This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English DevelopmentReport.
A program in Uganda aims to provide telephone service to villagesaway from cities. Nineteen million people live in these communities.The goal is to provide service to a large part of them within fiveyears.
The Grameen Foundation USA organized the program with MTN Uganda.That is the largest provider of telecommunications service in thecountry. The program is called “MTN villagePhone.”
Organizers have already givencellular telephones to more than one-hundred people throughoutUganda. The people are called micro-entrepreneurs. They will chargeother people to use the mobile phones. The organizers say they hopeto train as many as three-thousand village telephone operators overthe next three years.
Five Ugandan groups provided small loans to pay for theequipment. The operators are expected to repay the loans over aperiod of up to twelve months. Such loans are known asmicro-finance. Most micro-finance groups charge interest. But theyoften use their earnings to reach more people.
The Grameen Foundation says operating the pay phone service willpermit thousands of women to earn extra money for their families. Itwill also save business people and villagers money and time. Theorganizers estimate that a call that costs ten cents could save aperson about one dollar in lost wages or business.
This is how much it would cost the person to take a day to travelto the nearest city to place the call. The phones could also helpsave lives. Villagers will be able to call for help in case of anemergency.
The project in Uganda is based on a program that the GrameenFoundation established in Bangladesh. The Grameen Telecom programbegan six years ago. Officials say it has permitted forty-thousandvillage operators to sell phone time to local citizens. Operatorsare said to earn about seven-hundred dollars a year. This is abouttwo times the national average for wages in Bangladesh.
Ugandan officials say the village phone program will help connectfarming villages to the world’s information economy. They see theprogram as a step toward building support for private investment indeveloping countries. They say it is another way to reduce povertyand improve the lives of people.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss. This is Bob Cohen.