Creating Jobs: Papua New Guinea/Transformed by Telecom

Mobile phones are more than phones.Especially in the poor countries with weak infrastructure, they can be lifechangers, acting as a kind of bank, distance-learning classroom, remote medical clinic, or portable commodities market all in one. The technologies are proven. But the challenge has been getting them to those who need them most—especially in remote areas far from big city vendors.

This is starting to change, in part through IFC’s ongoing work with telecom company Digicel, a rising emerging market specialist that has used several rounds of our financing to reach more than 9 million people in 31 countries. Its innovative business model brings modern communications to those that others overlook wherever they are, at whatever price they can afford.

Digicel typically uses our loans to enter a new, underserved market, then teams with established middlemen to build a vast network of grassroots distributors and achieve rapid rollout. The approach has proved successful in Haiti, throughout the Caribbean, and in Central America. Now this same model is revolutionizing communications in the South Pacific. IFC fi nanced Digicel's $163 million expansion into Papua New Guinea, where it has allowed more than 3.5 million people to have access to mobile phones today, up from just 1.2 million in 2007.

The impact on quality of life was strong as well. An estimated 30,000 people now earn better incomes in Papua New Guinea as affi liated Digicel sales representatives. They sell everything from full-service packages to prepaid airtime cards denominated as low as three kina (less than $1) for about three minutes of calling time. We have also provided $51 million to help Digicel reach into Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Kiribati as well, bringing small Pacific island economies into the mobile phone mainstream.