The Things We Do To Save Money

There are a number of people in the cities and towns of Malawi who make their living taking passport photos. Actually, it's more accurate to say that they take passport-sized photos, as the majority of them are not actually used for passports, but for school ID cards, job applications, National Bank debit cards, and the like. These people do pretty good business - most charge 300 kwacha (about $2) for two passport-sized photos. This is a steep charge, in a country where you can get film processed for about K40 an exposure (at 4" by 6") and digital photos processed for as low as K70 a photo. The main reason why passport photos are so expensive is that most are taken using instant cameras (i.e. Polaroid), which allow the vendors to offer "passport photos while you wait." The self-developing film used in these cameras is not cheap.

Interestingly, more and more vendors are investing in digital photo technology - usually a digital camera, together with a photo printer that has a card reading feature. This setup allows them the same expediency while cutting down on costs (though the initial investment for equipment is much larger). It has the additional benefit of letting the customer approve his or her photo before it's printed. Value added!

Now, although the photo-developing costs are far, far lower for those using digital technology, these vendors still tend to charge K300 per pair of photos (K250 is the lowest I've seen). Not too helpful to the average Joe, sure, but you can't blame them for making the most of new technology. Fortunately, a Joe (or Jane) with regular access to computers can benefit from his/her own technical knowledge in a similar way.

Take our little operation here - Namitembo Trade and Agriculture School (NAMTAS) - as an example. Last Friday, the assistant carpentry tutor, Mr. Nankwawa, came to me seeking advice on how to cut down on photo processing costs. Nankwawa, the chair the school's sports committee, informed me that the 2009 WorldVision Cup is about to start. To join, each football and netball team must submit an entry form, together with passport photos of all the players. Now, ordinarily, each player would be responsible for coming up with their own K300 to pay for this. However, Nankwawa and I devised a way to dramatically cut costs.

We took photos of each player in turn (I used my lovely digital camera this time, but the school has one of its own that could be used in the future). These photos will be cropped, scaled down, and placed on a 4" x 6" JPEG file with a white background. The upshot here is that we can fit six passport photos (1.5" square) onto each 4" x 6" photo. We'll just save these files onto a flash drive, head into Blantyre, and get them printed! All we'll have left to do after that is grab a pair of scissors and cut out the individual passport photos. With digital prints going at K70 apiece, this will only cost us about K23 for each pair of passport photos - a huge savings on the going rate of K300. I plan on teaching this devious little technique to every member of staff here at NAMTAS, so they can continue on doing this after I've left.

Of course, some might point out that my little fix-it plan will take business away from entrepreneurs in town. While this is true, I don't worry about it so much, for three reasons:

1. Somebody else would have thought of this before long. In fact, I seriously doubt I'm the first person in Malawi to do this.
2. The people charging K300 for digital passport photos caught onto a great money-saving strategy. We're merely doing the same thing.
3. Learning how to operate new technology is one thing. Learning how to make the best use of it is another thing entirely, and if people don't learn that skill, they'll end up wasting a lot of money on equipment, with very little return. The more that people in places like Malawi discover that computers are not meant simply to speed up the same old tasks, but actually allow you to work around corners in this way, the more they'll benefit from the technology.

This is really a small-scale example of the potential benefits that computers can bring to the developing world - but I am convinced that "small" fixes like this one will, in the end, be the major sticking point for Malawians and others. The computer is an amazingly versatile tool, capable of moving major obstacles and adjusting minor ones. As people stumble upon more and more of the minor adjustments made possible by this technology, demand for computers will increase accordingly, resulting in an increasingly computer-literate society, in turn driving further innovation...and so the snowball continues down the hillside.

...I hope.