Making technology more enabling

Even though mobile ownership has boomed, how do you redefine digital inclusion and enhance people’s lives?

Mobile phones may be ubiquitous but technology still has a long way to go to reach everyone, especially in emerging markets, and digital skills are still lacking.

These were pervasive themes at this year’s Mobile World Congress, now called MWC Barcelona.

“Technology [in general] is changing very fast … [it] has become an enabling power,” Huawei deputy chair Ken Hu told the FM. But “digital technology is just one form of technology”, he said in an exclusive briefing on the new issue of “digital inclusion”.

Many people have mobile phones but the question is: how will they use the internet to better their lives? “Technology has become an enabling power,” he said. “We were talking five or 10 years ago about the digital divide and how to get everyone a phone. Now a mobile has become a fundamental element for any social development.” How can this be made more inclusive? Hu cited EU statistics showing “20% of the population don’t have digital skills and only half have very basic skills”.

The situation is worse outside the richest trading bloc, especially for women, who are 23% less likely than men to use the internet, Claire Sibthorpe, the head of connected women at the GSM Association, told the FM. In low- and middle-income countries, 313-million fewer women than men use mobiles and the internet. The key barriers are affordability, literacy and digital skills, a lack of relevance and safety and security concerns. Africa has the second-highest gender gap, after Southeast Asia.

Hu said digital inclusion and what it means needs to be redefined. He and MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter spoke at a ministerial presentation at MWC Barcelona on this subject. Shuter focused on financial inclusion, another hot topic in emerging markets.

“Mobile is central for driving inclusion,” he told the FM. He called MTN a “born-free company” with 221-million customers in 21 countries, 70-million of them active data subscribers and 26-million users of mobile money (Momo). Momo “will be at the centre of driving digital inclusion and connectivity” for emerging markets because it gives people the advantage of a bank account. “Though internet adoption is low, voice and SMS are high,” he said, and all customers have an airtime wallet — a store of value in its own right. “They know they can put money in and have an airtime wallet. The core principle of mobile money is to convert airtime to money, so people can pay bills.” Better yet, people can receive money.

Like Sibthorpe’s focus on relevant content, Hu said the local ecosystem must be expanded to foster growth. “What will the value be from users’ perspectives? Right now, value is only connectivity. We need to think how to expand the local apps community and empower the local app ecosystem.”

This kind of thinking will give more people access to the joys — and economic potential — of the internet.

Mobile money will be at the centre of driving digital inclusion and connectivity