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Carving a niche: Tanzanian women’s use of ICT in the vinyago export trade

Carving a niche: Tanzanian women’s use of ICT in the vinyago export trade. Thomas Molony Centre of African Studies / Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation University of Edinburgh.

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Carving a niche: Tanzanian women’s use of ICT in the vinyago export trade

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  1. Carving a niche: Tanzanian women’s use of ICT in the vinyago export trade Thomas Molony Centre of African Studies / Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation University of Edinburgh

  2. “Collectors tell us what to carve and then they may not collect exactly what they have ordered, and we [the carvers] go hungry. But we have to wait for him [the collector] to call Dar es Salaam themselves. They know buyers there. Besides, a mobile phone is too expensive for carvers when we have to eat. You can’t eat a phone!” (Andrea Ukoti, Baymwone Carvings Co-operative, Masasi, Mtwara, 22/07/03)

  3. I must travel with the vinyago because retailers are not honest…. they [the retailer] may not have the money to be able to pay and cannot be trusted to send money. So I have to wait, and this can take a week. The buyer also has to show the collector exactly what style he wants for the order. You must see the kinyago – you can’t hear it over the telephone!(Alex Milanzi, collector, Mbawala Juu, Mtwara, 18/07/03)

  4. Damaris Dandi • Former air hostess with Air Tanzania • “I see that worldwide the vinyago market is saturating, so I am paying little attention to it. The Japanese market is beginning to become over-supplied, and the European market is moving towards things people can use.” (Damaris, Masaki, Dar es Salaam, 15/08/03)

  5. Justina MatondaneStarted business in 1980s selling vegetables from small stall near Mwenge crafts village

  6. Mary ShirimaUsed to issue business licences at the DTI

  7. Factors affecting business progression • 1. Ability to build and save capital “It was not banks I got my money from, it was saving my own money! Banks don’t give you money for free! People do not [save their money] in Tanzania, that is the problem, even when they make money they come to you and say they have none and this is because they drink, men drink, these carvers {pointing outside} drink and spend money on women when they get money! Or they are so poor that they cannot save money, they do not earn much money, and they do not know how to save!” (Mary, 13/01/03)

  8. Factors affecting business progression (cont.) • 2. Education and managerial experience Fluent in English, which they use in: business administration face-to-face bargaining with tourists and foreign wholesale buyers

  9. Factors affecting business progression (cont.) • 3. Contacts to people in business and government “Customers were complaining about freight charges and other things, so I went to the Chamber of Commerce and other associations and government offices, and they gave me information on licensing, and what I needed. The government is good if you get a good person and you become their friend….[When dealing with BET] I felt that the government was serious about dealing with problems.” (Justina, 01/03/03)

  10. Female retailers’ use of ICT • Previously used: fax, letters, landline • Now use: • fax • mobile phones (especially SMS) • e-mail (Damaris & Justina at home; Mary at internet café)

  11. Female retailers’ use of ICT (cont.) • None have their own website: • ‘planning’ to get one; not got round to it • men with websites find that they do not entice many new customers • these websites are of poor quality • Face-to-face: women find customers when they come to Mwenge or when they themselves travel abroad to expositions

  12. ICT for keeping customers by‘keeping up appearances’ • ICT most useful in communication with these repeat foreign customers SMS and e-mail is: “like being face-to-face with an mzungu in their country, but I am here in Tanzania, ready to find any vinyago the customer needs because e-mail or text is fast. And so [the customers] come to me every time, I am their person in Tanzania and because I have e-mail and it is fast, the customer always uses me and so I can keep my customers.” (Mary, 13/01/03)

  13. ICT for keeping customers by‘keeping up appearances’ (cont.) • Can react swiftly to queries, reply using same medium • Here ICT fosters ‘minimal’ trust: • the fulfilment of explicit promises required for basic market transactions • works best where ‘networks of working relationships’ exist, based on a long-standing trusting relationship of continued interaction • E-mail & SMS are facilitating technologies

  14. ICT for keeping customers by‘keeping up appearances’ (cont.) • What’s new in use of e-mail & SMS? • Used to convey typically Tanzanian gesture of frequent greetings: “I use text or e-mail to greet my customers, maybe every few months, to say “How are you? How is your family? How is business? I hope that you and your family are well!”, these greetings that we have here in Tanzania. And customers like this, I think it makes them remember … how we are friendly and [that Tanzanians] will ask these greetings…and the customers will reply and sometimes they make an order. It reminds them of our friendship.” (Frank Morenje, retailer, Mwenge, 01/08/03)

  15. ICT for keeping customers by‘keeping up appearances’ (cont.) Justina • sends frequent greetings, including Easter, Christmas, etc. • refers to customers as ‘friends’ • appears to have little other social contact with them other than as buyers she sends goods to • Allows retailers to strengthen relationship with their customers • Bargaining cannot be achieved so easily using a website – the women prefer to trade at personal level

  16. ICT in the transition from personal to impersonal exchange • ICT to maintain trust by: • responding quickly to business enquiries from regular customers • applying ICT to frequently update this ‘friendship’ when they feel the communication and relationship may need refreshing • This use of ICT is helping these women move from personal to impersonal exchange …other developing country businesses will also have to come to terms with as the internet becomes an ever more important global trading too

  17. Recommendations • Development agencies: Artisans finally have opportunity to access tools for competitive alternative • Mwenge: Relatively elite women have used ICT to their advantage • Can do better! Mwenge Internet trading portal…

  18. Mwenge Internet trading portal? • Virtual market: clickable photograph of shop & owner clickable range of carvings in shop background to each carving and carver ‘Make a reasonable offer’ (as in: insideafricanart.com) ‘What’s it worth to you’? Portal manager passes on correspondence to retailers to negotiate with potential customers Trust: feedback rating and comments (as in www.ebay.com) Later… portal linking smaller women traders directly with customers, offering prices that may undercut prices negotiated by the retailers on the Mwenge trading portal

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