Phone costs, low skills hampering women’s participation

Electronic government, or e-government, is the practice of providing public services to citizens, businesses and other government agencies through Information Technology (IT), Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and other web-based telecommunication technologies.

The primary purpose of Ghana’s national e-government initiative, like any other country’s, is to improve public service delivery.

As a nation, we have understood that adopting digital technologies can unlock opportunities for poor and vulnerable groups to gain access to and benefit from economic resources and basic services, empower women and girls towards greater gender equality, develop resilient infrastructure and foster innovation.

It is also evident that promoting digital transformation can grow a country’s digital economy and accelerate progress towards achieving the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).

It is for these reasons that the office of the Vice-President and the Ministry of Communications and Digitisation (MoCD) have been charged with the responsibility of leading the country’s digital agenda and the implementation of associated initiatives.

This year, the MoCD submitted a draft Digital Economy Policy to cabinet for approval in a bid to strengthen the government’s efforts and provide more comprehensive and coordinated strategic digital policy planning and implementation.

It would serve as a blueprint for achieving the five main objectives; universal broadband access for all, enhanced digital skills, efficient public service delivery through a user-centric digital government model, increased growth opportunities for local technology innovators, and faster adoption and use cases for emerging technologies.

A woman engaging in a mobile money (momo) transaction with an agent

The government has also greatly expanded e-government services including the introduction of platforms such as Ghana.

GOV, the MyNHIS app, the national biometric identification card also known as the Ghana Card, cash transfer programme such as the Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI) platform and the GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP) platform among others.

Digital gender divide

However, if not pursued properly, digitalisation can contribute to widening socio-economic gaps for those who lack connectivity, affordable devices or requisite skills to benefit from digital services.

Therefore, e-services are always at risk of serving the needs of some users and neglecting the needs of others.

According to a 2023 report by Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), the high cost of mobile devices was preventing women from fully participating in and benefiting from the nation’s digital economy.

It said more than nine out of every 10 Internet users used mobile phones to access the Internet with 58 per cent of male Internet users accessing it via mobile exclusively compared to 75 per cent of female Internet users “highlighting the key role of mobile phone across the population, especially among women.”

A fishmonger using her mobile phone at the beach after sourcing fish

However, the report stated that the average cost of a smartphone was estimated to be $41, which translated to about a quarter of the average monthly income in the country.

The price, it said, was effectively preventing lower-income individuals, especially women, whose average earned income was less than a third of that of males, from participating in the nation’s digital economy.

The report further explained that it contributed to why women were 10 per cent less likely to own a smartphone and 14 per cent less likely to have used mobile Internet services adding that when women have access to a mobile Internet connection, they were less likely to use it than men, due to cost implications.

It added that the cost of mobile Internet services was further impacted by significant sector-specific taxes imposed on mobile network operators (MNOs), which reduced their resources for infrastructure investment and their ability to drop service prices.

The report dubbed: “Inclusive E-Government Services in Ghana: Enhancing Women’s Access and Usage” further indicated that inadequate digital skills among women was gravely attributing to the digital gender divide.

It explained that at least three-quarters of women who did not use mobile Internet services had attained only a primary education or less adding that more than a third of the women surveyed who did not use mobile Internet attributed being digitally excluded to insufficient skills.

“In Ghana, digital literacy initiatives largely exclude self-employed/informal business owners (34 per cent) and those involved in farming (25 per cent) who make up the greater part of Ghana’s workforce, as well as people aged 61 years and above (9 per cent),” the report said.

Two women cooking and engaging online with a mobile phone 

The report, which followed a six-month study incorporating an extensive literature review and field surveys in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Northern regions as well as focus group consultations with women in various roles and contexts, also said unawareness of government e-services, despite being widely available, was preventing large-scale adoption among women.

It explained that out of eight reasons for not using e-services, 40 per cent of women surveyed (the next highest reason had 11 per cent) said they had no idea such platforms existed.

The report also indicated that inadequate awareness campaigns showcasing the benefits of available e-government services, absence of real-time support and user-centric design of e-government platforms, poor network coverage in remote locations, and general decline in the use of mobile money services due to the e-levy on mobile transactions were significantly hampering women’s ability to meaningfully participate in the digital economy.

Solutions

The report noted that digital inclusion was a critical tool for women’s economic empowerment and financial independence as it helps to break down social norms that limit opportunities for women, supporting women’s inclusion in household financial decision-making and increasing prospects of financing expansion of women-owned businesses.

“For example by enabling access to health information they may otherwise not have been privy to, or by conducting financial transactions more conveniently via digital financial services,” it said.

It added that inclusion was also critical because women’s inability to access digital services meant a large part of the population was excluded from actively participating in the digital economy.

A fashion designer conducting a transaction on a mobile phone

The report suggested a unified front by policymakers/regulators, mobile operators and donor agencies as the way to address the obstacles of wide adoption of e-services.

To address the affordability barriers, it urged policymakers to establish public-private partnerships with MNOs, device manufacturers or other relevant players to subsidise the cost of smartphones and digital services, while mobile operators considered partnering government to encourage differential pricing strategies for e-government services and donor agencies partnered with and supported the mobile ecosystem on projects that promote affordable handsets financing schemes provided through grass roots NGO networks led by women.

It also stated that to increase knowledge of how to use e-government services, government could expand the role of existing community ICT centres and libraries with training facilities for continuous digital learning opportunities for all, and trained personnel who can assist users in navigating online platforms and utilising public e-services while mobile operators trained and incentivised mobile agents to provide digital skills training and support to customers and donor agencies brought digital literacy programmes to underserved populations and rural areas through face-to-face training. 

The writer is a reporter with the Daily Graphic 
E-mail: ddotse18@gmail.com