Potentials of Cellular Phone Technology for Local Economic Development in the Offinso Municipality, Ghana

The purpose of the research was to examine the benefits households derive from the use of mobile phones and their implications for local economic development. A survey of 354 households carefully selected from 12 rural communities in the Offinso Municipality, Ghana, revealed that three-quarters of the households, including the unemployed, owned mobile phones which they used for myriad economic purposes. The economic purposes include enquiries about the sources of market for their end products and sources of inputs for production. The paper indicates that the frequency modulation (FM) feature on most mobile phones was one of the most attractive factors for the acquisition of mobile phones. Through FM programmes, the households obtained information on extension services although such programmes were found to be limited in scope. The paper thus recommended that radio programmes on agricultural extension services should be scaled up in order to enhance the economic activities of rural households who otherwise could not have access to relevant information owing to the unfavourable extension service-farmer ratio in Ghana.