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Award Recipient: Bangaly Kaba
Place of Residence: Montreal, Quebec
University: Université du Québec à Montréal
Award: Canadian Window on International Development Award
Doctoral Dissertation Topic:  “Comparative study of the factors and process in the adoption of information and communication technologies in Quebec and in Guinea: as applied to the cellular telephone”
Research location: Conakry (Guinea) and Montreal (Canada)
Amount of award: up to $20 000.

 “By gaining a better understanding of the factors influencing the adoption of new technologies in developing countries, we will be able to identify courses of action that will facilitate the success of certain development projects.” – Bangaly Kaba

Bangaly Kaba joyfully remembers the day when he was still a child in Conakry, capital of Guinea, his cousin bought his very first computer. The machine didn’t hold much interest for most members of the family. But for young Bangaly, the magic was instantaneous. He immediately got the bug and, since then, he has been fascinated by new technologies.

Bangaly Kaba is different from most of his countrymen in this regard. In Guinea and sub-Saharan Africa, projects to implement information and communication technologies often end in failure. Kaba recalls the example of his native country’s Ministry of Finance.  “Considerable sums of money were invested to computerize certain procedures, but the government employees never used these new tools,” he lamented. For that matter, African countries are not the only ones to refuse to have anything to do with new technologies. According to Kaba, approximately 75% of projects aimed at implementing these systems are said to fail in North America.

It is only the cellular telephone that has Guineans bursting with enthusiasm. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of mobile phone users in Guinea has increased amazingly: 35% new subscribers per year, on average. During the same period, the number of subscribers in Canada increased by only 13.7% annually. Of course, saturation of the North American market partially explains why the Canadian growth rate is lower than that of Guinea.  “Nonetheless, the acquisition rate of mobile telephones is something extraordinary,” pointed out Kaba.

Just recently, as part of a joint program offered by l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), l’École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal, Concordia University, and McGill University, the young researcher devoted his doctoral dissertation to the study of factors explaining why the mobile telephone is such a colossal success in Guinea while other technologies like the Internet are ignored by his fellow countrymen. More specifically, his dissertation, which he defended in April 2006, sought to identify factors that play a key role in the process of adoption of new technologies and compare the situation in Guinea with that of Quebec to highlight the cultural differences.

 “When I was an undergraduate student in economics at Conakry University, some professors from l’UQAM came to teach some courses as part of a project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), he said. At that time, I met some members of the Department of Management and Technology, a field that was a perfect match for my interests. I landed a scholarship from CIDA and took off for Canada in 1998 to embark on my Master’s degree at l’UQAM. I subsequently decided to continue on to my doctorate and I received a scholarship from IDRC to complete my project.”

Thanks to the support from IDRC, he spent three months in the field in Guinea and five months in Quebec collecting his data. He distributed questionnaires to 1000 cell phone users in Guinea and 800 in Quebec. He collected 740 duly completed questionnaires in total.

In light of the information he collected, Kaba was able to observe that in Guinea, cell phones were used mainly by owners of small and medium-sized companies to conduct business. The second most popular use was to contact family and friends.  “In my native country, there is a highly developed community culture. People feel a need to be in constant contact with their family, hence the infatuation with the mobile telephone.”

In comparison, Quebecois questioned by Kaba as part of his research often cited safety, obtaining a cellular telephone to avoid being trapped or isolated such as, for example, in the event of a car accident.  “This is a concern that I did not see in Guineans.”

According to the young researcher, these results prove that Africans are open to new technologies, insofar as they clearly meet their needs.  “In spite of their poverty, Guineans are prepared to pay a very expensive subscription fee to have a telephone. Obviously, they use it very wisely. Some only use it to receive calls and never make calls themselves.”

To date, Bangaly Kaba has disseminated his results through eight international conferences and four articles published in colloquium proceedings.  Kaba also intends to produce a research book that he will send to Conakry University to share the results with professors there. He hopes to publish general articles in the local papers in an effort to inform the public of his conclusions.

Always fascinated by new technologies, Bangaly Kaba admits to spending a large part of his days in front of a computer, exploring new Web applications like e-learning, and imagining how these technologies could help with development in developing countries. 

In the short term, he hopes to find a job as a professor, ideally in Canada, if not, in the United States.  “By being here, I can take advantage of research fellowships like those from IDRC and contribute, even from a distance, to the advancement of my country, perhaps even more than if I were there.”

However, the young researcher admits that he misses his family. For that matter, he dedicated his dissertation to his Aunt Siré who raised him until he was 10 years old.  “She made me want to succeed in life,” he said. Even from the other side of the world, Bangaly Kaba keeps in close contact with his family.  “They all have cell phones,” he confides.

Written by Montreal writer Dominique Forget.

Document(s) 6 of 7