The Ghanaian communications regulator fined five Ghanaian telecom companies a total of 1.2 million GHC today for providing poor quality services, a move sure to be popular with pretty much everyone, since people in Ghana love their phones and hate all the phone companies. To give you an example of what poor services means, I haven't been able to call or text anyone on MTN, or receive calls, since I arrived in Sunyani yesterday-- and it was like that all over Brong Ahafo when I left last week. This isn't some village in the mountains-- Sunyani is a district capital. The fines were based on failure to provide coverage, geographically and temporally. The highest fine went to Airtel, which has actually provided pretty reliable services for my internet modem, including the hookup to write this article. In my opinion, the highest fine should have gone to Vodafone, for their atrocious service. Vodafone is the only provider of cable internet in Tamale, and has the only nice, reliable internet cafe. When home and business internet lines go down, they never come fix them, despite repeated calls requesting they do so. Why should they? They can keep charging the monthly rate, plus get additional income when people are forced to go to the internet cafe. This is why natural monopolies must be regulated.
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Recently, in a small village print shop with an old copy machine discarded from Canada or Belgium or some such place, I received a printing bill for twice the amount I expected-- because I printed my document from a pen drive.
Newcomers to Ghana are often warned of the dangers of "promiscuous" pen drives. which can spread viruses. (The term seems increasingly appropriate the more I consider the mechanics of using a pen drive.) It is interesting to see that shops recognize the risk and tax it by charging higher rates on printing from pen drives. I was a bit put out, however, because the additional rate is charged per page, even though the virus risk is no different for printing a one-page document than a 100-page document. I'm looking forward to finding the shop that charges a flat rate fee for using a pen drive. I'll admit the deterrent is effective though: next time, I will email my document to myself. The Ghanaian press recently published a story claiming that 90% of police officers in Ghana are alcoholics. Despite the hyperbolic headline, the actual statistic in the text is a bit more ambiguous-- it says that 90% of police have medical conditions such as hypertension and cardiovascular or heart disease that can be linked to alcoholism.
The best part of the story? The police service try to reassure the public that police officers are tested before being sent to other countries for peacekeeping. I take this to mean that if they send 10% of police abroad, then we must have 100% boozed cops here in Ghana. The Ghana Driver's Manual gives the following advice:
Beware of pedestrians. Take extra precaution when approaching fruit trees. Children are more interested in fruits than in traffic. I will say, when traffic consists of a white girl on a moto, this is patently false. I am now the holder of an official Ghanaian motorcycle driver’s license. I feel like a bit of my inner (or not so inner?) rebel has been lost, but as consolation, I ended up paying no more than the official 34 GHC fee and a 1 GHC dash to get it, so I feel like I am still pretty bad-ass.
Corruption at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority in Accra is brilliantly orchestrated. Applicants never pay a bribe directly to an official. When applicants come into the office, officials direct them to a handler. The handler, who is in no way officially associated with the DVLA, helps the applicant through the process—he assists with getting passport photos, filling out paperwork, and sending the applicant to the correct offices. The handler knows the process in and out, and has friends in the various offices. The handler keeps the process as opaque as possible, often meeting with officials without the applicant present. The handler makes it a point to pay the applicant’s fees without the applicant present, hiding the true cost of the license fee. The handler then asks the applicant for a sum larger than the true cost. If asked about the discrepancy, the handler will say that the extra is needed to dash the DVLA officials so that they will process the application the same day. Presumably, the extra is actually split between the handler and the DVLA officials. The beauty of this system is that no one can ever be caught for corruption. If an applicant complains, the only person who has ever asked them for extra is the handler, who is not affiliated with the DVLA and is just taking a fee for helping the applicant with the process. The handlers will never complain about the DVLA officials, because they make their whole living off the system. So how did I get off with a 1 GHC dash? I was smart, but I also got lucky. Before going in, I asked around about the cost of a moto license, so I knew it would be in the range of 30-40 GHC. Then I got assigned a handler who far overplayed his hand—he asked for 200 GHC to cover the cost of the license—lucky. I got lucky again when I said the price should be “30 to 40 Ghana”, and he thought I said “34 Ghana”—which turned out to be the exact price of the license. At that point, he pulled me aside, and admitted that the license cost 34 Ghana, but said I would need to pay extra to dash the officials to get the license that day. It’s possible that he may have actually slowed down the process on purpose; we hopped around to a lot of offices. I decided to call his bluff. I started loudly talking about how I wanted a receipt for everything, and how I couldn’t trust him, because he had just tried to tell me it cost 200 GHC for a license. Exclamations and tongue clicks—Ghanaian sounds of disapproval – began emanating from the crowd around us. One woman poked the handler, asked “200 Ghana? For a license?!” and shook her head reprovingly. “Okay, okay” said my handler, and he ushered me back inside. A moment later my paperwork was approved. My handler and his brother the DVLA official shook their heads ruefully and speculated out loud about how I had known the price. After seeing the receipt in my paperwork, I paid the handler the 35 GHC for the 34 fee. He left without giving me change. I thought he would be back, and I would have given him a small tip for his help, but apparently he was afraid I would start yelling about 200 Ghana again, and he left me to complete the process on my own, which I did with no trouble. He kept the 1 GHC change—but I kept his pen. Here are tips to help avoid be extorted for money in Ghana: 1. Do your research. Know what the process should be, and know how much fees should cost. 2. Use the “R” word—receipt. Since receipts must be turned in, the amount listed there is the official price, and total receipts must equal total cash turned in. Always ask for a receipt to make sure you are paying the official rate, and that the money you pay goes to Ghana, not someone’s pocket. 3. Hold on to your important documents. Once your passport, license, or other difficult-to-replace document is in someone’s hands, you will have to convince them to give it back. And they may hope you will convince them with cash. 4. Be willing to spend time rather than money. 5. Be willing to call bluffs. 6. Don’t have tons of money on you. It’s hard to extort someone for more than they’ve got. 7. Know when a dash is okay. If someone is truly doing something extra for you, outside of their normal job, or if the dash is actually to compensate a handler for their assistance, it can be appropriate. Ramadan is coming up, and in Northern Ghana, that means a large portion of staff, partners, and survey respondents will be going without food and water during daylight hours. If you aren’t Muslim, sometimes you forget that other people are fasting, or to be unaware of how this may affect their work and schedules. Some rookie mistakes I have seen:
· One of our interns wanted to do something nice for the office, so he brought in donuts at 2pm- prime hunger time for many fasters. · A friend of mine was working with a Ghanaian staffer, and noticed she wasn’t eating anything. Feeling bad, she proceeded to offer the Ghanaian shares of everything she ate that day. It wasn’t until later that she realized the Ghanaian must have been fasting. · A staff member scheduled a lunch meeting with partners. The partners came without complaint, and the staff member was chagrinned when none of them ate anything and she remembered it was Ramadan. To avoid being a jerk to hungry people during Ramadan: 1. Find out when Ramadan is. In many cases, the beginning and end of Ramadan are set locally, based on sighting the moon in that location. 2. Set schedules that allow people to break fast in their accustomed manner. This usually means being at home for sundown. 3. Don’t push food on people. It’s fine to offer, but if someone declines, try to remember that they may be fasting, so don’t keep offering all day. 4. Be aware of the effect that fasting may have on energy levels and mood. Most fasters will do the work they need to without complaint, but think twice about asking people to work late. 5. Remember the people who aren’t fasting. Don’t assume people can skip lunch breaks. 6. Don’t pity the fasters. Ramadan is a month for celebration, and most people fast gladly. They won’t mind you eating in front of them, especially if you aren’t wafting the fumes from your super-smelly food at them. 7. Consider trying to fast, if only for a day. It will show solidarity and make you more sensitive to those who are fasting. I fasted during Ramadan in Tamale last year. This year, I will be fasting in Accra for as long as my Tamale team is in the field. If you decide to try fasting, here are some tips: · Don’t give up early. The first three days are the most difficult. Get through those, and it gets easier. · Eat before sunrise. Even if you aren’t hungry, make yourself do it. It will help you get through the day. · Don’t fight the hunger. The more you try to ignore it, the more you will focus on it. Accept that it is there, and learn to function with it. · Recognize your moods. Be aware of how fasting is affecting your mood. Work on changing your reaction to hunger, or be on guard against letting the mood affect your behavior towards others. · Be aware of your health. Consider whether you want to include water in your fast, especially if you work in hot environments or exercise during the day. Muslims fast if they can; young children, pregnant women, and others for whom fasting could pose a health risk are not expected to fast. · Don’t stay up drinking all night. A hangover is no fun when you can’t have pizza. This is especially important if you aren’t drinking water, as you can easily get dehydrated. · …Unless you also stay up eating all night. I spent one night last Ramadan at a friend’s house mixing drinks and cooking a new meal every few hours, till the sun came up. The next day was the easiest day of Ramadan. The text reads:
In Kusa, a mosquito bednet is called a "doomsdog". The literal translation is "mosquito room". The words in several other Northern Ghanaian languages are similar, translating to "mosquito room" or "mosquito house".
Apparently, this terminology can lead to some confusion. I recently heard a story about a farmer in a net distribution program. He was visited by a program officer conducting random checks to see if the net was in use. When the program officer arrived, he found the net hanging outside, and the man sleeping in his house, netless. When he asked the farmer for an explanation, the farmer gruffly responded: "Ahcht! These stupid salimingas don't know anything. I hung the net and all the mosquitoes still come to me. The mosquitoes don't go to their room at all!!" One of the most common hazards for moto drivers in Tamale, Ghana, is animals on the road. Learning how different animals will behave when a vehicle approaches is one of the key ways to keep safe driving moto in Northern Region. Here is what you can expect: In the diagrams below, the red represents the location and velocity of objects on the road at time 0. (Yes I know these can't technically be simultaneously measured but give me a break I am a social scientist.) Red points indicate zero velocity. The black represents the probable location of these objects during the time it takes the moto to move through that space on the road, with darker lines represent higher probability of the object being in that space. Lizards are all over the place in Northern Ghana. Mostly they sit around and do push-ups or clamor over your walls making a racket. Occasionally they decide to cross the road. Their quick, flick-y movements may make you jump, but don't worry-- they will go straight across, and they are quick enough that the probability of lizard guts on your tires is low. Even the white Toyota Landcruisers favored by overly-pampered, well-funded development workers won't go up against a cow in the road, and the cows know it. They won't move except under duress of a slipper wielded by a small boy. You will have to go around them. If they are many, be prepared to honk your horn in vain while they decide which side of the road they really want to be on. Goats are the ideal animal to encounter on the road in Northern Ghana. Street smart and properly aware of their place in the road hierarchy, they will run away and off the road at the approach of a vehicle. The exception: goats often like to sleep on highways at night. Beware of groggy goats when driving early in the morning. While goats are the ideal animal to encounter on the road, sheep are bane of Ghanaian drivers. Dismally stupid, they will invariably run directly into traffic. An experienced motorist will, counter-intuitively, plot a trajectory behind the sheep. The difference in behavior between sheep and goats makes distinguishing the two a key survival skill in Tamale. Remember: tail up, goat; tail down, sheep. After a chicken perceives an oncoming vehicle while crossing the road, its velocity can be modeled with a random walk, plus a constant increase in speed of averaging 1 ft/second. Use this formula to calculate the most probable route of the chicken, and avoid it. Alternatively, just keep going. A chicken ain't no cow. In all seriousness, take care to watch for animals when driving in Ghana. If an animal is on the road, your first priority should be the safety of you and the people around you-- don't try to stop for a chicken or lizard if it would endanger you or others. If you hit and kill an animal of economic value (goat, sheep or chicken), and the owner is around, you may have to compensate the owner. Typical prices for strong, adult animals are 5 GHC for a chicken, 35 GHC for a goat and 50 GHC for a sheep (another reason sheep are the bane of drivers.) However, a sincere apology may be suffice. I heard about a man who hit and killed a goat, and after arguing with the entire village for an hour, was allowed to go on his way-- after he promised he would never ever hit another goat. NPR recently featured a segment on tipping, positing that while many people believe they tip to reward good service, they actually tip out of guilt for being served by another. The segment points out that people tend to tip at fairly constant rates, regardless of how good the service is, and more interestingly, the services that conventionally require tips in the United States are those where the person receiving the service is having a lot more fun than the server. People at restaurants and hotels tip; people at the dentist do not.
Guilt seems to make up a large share of my (admittedly under-average) emotional spectrum, so I find this very compelling. The segment points out a downside to this: tipping out of guilt may not be efficient. Tippers may give an amount larger than the value of the service to them, and tips that don’t vary with service quality don’t provide incentives for better service. Tipping norms in Ghana are quite different from those in the United States: tips are not necessarily expected for restaurant service, but for help with directions, with making a large purchase, or with loading bags onto a bus, a tip, or “dash” is expected. (“Dash” functions as both a noun and a verb.) Often, the services you are expected to dash for are services you don’t even want, and the tipper may even give money just to get someone to go away. The role of guilt in tipping is compounded in these situations by the uncertainty foreigners may have regarding tipping norms and by the income disparity between the average foreigner and the people who do these types of jobs in Ghana. The trouble with this is that the efficiency of the tip is further diminished. While guilt may make me a generally good tipper, as an economist, I also feel guilty when I tip for poor service or services I don’t want, thus providing poor incentives. Here is my advice on tipping in Ghana to maximize good incentives: Restaurants: Tipping is not mandatory for food service, though it becomes more expected the more upscale the venue. I highly recommend giving small tips/dashes that are very sensitive to the quality of service. At a local eating spot, 1 GHS is a good tip for basic service, and will likely get you a little extra attention next time you visit. At a nice restaurant in Accra, a 10% tip for good service seems to be well-received. The rarity of tipping in Ghanaian restaurants presents an opportunity to tie tipping to good service, so I would urge varying tips accordingly, giving nothing for poor service, and large tips for good service. Bags: If someone helps you carry your bag, it is very much expected you will give a dash. If you don’t want to, then be firm about carrying your own bags. Bus baggage: Small dashes are often expected for loading your bags under a bus. It is hard to avoid using this service. This is the context where I have found demands for dashes to be most outrageous. A dash should not be mandatory for this—I have seen supervisors yell at men who demanded a dash before loading bags. I would recommend resisting anyone who demands one before helping you. The dash should also not be large. I once encountered a man who refused my 1 GHS dash and demanded 2 GHS. I gave him nothing. I would not give more than 1 GHS unless your bags are many, or you receive some special assistance with them. Note that a dash for loading should not be confused with an actual fee for baggage. Directions: You should not have to pay a dash for directions. If someone walks a long way with you to show you where something is, a dash may or may not be demanded. If you don’t want to give one, don’t accept the escort. Assistance with purchases: If someone helps you locate, select, bargain for, and complete a substantial purchase, a dash may be in order. Things to consider: how much help you received, how much time and money you saved as a result of the help, and whether the person got any financial gain from your purchase. Generally, anyone who approaches YOU about buying something doesn’t need a dash. Household errands: If you have a guard or groundskeeper, the person will often run errands for you. You should dash to compensate for their travel costs and efforts. Professional services: Professional services outside a person’s normal job may require a dash, depending on the job and the organization a person works with. As an example, I had a document notarized by a judge in Tamale, and I paid a 5 GHS dash for his time and trouble. Stealth window washing: One of the strangest things about Accra are stealth window washers, who swoop in on a car waiting at an intersection, squeegee the front windshield despite the driver’s protests, and then demand a dash after. No matter how guilty you feel, please, please do not dash for this or other unwanted services that are forced on you; you will only encourage the practice. Further advice on tipping in Ghana (or anywhere else)? Please contribute in the comments! |
About Liz
I have worked in economic policy and research in Washington, D.C. and Ghana. My husband and I recently moved to Guyana, where I am working for the Ministry of Finance. I like riding motorcycle, outdoor sports, foreign currencies, capybaras, and having opinions. Archives
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