Problem Statement




Kofi is an eight years old second grade student who lives with his family in a village in Northern Ghana. Kofi’s parents earn about $2 a day from farming and fishing to support a family of 7.

Kofi loves outdoor activities like football and hunting in the woods. Kofi’s house has a used TV powered by car batteries that the family and other villagers watch in the evening.
Due to adverse economic condition of the family and lack of high-level education, Kofi is deprived from advanced education which could help him get a much higher paying job ($13/day) in a nearby city when he grows up.

Product description: the TVC

The television computer (TVC) which is the basis of this project is based on the 8-bit Nintendo (NES) Family Computer (Famicom) architecture. These machines were developed by Nintendo in the early 1980s. It was one of a number of video game console offerings at the time.

Famicom Clones
Famicom clones are currently being sold in India and other countries for between $10 and $25 USD. These are often represented on the packaging as “Educational TV Computers” or simply “Educational Computers.” Brand or model names include MITASHI, Victor-60, and Victor-90. It remains unclear who or where the actual manufacturers are. See Figure 1 .



Low Price Point
The less than $25 USD price point was the genesis of this IDDS 2008 project. The low cost of existing TVCs raised the question of whether they could -- with a few hardware enhancements and new software -- be the basis for a new class of computing platform that would be accessible to families and schools who cannot now afford even the $200 to $500 USD personal computers that have emerged in recent years.

Current Offerings
The current Famicom clone packages typically consist of a keyboard which contains the CPU and hardware interfaces, one or more game cartridges, two game controllers, a mouse, a light gun, power and AV cables, and an instruction booklet. The contents of one of these packages is shown in Figure 2. A close up of the keyboard is shown in Figure 3.





Necessary Extensions
To turn one of the Famicom clones discussed above into a more functional computing platform approaching today's norms, it would have to have a general purpose secondary storage system and a data communications system.

Current clones employ read-only memory (ROM) cartridges, which contain games. These are used by plugging them into the keyboard. By definition, data cannot be saved to this cartridge. Thus, any data that are entered by users, such as in the typing programs, are lost when the computer is powered down. What is needed is a persistent random access memory (RAM) system that allows users to save any data they create.

Additionally, the Famicom clones discussed above do not offer data communications capabilities. This precludes access to the Internet or even simple data transfers to other computers.

The viability of making these extensions is discussed below.


To whom would we sell the TVC?

An initial single market focus
The $10 Famicom TV Computer clone has strong market potential given its price point. Nonetheless, we think that considerable care should be given to positioning this type of product in any developing region. This includes development economic, cultural and technical knowledge about a given market. Given time and resource constraints for IDDS 2008, it was prudent for us to focus on one market at this time: rural Ghana.

It is within our overall conception of this project to examine the feasibility of marketing the TVC in any geographic region where our analyses indicate that it can provide customers with the value discussed above and where there is a receptor capacity for it. Other markets that have been discussed thus far during IDDS 2008 – based also on our group's collective knowledge – included urban India and both urban and rural Brazil.

The global receptor capacity for the TV Computer is significant. Based on data from the International Telecommunication Union Dutta, Lanvin and Paua (2004) estimated that in 2002 one in three people in the world owned television sets and while only one in eleven people owned computers. This is out of an estimated global ownership of approximately 1.8 billion television sets and 550 million personal computers (Dutta, Lanvin, and Paua, 2004).

Specific geographic region: Rural Northern Ghana
Current plans are to focus on marketing the TVC in the geographic area encompassing the Kintampo North District Ghana as well as parts of the Tain and Boley Districts. Our team member, Rev. George Fuachie, is a resident and leader in the Kintampo North District and serves communities in the Boley and Tain districts. IDDS 2008 is also fortunate to have three other participants from Ghana, albeit from other areas of the country. It was prudent to develop a marketing plan for area for which we had available knowledge.

The Kintampo North District is within the Brong Ahafo Region of Northern Ghana. See Figure 4. Brong Ahafo Region is in the central and western part of Ghana. Kintampo North District was created in 2003 when it was split from what is now Kintampo South District by President Kufuor. Bole district, which is part of the Northern Region, is shown in Figure 5.





Demographics of Ghana overall

Population & Income

• The population of Ghana is over 23 million (CIA World Fact Book – Ghana).
• The median age is 20.4 years (CIA World Fact Book – Ghana).
• Ghana had a gross national income (GNI) per capita in 2006 of $520 (US$) (UNICEF, 2008).
• GDP per capita (PPP US$) is $2,480 (2005) (UNDP, 2007/2008).i
• Population below PPP $1 per day is over 44% (MDG Monitor, 2008).
• Unemployment rate:11% (2000 est.) (CIA World Fact Book – Ghana).
• Population below poverty line 39.5% (2007 est.) (MDG Monitor, 2008).
• Ghana's 2000 census database has “18.9 million individuals grouped into 3.7 million households” in approximately 89,000 localities (Colulombe, May 2005).
• Ghana's 2000 Census reported that the median number of households over the 110 districts in existence at the time was 24,852 (Colulombe, May 2005)

Literacy & Education
Attainment of the Universal Primary Education (UPC) objective within the Millennium Development Goal framework is a serious issue for Ghana. Advancement from primary to junior high school is based on exam results, which makes the quality of primary education an especially critical issue. The following statistics help to describe the literacy and educational situation in Ghana overall:

• The adult literacy rate (people aged over 15) is 57.9% (UNDP, 2007/2008).
• The literacy rate of 15 to 24 year olds is 70.7% (both sexes) (MDG Monitor, 2008).
• The net enrolment ratio in primary school education is 70.4% (both sexes) (MDG Monitor, 2008).
• The Gender parity Index in primary level enrolment (ratio of girls to boys) is 1.0 (MDG Monitor, 2008).
• The percentage of pupils who start grade 1 and reach grade 5 is 60% (both sexes) (MDG Monitor, 2008).
• Combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary, and tertiary education is 50.7 (statistics as of 2005) (UNDP, 2007/2008).
• Most Ghanaian primary schools have no text books according to a 2007 Chicago State University press release announcing an initiative is developing text books for Ghana (http://www.csu.edu/urelations/CSUDistributesTextbooksinGhana_000.htm ).
• Pupil / teacher ratio (primary) 35 (2006) (UNESCO, August 2008)
• Primary Qualified Teachers as percentage of teaching force is 70.8% nationally (2006/2007) and 55.9% in 40 of the most deprived districts (UNICEF, 2007).
• The ratio of pupils to trained teachers in pre-primary education is approximately 1:160, 2005 (UNESCO, 2008).
• The ratio of trained teachers to teachers for pre-primary education is approximately 25%, 2005. (UNESCO, 2008).
• The percentage of primary 6 students who achieved proficiency (> 55%) in English on Ghana's National Educational Assessment was 23.6% (Republic Of Ghana, 2006).
• The percentage of primary 6 students who achieved proficiency (> 55%) in mathematics on Ghana's National Educational Assessment was 9.8% (Republic Of Ghana, 2006).

Technology

• The ITU reports a widening digitial divide, including in Africa (http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2008/0805201425.asp?A=HOME&O=FPMN). A “Connect Africa initiative” was announced, with the objective of connecting more than one billion people in Africa by 2012.
• The source of data for (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004) is the International Telecommunication Union.
• Ghana had an average of 77 television sets per 1,000 people (as of 2001). (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). Televisions: 1.9 million (2001) (CIA, 24 July, 2008).
• Ghana had an average of 27 Radios per 1,000 inhabitants (as of 2001) (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). 12.5 million (2001) (CIA, 24 July, 2008).
• Main telephone lines in operation, 2001 242,122 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). 356,400 (2006) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
• Telephone mainlines (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2001 87 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
• Cellular mobile telephone subscribers, 2002 405,000 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). 5.207 million (2006) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
• Personal computers, 2001 70,000 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
• Households online (as % of households with computers), 2002, 75 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
• Internet users (estimated), 2001 40,520 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
• Personal computers (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2001, 93 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
• Computers installed in businesses (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2002, 90 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
• Internet users (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2001, 95 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004). Internet users: 609,800 (2006) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
• Computers installed in businesses (per 1,000 inhabitants), 2002, 90 (Dutta, Lanvin & Paua, 2004).
• Internet hosts: 2,899 (2007) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 12 (2000) (CIA, 24 July, 2008)
• Ghana's Digital Access Index for 2002 is 0.16, which places it into the low access category (http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2003/30.html ). As a comparison Sweden was the highest with 0.85 and the U.S. had 0.77. The DAI includes the following components: infrastructure, affordability, knowledge, quality of service, usage.

Demographics of Kintampo North, Tain and Boley Districts in Ghana
Kintampo North and Tain Districts are within the Brong-Ahafo region. The Bole District is within the Northern Region. These districts are mostly within the rural savannah strata of the 2000 census. The following geographic and demographic facts have been located from various sources:

• The rural savannah strata of Ghana overall has 15% of Ghana's households or 555,000 households.
• Ghana's 2000 Census reported that Northern region 1,820,806 ( Coulombe, May 2005)
• Bole District is 4800 square km. (GhanaDistricts.com)
• Bole District reported a population of 127,188, approximately 88% rural (Coulombe, May 2005)
• Ghana's 2000 Census reported that the Brong-Ahafo region has a population of 1,815,408 (Coulombe, May 2005)
• Kintampo North District has an area of approximately 5,108km² (GhanaDistricts.com).
• Kintampo North District has a population of approximately 96,358 (GhanaDistricts.com). Approximately 73% are rural (Coulombe, May 2005)
• Tain had a population of 85,216 in 2004 (GhanaDistricts.com). Approximately 70% are rural (Coulombe, May 2005).

Specific Market Segments
Based primarily on ethnographic input from Rev. Fuachie and combined with demographic data from a variety of sources, including UNDP, UNICEF, UNDP, and the World Bank, we have decided to examine the prospects of marketing the TVC to two types of customers in rural Ghana:

(1)Primary and Junior High Schools (both public and private); and
(2)Homes.


What value will consumers want from the TVC?

According to Rev. Fuachie and the other Ghanaian participants of IDDS 2008, potential customers in rural Ghana, and any other part of the country, would want or could be sold on education, job skills development, and entertainment.

The usefulness of skills development that is possible with the TVC are confirmed by other evidence. A 2002 article in the New York Times reported that data entry clerks in Ghana who were working at Data Management, a firm to which the City of New York had outsourced work, were making almost three times the minimum wage (Worth, 2002). A 2003 article in CNNMoney.com reported that data entry clerks in Ghana who were working for Affiliated Computer Services, a firm that processes medical claim forms for Aetna, were making ten times the minimum wage in Ghana at the time (Thomas, 2003).

We, therefore, conclude that the TVC would need to enable consumers to develop in the following areas :

• math, literacy, and critical thinking skills for basic primary education;
• preparation for entrance exams into junior high level;
• preparation for secondary and tertiary level exams;
• adult literacy and numeracy; and
• basic job skills, such as typing and accounting.

This would be achieved by the development of special content for the TVC. This is discussed elsewhere in our report.