This study examined the determinants and constraints of mobile phone-enabled agricultural extension services among small-ruminant farmers in Northern Ghana. Cross-sectional data were collected from 406 farmers through purposive and simple random sampling methods. The data is analysed using descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression, and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance. The results show that gender, household size, farmer-based organisation (FBO) membership, and small-ruminant-rearing experience significantly influenced access to mobile-enabled extension on small ruminant production. Male farmers had 16.20 times the odds of access compared with female farmers. Each additional household member was associated with 1.91 times the odds of access, while FBO members had 3.11 times the odds compared with non-members. Each additional year of small-ruminant-rearing experience was associated with 2.35 times the odds of access. Kendall’s ranking identified inadequate electricity coverage as the most important constraint, followed by high device costs, device management costs, difficulty understanding SMS messages, and limited knowledge of mobile phones. The study recommends gender-responsive digital extension, rural electrification, local-language voice services, and integration of mobile and conventional extension systems to enhance the knowledge of small ruminant farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana. Read more

The most widely accepted authentication method involves the use of a personal identification number (PIN). This method is applicable across many technologies, of which one of them is Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). USSD is a capability built into the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). In some developing countries like Nigeria, USSD is used in carrying out financial transactions. It has been observed that while carrying out banking transactions using this technology, users' personal identification number (PIN) entered for authentication appears in plain text on the mobile interface, thereby subjecting it to shoulder surfing attacks. Findings revealed that users' PIN appears in plain text because USSD technology is designed to convey only textual data. That is why many existing authentication methods against Human shoulder surfing attacks which contain features like images, colors, or graphical password, that can provide security to users' PIN on mobile interface are not implemented on the USSD channel. This is one of the reasons why many existing authentication methods, which are designed with features such as images, colors or graphical passwords to prevent shoulder surfing attack, are not implemented on the USSD channel. This research is, therefore, on the design of a new authentication method that can provide security to users’ PIN at the mobile interface of the USSD channel and secure the users’ transaction against shoulder surfing attacks. In this method, the challenge response approach is adopted to provide a secure PIN entry method in the presence of a human shoulder surfer, using the randomization obfuscation method that randomly places the user's chosen PIN within randomly generated 10-digit numbers, in Left to Right order. For further security, the designed model includes features like Bag of Soft Biometrics (BoSB) details and one-time password (OTP). Read more

There is a growing adoption of solar home systems to support sustainable development and address poor electricity supply in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This has resulted in the rise of solar mobile phone charging businesses, especially in off-grid communities. An area that remains under researched that needs to be addressed is how these solar mobile phone charging businesses provide opportunities for women in rural communities in SSA. We employ the concepts of Sen's Capability Approach to evaluate how the solar mobile phone charging businesses has improved the lives of women by focusing on opportunities provided for expanding their freedoms to participate in social, economic, and political activities. Our analysis shows that women's involvement in solar mobile phone charging businesses has enhanced their individual and collective capabilities to participate in development activities; however, certain contextual factors hinder the generation of these capabilities. The paper concludes with some implications for theory and practice. Read more

The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has shown that traditional fundoscopy is now a hazardous procedure due to the proximity at which the procedure is done. This letter describes mobile phone fundoscopy as an alternative safer method of retinal examination with the added advantages of patient education and facilities for teaching and telemedicine. Read more

The advent of the electronic world has facilitated the social media for quick, easy and communal groupings and sharing of information among members, friends and followers. This study has investigated the effect of social media on consumer purchase of mobile phone users in Federal Universities in the South East Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to examine influences of social media accessibility, interactivity, connectedness, conversation and communality on consumer purchase of mobile phones. The study was anchored on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) for its relevance to a study that aims to find out the extent to which behavioral control innovation can influence the behavioural performance of a consumer. Five research questions and null hypotheses were formulated in line with the specific objectives of the study. The framework for methodology was based on survey design. The Taro Yamani formula was adopted to obtain a sample size of 398 from the 68,392 population of all the students in the five Federal Government-owned Universities in South East Nigeria. The method for data analysis was percentage frequencies, bar charts, and multiple regression analysis. The results showed that all the social media characteristics jointly influence about 93% consumer purchase of mobile phones. The specific findings showed that: Social media accessibility has a positive and significant (coef = 0.358, t=13.228; p < 0.00) influence on consumer purchase of mobile phones; Social media interactivity has a positive and significant (coef = 0.678, t=26.911; p < 0.00) influence on consumer purchase of mobile phones; social media connectedness has a positive and significant (coef = 0.034, t=6.321; p < 0.00) influence on consumer purchase of mobile phones; social media conversation has a positive but insignificant (coef = 0.034, t= 1.537; p < 0.125) influence on consumer purchase of mobile phones; and social media communality has a positive and significant (coef = 0.050, t= 2.227; p < 0.027) influence on consumer purchase of mobile phones. The study posits that improved involvement with social media characteristics have a positive influence on consumer purchase. Based on the findings, the study recommended that marketers should build and maintain a proper mechanism through social media for enhanced consumer patronage. As social media characteristics have a high impact on consumer purchase experiences, manufacturers of mobile phones and other volition controlled production should engage the social media as a veritable e-marketing channel. Read more

The study examined the determinants of brand preference among young consumers in Ekiti State and Lagos state. The population comprised four Universities in Lagos state and Ekiti State while the total population consists of 136,000 in the four government owned Universities in both Lagos State and Ekiti State, Nigeria. The total sample size for this was 382. Descriptive statistics, such as frequency distributions, percentages and frequency tables, were used to summarize and relate variables which were obtained from the study. Simple regression analyses were used to determine the association between the variables and to test the hypotheses, with results for brand popularity (p = 0.000 < 0.05) and product attributes (p = 0.000 < 0.05). These results showed that brand popularity has a positive relationship with mobile phone brand preference in Ekiti State and Lagos State. The study concluded that customers will consider brand popularity when choosing a mobile phone; customers consider mobile phone features like durability, reliability and portability user friendliness; and size and color influence the choice the customers made of the mobile phone. Read more