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Vulnerability, Markets, and Insurance in Ghana

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Jenna Burrell

Misfortune and setbacks are a recurring theme both in my fieldwork among market women in Accra, Ghana and in my previous work on livelihoods in rural Uganda. The specific misfortunes frequently mentioned included theft, accidents, or illnesses. The consequences of such an episode could be life altering. After years of careful accumulation, a theft, flood, or an extended stay in the hospital could cause a trader to lose all her working capital making her no better off financially than when she embarked upon her career. This was the experience of the plantain wholeseller who lost both saved cash and her mobile phone in a home burglary that left her dependent on her daughter.

A fire outbreak in October 2012 destroyed the Mallam market in Ghana. Local media outlet, My Joy Online, profiles a young woman whose business was ruined in the fire. She had started working in the market as a kayayee – a young woman (generally a Muslim migrant from the north of Ghana) who functions as a porter, paid small amounts to carry heavy head loads for wholesalers, retailers, and customers. Kayaye are generally not especially well treated or compensated. After a years worth of effort this kayayee had saved enough to purchase a sewing machine. Now with a single business asset she was able to move into a less physically punishing and lowly form of service work. This sewing machine was lost in the fire and as the article notes, “with the fate that has befallen her, Alima can only go back to the chaotic central business district of Accra as a Kayayee to start all over again.”

Such a possibility of total and sudden ruination is never far from the minds of market women. On a visit to a small market on the outskirts of Accra in June 2011, I spoke with a cloth trader who watched with alarm as two Chinese men strolled through the market holding lit cigarettes.’This market is a wood structure’ she pointed out to me. ‘If a fire erupts, we lose everything.’ These foreign men, part of the influx of Chinese traders to the West Africa region, unfamiliar with the local conventions and without awareness of the risks were endangering the livelihoods of every woman working in the close quarters of this market.

Conversations about the role of the mobile phone in risk mitigation seem to take place wholly apart from the intensive interest in the way the phone might increase productivity and boost profits in market activities. Yet these are two sides of the same coin. Profits and long-term accumulations are only as valuable as one’s ability to retain them. The mobile phone plays some role in this already. The ability to store money and transfer it securely through m-pesa and other digital money transfer systems and thus to protection funds from theft is one motivation for the use of such systems. On the threat of disasters that affect the livelihoods in broad regions, a study analyzing mobile phone call detail records as data investigated the use of the phone to make remittances after economic shocks in Rwanda. This study showed dramatically increased money transfer flows to the region affected by an earthquake. Such practices make apparent forms of more informal social insurance realized through such interpersonal networks of support.

While there is certainly a need for insurance products as the above examples illustrate, there are numerous logistical and regulatory barriers to realizing the delivery of such services via mobile phone. On the user side, fitting in new practices of greater formality and relying upon unfamiliar tools and processes (via the mobile phone). Ishita Ghosh, for example, found user uptake of a mobile-based savings product in Uganda to be limited. A study in India (Morawczysnki et al 2010) found similarly low utilization. There is great appeal to the idea of extending m-banking to encompass a wider range of financial services (including savings, loans, and insurance), but practically speaking it is money transfer services alone that have really taken off with users so far.

References:

Ghosh, I. (2012). The Mobile Phone as a Link to Formal Financial Services: Findings from Uganda. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development.
Morawczynski, O., Hutchful, D., Rangaswamy, N., & Cutrell, E. (n.d.). The Bank Account is not Enough: Examining Strategies for Financial Inclusion in India. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development.

The Curious Case of the Market Preacher

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Jenna Burrell

The Ghanaian market is filled with a cacophony of sounds – vehicle engines and horns, the occasional radio playing music or talk shows, women calling to potential customers, and in some markets, loudspeakers blasting to make market-wide announcements. Distinct calls are made for certain kinds of goods. Hawkers sell UV-treated drinking water in bags (also referred to as “pure water”) with a high-pitched “Yeeeeessss pure”. Some hawkers clang bells to draw attention…

Periodically during the day, one sound overwhelms all others- that of preaching or gospel music amplified through an electric megaphone or a microphone. Amplification technologies, whose usage is motivated by an evangelical imperative to spread the word of God, are found in many spaces in the broader Ghanaian urban environment (including churches, restaurants, drinking spots, Internet cafes, as well as the markets). All the markets I visited in Accra, from the largest to the smallest, served as places where preachers-in-training hone their craft, either relying on the unaided projection of their voice or using amplification equipment to spread their message. At some markets, preachers organized themselves into shifts or, if they put enough distance between one another, even preached simultaneously.

Some of the amplified preaching was so loud that it was difficult to carry out face-to-face interviews, let alone audio record them. I found myself arranging my research schedule around times when the preachers would not be in the market. And I began to wonder, how do market women receive phone calls? How much does market preaching interfere with the market women’s ability to call and negotiate with customers? More generally, why would market women tolerate something that, from an economist’s perspective, seems a totally irrational interference with their ability to generate daily incomes? Especially when preachers conclude their sermons by circulating the market and requesting offerings, thereby further depleting their income?

I found three explanations for the market women’s tolerance: (1) the social risk was too high to justify speaking out against market preaching (2) it is a form of entertainment that many market women enjoy (3) the market preachers served the function of dealing with specific spiritual threats that are widely understood to exist in these spaces.

At the level of social performance, the practice accords with a kind of obligatory religious membership in Ghana. Church-going, or other evidence of a person’s faith, are part of how people are judged as ‘good’ and moral. In a conversation with a Ghanaian friend, she noted, “you try to complain…people go like oh, here’s the devil, doesn’t want to hear the word of God… So, you keep quiet.”

Another dimension of social performance relates to gender. The term ‘oba gyata,’ a pejorative term that translates to “lioness woman”, was invoked in two separate sermons (one by a market preacher, one in a women-led gathering of the ‘Women’s Aglow’ Christian group). It refers to a woman who is ‘cold’ or ‘hard’ or ‘too proud’ or who engages in ‘backbiting.’ In such sermons, there were frequent calls for women to be ‘modest’ and to avoid ‘greed.’ Such a woman was seen as frequently getting into conflicts or participating in violence. The stereotypical ‘oba gyata’ brings about “confusion” or disorderliness wherever she goes. ‘What name do people call you in your area?’ women were asked in both of these sermons that mentioned ‘oba gyata.’ Market women were (through various modes of communication including sermons) encouraged to concern themselves with their social reputation and to seek to reform it if necessary.

In the markets, I observed that many market women’s reactions to the preachers were, at least outwardly, enthusiastic. Preachers engaged traders in call and response. Some played gospel music and, if they selected just the right familiar song, inspired traders to dance and sing along. Market preaching was a form of entertainment. It filled time when trade moved slowly.

When I probed further and, in interviews, asked market women directly about the market preachers and ambient noise levels, a sense of cautious ambivalence emerged. Many women qualified any complaints they might have had by condoning market preaching on the whole as ‘good.’ Mama Akosua (a cloth seller) for example, observed the burden of offerings which the preachers collected by circulating the stalls after their sermons. She noted of the preaching, “it’s good, but not every day. I can’t be giving you money every day. How much profit am I making?” In reference to a market preacher who had just passed by she commented, “And its not him alone… he is the third person now.” A young woman, the daughter of a tomato seller who often looked after her mother’s stand, admitted that the preachers did make it difficult to take phone calls when they preached in the mornings and that she sometimes missed customers who couldn’t hear her calling out to them. She said that if she were asked, she would advise the market ohemma to forbid amplified preaching entirely.

These preachers, I was told, would sometimes single out a particular trader after having seen an evil spirit afflicting her. This special attention might yield a grateful offering. Some market women believe that some traders call upon demonic forces to boost profits. Some severe market conflicts are cast in supernatural terms. For example, I was told about a male tax collector who fell ill and died a few days after a woman in Market A threatened him. In his sermon, one market preacher cast out evil spirits and asked God to touch everyone’s work. Later, he instructed traders to place their hands on their goods while he prayed for them, cursing any spirits that might impede their customers and reminding the women to pray each day before coming to the market. Thus, the preaching can be seen as a functional force that ultimately had a positive impact on profitability. In this view, market preaching was not necessarily perceived to be at odds with transaction optimization.

Market preaching demonstrates how markets caught in the cross-currents of various cultural influences develop a distinctive work culture. In these markets in Ghana, mobile phone usage is somewhat constrained by the broader technological environment. A preponderance of information and communication technologies and their widespread diffusion thus does not always yield to more options or greater possible configurations. Instead, ICTs may work at cross-purposes – as the market preacher’s amplifiers do in relation to the market women’s use of mobile phones.

Managing Seasons and Scarcity

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Jenna Burrell

An experience with phone theft reveals how critical the phone had become for a wholesaler of plantains at a small market on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana. The mobile phone is critical to maintaining personal relationships with suppliers to ensure supply during seasonal periods of scarcity. It is an important tool for better synchronizing in time and space with suppliers. However, for this plantain wholesaler the mobile phone is not considered useful for checking or comparing prices. Read more of this profile.

Visual Stories: Entrepreneurship

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Luisa Beck

An infographic depicting the percentage share of formal firms that are owned by women in Africa. Data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (2006-10)

Ivan Colic, art director at Zoom Advertising Cape Town, uses infographics to tell stories about a side of Africa that the press mostly neglects to tell. On his blog, Afrographique, he visualizes the continent’s incredible innovation, entrepreneurship schemes, art and history. This particular infographic depicts the percentage share of formal firms that are owned by women in Africa (based on the World Bank Enterprise Surveys 2006-10). Noteworthy is that female entrepreneurs own nearly 50% of firms in Ghana. The 30% of female-owned firms in the US in 2007 (US Department of Commerce) pales by comparison. On this site, we’ve profiled female entrepreneurs such as the cloth seller at Makola Market in Accra, Ghana. For more profiles of women who’re working in other sectors, see for example, Business Insider’s Profile of Africa’s Top 5 Entrepreneurs.

Cloth Trader, Ghana

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Jenna Burrell

A profile of an affluent market woman who sells cloth from her shop in Makola Market, central Accra, Ghana. …Read The Profile…