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Africa Feature: Cameroonians earning income from "call box"YAOUNDE, May 18, 2013 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- There's no official figure that has been released to determine their contribution to the economy, but there is evidence to show that the "call box" business represents a booming informal business in Cameroon's mobile telephone sector. The informal business which is practised by thousands of Cameroonians both in the urban as well as rural areas, entails one getting a mobile phone and a table in an open area on a street. Linked to the rapid growth of the mobile telephone sector in the country where the first license for mobile phone operator was given to the local subsidiary of the French operator Orange in 1999, followed two years later by a South African operator MTN, this activity consists of selling airtime of the three main mobile phone operators in the country. It is commonly known as "call box" because it involves one sitting with a wooden table and a big umbrella to protect himself from the sunshine and rain. Besides the purchase of airtime, the customers can also make calls and pay for the charges. From the ordinary citizens to public officials, the customers vary and come from all social groupings. The business has been invaded by people of different ages, gender as well as the literate and the illiterate, all of whom are seeking for a way to escape high unemployment that is affecting a huge section of the 20 million Cameroonians. While the government is celebrating the completion of the project to lay 6,000 km of the fiber optic cable that was partly funded by China, it's shocking to see majority of Cameroonians being served by the informal "call boxers" whose number has been increasing. Take the case of the 18-year-old Cedrick Minsia who left his home in extreme North-Eastern region of Cameroon in 2010, where he was selling second-hand cloths to earn a living. He came to Yaounde and now runs a "call-box" along a street in Etoa-Meki district in the capital, and through this business, Minsia is able to pay for his school fees. "Just like many people who started a call-box business, I also asked myself why not start my own. With the call box, you can work even at night, sell airtime and make your profit right there. With the airtime, someone can knock on your door at any time, you transfer the airtime to him and he gives you the money," he said. A son to a religious leader, Minsia says that he was the first born in a family of nine children. With a working schedule that begins at 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m, he says that on a day he makes around 180 U.S. dollars using three mobile phones, one of which is his own while two others are rented from other people. Generally, for airtime of 30,000 Fcfa (57 U.S. dollars) bought from the operators, the "call-boxers" have a profit margin of about 2,000 Fcfa (38 dollars). However, due to the disruptions of the networks that affect the quality of mobile phone service in Cameroon, the guarantee of profits is not permanent. Resident representative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Jean-Jacques Massima has complained on several occasions about the poor quality of service offered by the mobile phone operators He asserts that mobile phone subscribers in Cameroon are suffering because the operators have not been reinvesting in improving their equipments. For Eric Kane, another young call-boxer from the North-Western region of Cameroon, the earnings from the business have been diminishing. "I began the call-box business in 2008 because I did not have anything to do. I had lived in Yaounde for a long time, and life was very difficult for me. I found that the call box is the easiest thing to do. However, things have not been easy because sometimes we do a transfer and there's no network," he said. "You can do a transfer, and the phone does not indicate whether it has transferred the airtime. By the time you receive the confirmation message of the transfer, the customer has already left and he did not pay you for the transfer," he said. "We take a credit of between 28,000 and 30,000 Fcfa (53 to 57 dollars ) and if you lose 500 Fcfa (0.9 dollars), that is too much. There is a time you can even lose the entire capital," said Kane who is the bread-winner in a family of seven. At a time of celebrating the World Telecommunication Day on Friday, there were still numerous complaints about Cameroon's mobile phone sector. The call boxers have complained about the limited time offered to customers who purchase a minimum airtime of 2,000 Fcfa (3.8 dollars) and get a bonus airtime of 200 Fcfa (0. 38 dollars), but which must be spent within 24 hours. Kane pleaded for the extension of this period. "If someone does not make a call worth the initial airtime, he loses that bonus. This does not make sense," he noted. Cedrick Minsia, who plans to start rice farming after having acquired some savings from running a call-box, tells Xinhua that he still intends to continue with his education up to the university level. "Life is difficult. I want to personally run my business even as I go to school. I need to know how parents suffer, and may be I will know how to take care of my family," he affirms. |