While development practitioners debate whether smartphones have rendered Community Information Centres obsolete, new research from Ghana reveals a more complex truth: CICs aren’t competing with mobile technology—they’re complementing it in ways that are crucial for equitable development.
The conventional wisdom suggests that with Ghana achieving a 55% mobile adoption rate and 10.7 million people accessing the internet through mobile devices, traditional telecentres should be withering away. Bridging digital gaps in a mobile device age – a study of 10 CICs across Ghana’s Upper East Region, surveying 451 users, demonstrates why this assumption is dangerously wrong.
The Complementarity Thesis
The study looked at CICs – also called telecentres – and reveals that although mobile phones are suitable for simple tasks, complicated tasks are better performed in CICs, suggesting a complementary nature of the two. This isn’t about choosing sides in a technology battle. We need to recognize that different tools serve different needs within the same digital ecosystem.
The statistical evidence is compelling. Access to CICs showed a significant positive correlation with community impact, while activities conducted at these centres demonstrated an even stronger relationship with outcomes. These outcomes represent measurable community transformation.
3 Critical Functions Mobile Phones Cannot Replace
Way back in 2014, we found that teens in low-income Cape Town neighborhoods used telecenters for educational, cultural, health, and civic purposes. Fast forward a decade, and there is still demand for cybercafes.
1. Digital Skills Development Beyond Basic Literacy
Mobile phones excel at consumption but fall short on creation and complex skill development. The research found that rural CICs significantly improved the digital literacy of the youth, enabling better job searching and e-learning. In fact, telecentres are key to African youth employment opportunists.
While you can watch a YouTube tutorial on your phone, learning to create spreadsheets, navigate government portals, or develop business plans requires the structured environment and technical support that CICs provide.
2. Serving the Digitally Excluded
Here’s what mobile-first advocates consistently miss: not everyone has equal access to commercial digital services. CICs continue to be central to the mobile revolution specifically when it comes to excluded and marginalized groups such as the poor, illiterate, migrants, and people with disabilities who are excluded from commercial digital ecosystems.
The numbers tell this story clearly. While Ghana’s mobile penetration appears impressive, the research reveals persistent gaps that CICs uniquely address. These centres provide universal design accessibility for disabled and elderly users, offer services in local languages, and eliminate the barrier of device ownership.
3. Complex Task Facilitation and Government Services
Mobile interfaces work well for social media and basic communication, but struggle with complex tasks requiring larger screens, physical keyboards, and sustained attention. CICs facilitate access to e-government services and educational programs that are difficult or impossible to navigate effectively on mobile devices.
The study found that information availability at CICs creates a positive feedback loop, where more diverse information resources led to a 50% increase in training programs and community activities. This is access to active mediation that trained staff provide in helping users navigate complex digital systems.
The Mediation Effect Matters
Perhaps the most significant finding concerns what researchers call “the mediating role of activities.” CIC activities partially mediate the relationship between access and impact, accounting for 21% of total effects for access and 61% for information. This means that simply providing technology isn’t enough.
We must provide structured programming and human support to translate access into actual community benefit.
The research emphasizes that just making data available isn’t always enough to get users to take full advantage of these benefits without systematically guided practice. This validates what many practitioners have long suspected: technology transfer requires human intermediation to be truly effective.
ICT4D Policy Implications
The study’s recommendations challenge the either/or thinking that has dominated ICT4D discussions. Rather than choosing between mobile-first or telecentre models, successful interventions require integrated approaches that leverage the strengths of both platforms.
The authors recommend that future telecentre initiatives adopt models of co-location and emphasize that CICs should integrate mobile technology with traditional telecentre services, enabling users to perform basic tasks digitally while accessing in-person support for complex needs.
In other words, libraries can be the dirty but effective word in public access to ICT.
This is recognizing that equitable digital inclusion requires multiple access points and support systems, particularly for communities that commercial markets consistently underserve.
Telecentres Still Matter
Ghana’s experience demonstrates that the mobile revolution hasn’t eliminated the need for telecentres. We must redefined their role. CICs remain indispensable because they address the gaps that market-driven mobile solutions cannot fill: complex skill development, inclusive design, government service navigation, and the human mediation that transforms technology access into community empowerment.
Are we smart enough to design integrated digital ecosystems that harness the complementary strengths of both platforms to achieve truly inclusive development outcomes?
