The Effect of ICT-Based Market Information Services on the Performance of Agricultural Markets: Experiences from Ghana

1. Introduction

In the last decade, policies of food and agriculture and information communication technology (ICT) in developing economies have recognized the central role of market information. Without market information markets do not function well. Small traders in particular suffer opportunistic behaviour by other service providers in the market. Market-based exchanges that rely on visual inspection result in high transaction costs which impede access to better paying markets and entrenched poverty (Fafchamps & Hill, 2005; Fafchamps & Gabre-Madhin, 2006). In Ghana, the government has demonstrated its concern for the development of market information through the agricultural and ICT policies (Ghana, 2003, p. 24). There has been marked improvement in the ICT industry; the infrastructure, network coverage and user charges have improved tremendously in the last five years (Table 1). The sector is completely liberalized, resulting in improved penetration and broad band width supply. The national optic fiber bone infrastructure is critical in enabling rural areas to access the cheaper and faster undersea cable bandwidth.