variable fee depending on business, starting as low as 43p and up to hundreds of cedis - think dollar divided by 2) and a Property Rate (think property tax). If the vendor is in a stall that is rented, they pay rent as well as a property rate.
This is THE major source of income for the AMA, aside from grants from the national government, international donors, and the like. So improving the collection rate, the ability to collect, and the ability to pay directly to an institution such as a bank without paying the revenue collector will increase the "revenue mobilization" of the AMA. This direct pay may be through many different means, but mobile money is likely to be the winner. Direct payment is a hot button for many people in both the markets and the AMA; it will start to improve the transparency of the system - traders will KNOW that the money they have paid has in fact gone to the AMA and not been "lost" along the way.
But back to the collection - the AMA has approximately 500 revenue collectors (310 are direct AMA employees, the rest are contractors) to collect information from ALL of these traders. So remember how I said that Makola market was likely 10's of thousands of vendors/traders? Makola may be the biggest, but there are 18 other, not so small, markets across the greater Accra region. The revenue collectors make about $2000C (cedi) a YEAR - yet in some cases, they are bringing in (between tolls, BOP, PR) almost $1000C a DAY in revenue for the AMA. Go back to my comment on transparency.
So even a small improvement will make a BIG difference to the AMA and their ability to provide services for their citizens. This is where we will be focusing our energies and recommendations for our ESC/Smarter Cities Challenge assignment.
This is THE major source of income for the AMA, aside from grants from the national government, international donors, and the like. So improving the collection rate, the ability to collect, and the ability to pay directly to an institution such as a bank without paying the revenue collector will increase the "revenue mobilization" of the AMA. This direct pay may be through many different means, but mobile money is likely to be the winner. Direct payment is a hot button for many people in both the markets and the AMA; it will start to improve the transparency of the system - traders will KNOW that the money they have paid has in fact gone to the AMA and not been "lost" along the way.
But back to the collection - the AMA has approximately 500 revenue collectors (310 are direct AMA employees, the rest are contractors) to collect information from ALL of these traders. So remember how I said that Makola market was likely 10's of thousands of vendors/traders? Makola may be the biggest, but there are 18 other, not so small, markets across the greater Accra region. The revenue collectors make about $2000C (cedi) a YEAR - yet in some cases, they are bringing in (between tolls, BOP, PR) almost $1000C a DAY in revenue for the AMA. Go back to my comment on transparency.
So even a small improvement will make a BIG difference to the AMA and their ability to provide services for their citizens. This is where we will be focusing our energies and recommendations for our ESC/Smarter Cities Challenge assignment.
IT Infrastructure in Ghana
Several people have asked about the IT and Internet infrastructure in Ghana (mostly along with the "oh, you ARE doing email? question). So some thoughts on what I have observed for today's posting.
MOBILE PHONES:
First, like all non-US/non-major market countries that I have visited, the mobile phone is King (or Queen). Smartphones are here, but most people appear to use older Nokia pay-as-you-go phones. EVERYONE has a mobile phone - even the "ultra poor" traders in the markets (interesting data point relayed by Birgitte, that aid groups working in Bangladesh, home of the "ultra poor" terminology, point to Ghana as a place where even the "ultra poor" have savings).
Mobile payment is being aggressively launched - the local electric utility allows you to pay your electricity bill with your mobile phone using "Mobile Money" (not smart phone/Web access type payments). MTN (a local provider) is introducing a "MobileMoney" scheme to support money transfers of smaller amounts of money in support of transactions - this will be a big deal when it takes off in the markets.
INTERNET ACCESS:
"Wireless" access is through 3G USB sticks - Wifi is largely non-existent in hotels and public places. The IBM Ghana office is still ethernet cable bound.
LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE/SOPHISTICATION:
For the constituents that WE are supporting, technology infrastructure is low-end xseries (think 386) and Microsoft Foxpro. I don't know what is happening in mid-sized businesses, and clearly large concerns such as Barclay's, Shell, etc, have simply extended their home infrastructure to Ghana. There is a strong computer science/computer engineering program at the University of Ghana. Next Friday we are going to Ashesi University, a small private university, to work with students there. So expect a post on post secondary education at that point.
MOBILE PHONES:
First, like all non-US/non-major market countries that I have visited, the mobile phone is King (or Queen). Smartphones are here, but most people appear to use older Nokia pay-as-you-go phones. EVERYONE has a mobile phone - even the "ultra poor" traders in the markets (interesting data point relayed by Birgitte, that aid groups working in Bangladesh, home of the "ultra poor" terminology, point to Ghana as a place where even the "ultra poor" have savings).
Mobile payment is being aggressively launched - the local electric utility allows you to pay your electricity bill with your mobile phone using "Mobile Money" (not smart phone/Web access type payments). MTN (a local provider) is introducing a "MobileMoney" scheme to support money transfers of smaller amounts of money in support of transactions - this will be a big deal when it takes off in the markets.
INTERNET ACCESS:
"Wireless" access is through 3G USB sticks - Wifi is largely non-existent in hotels and public places. The IBM Ghana office is still ethernet cable bound.
LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE/SOPHISTICATION:
For the constituents that WE are supporting, technology infrastructure is low-end xseries (think 386) and Microsoft Foxpro. I don't know what is happening in mid-sized businesses, and clearly large concerns such as Barclay's, Shell, etc, have simply extended their home infrastructure to Ghana. There is a strong computer science/computer engineering program at the University of Ghana. Next Friday we are going to Ashesi University, a small private university, to work with students there. So expect a post on post secondary education at that point.
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