Mobile phone use and livelihoods: qualitative evidence from some rural and urban areas in Ghana Augustine Tanle . Albert Machistey Abane Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 Abstract In sub-Saharan Africa, the past two decades have witnessed a phenomenal increase in the use of mobile phones which has attracted diverse research. This paper explores mobile phone use and livelihood activities in some urban and rural areas of Ghana. Qualitative data were extracted from a larger study that covered 24 sites ranging from urban to remote rural locations in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. The Sustainable Livelihood Framework pro- vided guidance for the study. The main findings of the study indicate that mobile phones provide direct phone-related employment and indirectly enable some others to secure jobs through contact with friends/ relations and also facilitate marketing of farm produce in terms of reduction in transaction cost, access to ready market and contacts for better prices for produce. Additionally, phone use enhances job orga- nization through communication between apprentices and their bosses and also facilitates the migration process of some irregular migrants. As a livelihood capital, mobile phone has the potential to reduce vulnerability and improve upon people’s livelihood outcomes. There is therefore the need to make mobile phones more affordable, expand mobile phone net- work coverage and improve upon service quality to facilitate livelihood activities, particularly in rural areas of the country. Keywords Mobile phone use Á Livelihood activities Á Rural and urban areas Á Ghana Introduction In sub-Saharan Africa, mobile phone ownership and use have been on the increase over the last decade such that phone use has permeated all aspects of human endeavours. In Ghana, for instance, there were 70,000 subscribers in 2000 but the number increased to 29,531,488 by August 2014 (NCA 2014). The 2010 Population and Housing Census indicated that 47.7% of the population 12 years and older owned mobile phones in Ghana (Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) 2012). The benefits associated with mobile phone use have been outlined by some researchers: it facilitates communication, increases social networks, increases people’s ability to deal with emergency situations, offers mobility and security to owners and reduces cost of doing business and travel needs among other things (Carroll et al. 2002; Donner 2006; Samuel et al. 2005; Sife et al. 2010). It is also known that mobile phone use involves challenges such as network failure, high cost of airtime, high cost of mobile phones, A. Tanle (&) University of Cape Coast, Department of Population and Health, Cape Coast, Ghana e-mail: atanle@ucc.edu.gh A. M. Abane University of Cape Coast, Department of Geography and Regional Planning, Cape Coast, Ghana 123 GeoJournal DOI 10.1007/s10708-017-9780-0