"How big a change have cellphones made to Africa?" I shout the question at Isis Nyong'o, over the throbbing bassline of of a Kenyan ragga track. She tells me calmly: "It's had about the same effect as a democratic change of leadership."
These are the opening lines of a GREAT two day report done by Paul Mason BBCs Newsnight business correspondent in which Mason travels through Kenya (using mobile network coverage as a map) to explore the impact cell phones are having on this developing country. The result is an amazing report that continues tomorrow!

With one in three adults carrying a cellphone in Kenya, mobile telephony is having an economic and social impact whose is hard to grasp if you are used to living in a country with good roads, democracy and the internet.

In five years the number of mobiles in Kenya has grown from one million to 6.5 million - while the number of landlines remains at about 300,000, mostly in government offices...

Also read about a mobile payment solution called M-Pesa which will "make Africa a very much more liquid economy."

[read more here]

Make sure you check out the video as well.

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http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/956

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