Technology Report - How Mobile Phones Are Changing Life in Africa

Listening and Doing Exercise:

Select Play button. Listen and fill in the blanks with suggest words

650	From	Laurel	Melhem	Mendy	Money	Now	She	a	adults
and	as	brought	by	far	he	in	make
phones	recently	services	the	to	transfer	users

VOA Learning English, we bring you news about technology Special English. The World Bank estimates there are about million mobile phone users in African countries south of Sahara desert. That is greater than the number of in the United States and the European Union. Samia works for the World Bank to increase information technologies Africa. She says mobile phones are Africa's fastest-growing technology. says more Africans have access to the Internet than clean water or sanitation. She says mobile technology has about huge changes in how people live. CNN television named seven ways life has been revolutionized by mobile . They include political activism, education, entertainment, disaster management, agriculture, health. Banking is another industry that has been transformed mobile phones. Reports say at least half of the in Gabon, Kenya, and Sudan use mobile money. Rene sells goods in the streets of Dakar, Senegal. But never had enough money to open a bank account. he uses a mobile phone banking service called Orange . With his telephone, he can add or take out little as one dollar from his account. He can payments and send money to family members who live away. Orange Money says it serves 4 million customers 10 countries. The World Bank's Samia Melhem notes that French company is facing competition from other mobile banking . That is not a surprise. The cost of sending payment by phone is far lower than with traditional agents like Western Union. For VOA Learning English, I'm BowmanAdapted from a radio program broadcast 04Feb2013)

SCORE: