Ghanaian Cell Phones

I have to say that I love the way cell phones work in Ghana…but the cell phone plans wouldn’t really work for impatient, busy Americans. ;)

The biggest investment is the cell phone itself…and they can be pretty cheap! Mine cost 42 cedis ($30), but many will cost 25 cedis or less. There are five cell phone networks to choose from in Ghana – here are their names, prefixes, and taglines:

020 – Vodafone – “It’s your time”
024 or 054 – MTN – “Everywhere you go”
026 – Zain – “A wonderful world”
027 – Tigo – “Express yourself”
028 – Kasapa – “The power of 028”

(Had to include the prefixes just so you’d understand Kasapa’s tagline…which I find a little lame.)

To sign up for one of these plans, all you have to do is buy a chip from any credit vendor…and there’s a credit vendor on many streets and at many corners! The chip costs 1 cedi, and gets inserted into your phone, and voila! You are signed up for that plan! The ease of switching between networks makes the plans fairly competitive in their pricing and promotions. Now all you have to do is buy cell phone credit from one of the afore-mentioned credit vendors, in 1-cedi, 2-cedi, 5-cedi, or 10-cedi denominations (most people, including me, buy one or two cedis’ worth at a time).

There are two ways to purchase credit: you can buy a scratch card (and then you have to scratch to reveal the code, and dial about 18 figures to call in for the credit to be posted to your account: you think Americans would want to do that?), or you can give your phone number to the credit vendor, and have him transfer the credit from your provider to your account. Most vendors will add a premium for the transfer service, although I’ve been fortunate to make friends with a Christian credit-seller on my walk who will give me two cedis of transfer credit if I pay him two cedis! He’s memorized my phone number, so all I have to do is hand over the money, and he takes care of the rest. =)

Every so often, Tigo (the network I’m using) has a “triple bonus” week, where if you buy two cedi’s worth of credit, you get your credit PLUS four cedis’ worth of bonus credit that expires in two days. The bonus credit can be used for any Tigo calls or for calling the U.S. and Canada. Praise God I don’t come from, say, Belgium! The four cedis give me half an hour of talk time with my family: what a blessing!

Oh, one other great thing about cell phones in Ghana: it doesn’t cost anything to receive a call (even internationally), only to make it. Why can’t we copy this aspect in the States? ;)