Throughout Africa, cell phones are helping to reduce poverty. According to Africa Resource, a cell phone can dramatically improve living standards by saving wasted trips, providing information about crop prices, summoning medical help, and even serving as a conduit to banking services. "The cell phone is the single most transformative technology for development," says Columbia University economist and emerging markets expert Jeffrey Sachs. Read more.
Factoid: In 2001, only 500,000 people in Nigeria had telephone lines. Today, there are over 30 million cellular subscribers in Nigeria.
