Effect of Mobile Phone Access on Non-Farming Self- Employment and Income Among Female-Headed Households in Tanzania

Abstract

While having access to mobile phone technologies has shown a promising and relevant effect on rural households' livelihoods, it is important to investigate their effect on other vulnerable groups, such as female- headed households. This paper uses a sample of 1,641 households from Tanzania's national panel data, rounds four and five of 2014/15 and 2020/21, respectively. It employs the 2SRI framework to investigate whether access to mobile phones enhances female-headed households participation in non-farm self-employment and improves their income. The results indicate that mobile phone technology significantly increased the likelihood of female-headed households participating in non-farm self-employment enterprises by 11.4 percent and improved the share of the income of the self-employment enterprises in the total household income by 7.9 percent. The estimate further shows evidence that female household heads located in urban areas, skilled and younger experience greater income gain than their counterparts. Thus, the efforts that support and promote mobile phone technology access and usage, coupled with literacy rate improvement among vulnerable sub-populations or groups, are pertinent issues for creating employment and improving income for the groups.