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How to map wealth in Africa using nothing but mobile-phone minutes
According to an article published on Quartz, a group of Belgian researchers has come up with a novel way (pdf) of mapping the distribution of wealth in Côte d’Ivoire—by looking at purchases of mobile airtime minutes.
After combing reams of data on individual purchases from a national mobile operator (unnamed in their report), they discovered that, in a country where prepaid phones dominate, there are basically two kinds of airtime buyers: those who make big infrequent purchases, filling up on minutes, and those who buy fewer minutes more regularly. Their theory is the re-fillers are richer than those who buy airtime often, and thus the average size of an airtime purchase can serve as a proxy for wealth. And indeed, the biggest average purchases, as the map below shows, happen in Abidjan, the capital; in a few cities in the interior; and around key border areas and trade routes.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 313203 Copyright © 2014 iMENTORS. All rights reserved.