The Technology Our West Africa Bureau Chief Relies On<br />Mobile money — using a mobile phone to transfer payments — is also mainstream in many places<br />and is a lifesaver for people who don’t have the option of bank transfers.<br />A lot of people in more-rural areas cannot afford TVs,<br />and even if they can, in many areas electricity is highly unreliable, so mobile phones are a major source of news.<br />But pretty much any cafe or restaurant will hand you a Wi-Fi password if you ask for it,<br />and even small hotels in out-of-the-way places seem to manage to rig some kind of Wi-Fi system.
