30343: Durban (comment): Cellphone Impact on Foreign Remittances (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Having a large, educated, and connected diaspora is definitely a
valuable asset for Haiti, as Bick points out in Corbett #30331.  I read
where the annual foreign remittances to Haiti was estimated to have
increased from 1 billion to 1.6 billion going from 2005 to 2006.  A
strong U.S. economy helps, but an equally important factor is good
telecommunications.

The entry of Digicel, the expansion of Comcel/Voila, and even Haitel's
roaming pay phones...manned by entrepreneurs on virtually every
Port-au-Prince street corner, have made it far easier for Haitians to
call relatives overseas.  Phones calls about upcoming school bills,
cousin Jean-Claude's recent hospitalization, announcing the birth of a
new baby, daughter Marie-Claire's upcoming wedding plans, discussions
of consructing that new room in the house, etc. etc. etc.... you can be
sure that these calls, more than anything else, have encouraged an
increase of remittances to Haiti.

At least some Haitian employers allow employees to make a free call
once a month to relatives in the States, but this is hardly necessary.
Virtually every employee in our factory has his or her own cell phone,
with many of them having both a Digicel AND a Comcel phone.  This is
made possible because the initial investment in a cellphone for an
individual is negligible when compared with a traditional Teleco line.
And, of course, incoming phone calls on your cellphone are free.

A few months ago, someone on this list advocated improving Teleco's
land lines, claimed no country could develop without a good hardwired
phone system.  Sorry, but that is yesterday's logic.  Right now, the
largest taxpayer's in Haiti are, increasingly, the privately-owned cell
phone companies.  When one realizes the impact on remittances by
putting a functioning cellphone in the hands of every Haitian citizen,
it strikes me that cellphone growth has been the biggest single
stimulus to Haitian economic development in the last couple of years.

Teleco still does have a role, of course... it provides patronage jobs
to politically-connected people and robs the Haitian treasury of
resources that could be better spent elsewhere.

Lance Durban