Mobile Number Portability in Ghana

A few days ago, I was at another informative session of Mobile Monday (MoMo) held at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence (KACE). I was privileged to learn from experts in different sectors of ICT in Ghana. Among the presenters, Saquib Nazir of Porting Access Ghana (the company in charge of the Mobile Number Portability project in Ghana) made a presentation on MNP and answered dozens of questions on the topic afterwards.

Mobile Number Portability or MNP enables mobile users to switch from their current mobile network to other networks within the same country without losing their numbers. This means if a Vodafone customer used the number 020-1234567, he could switch to a MTN and access the new networks services without losing the number 020-1234567. This process is different from the number customization service introduced by Airtel, then Zain which only allowed you to customize the phone number whiles maintaining the networks number of 026. In Ghana the Minister of Communication some years ago announced the full implementation of MNP on 1st July 2011. No one really knows how consumers are going to react to MNP once it starts', Saquib confessed. During the MNP sessions I learnt a few things I would love to share with you;

The Process
After July 1st if you wanted to switch to a different network for whatever reason, you would have to physically walk into the new networks office and request a switch. A new registration procedure will be initiated to register you as a user of the new network, after which the new network will send a notification to the old network via Porting Access Ghana. You would have to purchase a new SIM and get rid of the old one from your previous network. Also, unless your new network decides to pay for the cost of switching, you may have to bear the cost yourself.

The process could take between 5 min to 24 hours. Your application for the switch may be declined if your previous network had blocked your number. This may be due to non-settlement of debt (especially in the case of Post-paid contracts).

Implications
Once your porting request is completed, all stake-holders databases' will be updated with the new information. All mobile services on the previous network including MTN Mobile Money, Tigo Cash and ZAP services will be terminated as you get access the services on your new network.

For developers in the mobile sector who have registered users to access a particular product, you would need to register such users again if they should port their numbers from one network to another. SMS sent to ported numbers may not be received unless they are registered again on their new networks. No one really knows how it will affect the industry we all are stake-holders of. Let's keep our fingers crossed and count down to 1st July 2011.

These are some issues you may want to think about, I encourage you to join me at the next Mobile Monday session in June.

Barcamp Ghana 2010 - A BarCamp with a difference

After the successes of Barcamp Kumasi, Barcamp Accra and Barcamp Takoradi, the national event Barcamp Ghana 2010 was held on the 18th of December, 2010 at the Ashesi University campus.. Barcamp Ghana was under the theme ‘’Create dreams, work smart and shape the future” and it attracted a lot of entrepreneurs, businessmen, students, amongst others. The event was supported by Ashesi University, the World Bank, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), Mobile Web Ghana, Google Ghana, Vodafone Ghana, GhanaThink Foundation, NandiMobile, Busy Internet, Fienipa, TAGH Media, iROKKO Concepts, Imagineers, MyfashionAfrica, etc. The media partners were CitiFm, Radio Universe, ModernGhana, GhanaBlogging and Skyy Digital.

Over 150 participants gathered at the Ashesi University premises to exchange ideas and learn from each other. The event unofficially started at 9:00am with the Start-up Bazaar and registration of participants running concurrently. Start-up Bazaar was premiered at Barcamp Accra held at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) campus and was popular with attendees there. This was a platform for start-ups to exhibit their products/service to the participants as well as network with other participating start-ups. The start-ups that took part in this session were TAGH Media, etc. There were also stands for Mozilla Firefox and Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST). Breakfast, provided by Imagineers Limited, was served.

At 10:00am, Barcamp Ghana officially commenced with opening remarks given by the Barcamp Ghana organizing team. The emcee was Kweku Anane-Appiah, a team member. Ato Ulzen-Appiah then spoke about the origins of Barcamp and the a brief history, mission and vision for Barcamp Ghana. For Barcamp Ghana 2010, there were no keynote speakers or panels and only breakout sessions. Patrick Awuah, the founder and president of Ashesi University, then gave a welcome address. Some of his soundbites included “There should come a time that citizens in Africa will not desire to migrate to Europe or the USA”. An agenda building session to map out the breakout sessions for the day followed.

The first set of breakout sessions were organized for 90 minutes from 11am. Citizen journalism versus Traditional Journalism was led by Bernard Avle - award-winning host of the CITI FM Breakfast show, Mac-Jordan Degadjor and Oluniyi David Ajao - popular bloggers based in Ghana. Issues discussed included Citizen journalism in its purest form is blogging, community radio as citizen journalism, regulation of blogging, 75% of Ghanaians having radios versus reading the newspapers and being online, local content and bloggers building their credibility, etc. Sherrie Thompson of Solutions Africa and Golda Addo of Energy Solutions Ghana led a session on green power and alternative energy. Biodiesel and biodigestion facilities were discussed as well as various forms of alternative energy.

Farida Bedwei of G-Life Financial Services, Afua Ankomah of Esoko and Daisy Amma Baffoe of MEST led the Women in ICT breakout session. Challenges with getting Ghanaian women to build applications and be in ICT were discussed. Attendees in the session decided to create a a “Women In ICT” Facebook page to take advantage of the many Ghanaian women on Facebook. Patrick Awuah, one of the most respected leaders in Ghana, also organized an impromptu session on leadership. Lunch followed, the food was provided by Imagineers Limited, which also provides food at Ashesi University’s Building 1. During lunch, Nana Manu of Vodafone Ghana gave a speech on e-commerce and building an accepted payment system for Ghana. He also talked about http://theideascout.com/.

The second set of panel sessions started after lunch. Leila Djansi, director of award-winning movies I Sing Of A Well and Sinking Sands, Deborah Ahenkorah of Golden Baobab, and Obed Sarpong of the Writers Project of Ghana led a session called ‘Telling African Stories’ on movies and writing in Ghana. Nana Awere Damoah, writer of Excursions in My Mind, also came by the session. Among issues discussed were defining the African story, animating Ananse stories, amongst others. It was decided upon to start a blog where African stories would be told.

There was a World Bank sponsored session about the Apps For Development Challenge. Richard Murby who is part of the organizers, did a Skype video conference with Barcamp Ghana attendees from Washington, DC. He did a presentation on the competition and attendees asked him questions. DK Osseo-Asare of AnamCity spoke about the Anam New City sustainable building/development project in Nigeria. Anam City is a new model for sustainable development in Africa. Kweku Anane-Appiah led a breakout session on fashion and wear in Africa. Ronke Ampiah and Farida Alabo of Smiles for Christmas led a session on volunteerism. Attendees decided to start a website for finding volunteer opportunities in Ghana.

The third set of breakout sessions rounded out the day at Barcamp Ghana 2010. Oluniyi David Ajao led a breakout session on blogging. Challenges facing bloggers like poor internet connectivity, creativity (presentation) and work schedule were discussed. Charles Odonkor, a medical student at Yale University, organized a breakout session on brain power called “Declaring the decade of the brain”. Farida Bedwei who has cerebral palsy but is a renowned software programmer in Ghana shared her story with participants in this session. Florence Toffa of Mobile Web Ghana and Kwamena Appiah-Kubi of Mozilla Firefox led a session on Mobile Web applications.

The event run smoothly and the attendees relished the Barcamp experience. They praised the good turn out, brainstorming involved and relevance of information shared. It was important for the discussions to be documented. A list of relevant tweets from the Barcamp will be online soon. Various action items and plans were discussed at the Barcamp and as they are implemented, will be publicized. More info from and about Barcamp Ghana 2010 will be available on the Barcamp Ghana website http://barcampghana.org.