Enhancing Trade: m-SHIP Mobile Technology for Statistics

1. USE OF MOBILE PHONE TECHNOLOGY IN STATISTICAL PROCESSES PRESENTED BY ISCOS SECRETARIAT MOMBASA, KENYA United Nations Economic Commission for Africa 13-16 October 2015 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE • Introducing ISCOS • What is m-SHIP? • Facts & Figures • Socio-Economic contribution of Mobile Phones • Why m-SHIP • How does it work? • Examples of Reports • End

3. Introducing ISCOS • Intergovernmental Standing Committee on Shipping (ISCOS) • 4 Member States: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia • Formed 1967 • Permanent Secretariat Established 1974 in Mombasa, Kenya. • 2006 Protocol • 2014 Strategic Plan 2015-20 • Purpose: To Promote and Protect Shipping and Maritime Interests of Member States.

4. What is m-SHIP • A mobile phone-based trade facilitation tool developed by ISCOS. • Used for monitoring, reporting and resolving Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) to Trade in Real Time. • Captures experiences by users of Ports and Trade/ Transport Corridors. • Seeks to resolve problems that shippers’ (importers & exporters) encounter as they do their business. • Safaricom subscribers by dialing *290#.

5. Facts & Figures on Mobile Phone Subscriptions - SSA • SSA – Fastest growing region over last 5 years both subscribers & connections (sim cards). • Unique subscriber rate base growing at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% per annum over the period. • By mid 2014 there were 329 million unique subscribers, equivalent to a penetration rate of 38%. • By mid 2014 there were over 600 million sim connections in the region, equivalent to a penetration rate of 68%. • CAGR 7% p.a., reaching just half a billion unique subscribers by the end of 2020. Source: GSMA Intelligence

6. Social & Economic Contribution of Mobile Phones in Sub-Saharan Africa

7. Why m-SHIP • Existence of Non Tariff Barriers (NTBs) to Trade in the region. • NTBs increase the Cost of Doing Business (40% of consumer prices are attributed to logistics in East Africa) • Leveraging use of mobile technology in intra-regional & global trade. • Most users of ports and transport corridors experience a multitude of challenges from private sector service providers and regulatory institutions as they go about their business. • A channel for collecting live data and information from potentially hundreds of port and trade corridor users. • It is user friendly and can be accessed using the simplest of phones. (USSD-Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)

8. Why m-SHIP cont’d • Provides oversight on private/public sector service providers • Provides channel for direct communication with users and identification of problematic areas where delays and corruption are systemic and where good service is offered • Acts as a deterrent to would be offenders which brings in an aspect of accountability, predictability and transparency as well as public participation in improving or reforming the trade and transport corridors • Feeds into Performance Contracting Systems for Public Service Providers e.g. CAJ & ISCOS MoU in Kenya • It institutionalizes data-collection from the user of the service e.g. truck-drivers, clearing agents, shippers, transporters. The existing data is largely regulatory and institution based. • Reports on challenges encountered on the 24/7 operations of ports and their extensions at Mombasa and Dar es Salaam ports. • Supports the objectives of the Mombasa Port Community Charter (MPCC) • M-SHIP has potential to complement and integrate with other existing systems (web/internet access to report NTBs)

9. What does it do? • Exponentially increases access and public participation in improving the Trade and Transport Corridors. • Enables data-mining from actual users of Ports and Transport Corridors. • Enables public participation in improving or reforming the Trade and Transport Corridors, through a Feedback function for Positive and Negative feedback. • Provides information in Charts and Graphs for easy analysis and interpretation by Policy makers. • Provides a channel for direct communication with Port and Corridor Users, for Public Education, Specific/Dedicated messaging, etc.

10. Issues Targeted & Reported on by Users

11. Targeted Service Providers for NTBs Monitoring

13. M-SHIP Platform Components

15. Types of Reports

16. Reports by Location

17. Reports by Institution Jan-Aug 2015

18. July to September Stats • During the first quarter (July - September 2015) a total of 295 people accessed the m-SHIP platform. A total number of 275 issues were resolved and 20 were in the process of being resolved. The issues reported included being delayed, corruption, compliment for good service and feedback.

19. Challenges and Risks for m-SHIP • The need to extend the platform beyond Safaricom to include other mobile phone service providers. • Communication/Language issues; truck-crews from land-linked countries especially. • Lack of response and follow up by institutions concerned. The Service-Charter/Performance Contracting system and rankings are Annual; only institutions dedicated to service are on point. • Threat of ‘success’. If marketed and pushed out, may create need for Help Desks in Bangalore. Budget constraints mitigating this risk. • Risk of malicious/personalisedreports.

21. THANKYOUANDGODBLESS.