Assessing mobile phone use by pregnant women in Nigeria: a capability perspective

This paper explores the use of mobile phones to access maternal health care in sub‐Saharan Africa and whether it enhances capability and human development. Analysing focus groups and interviews on mobile phone uses by pregnant women in Nigeria based on the Technology Augmented Capability Approach, we show that the mobile phone as a technical object facilitates three broad capabilities for pregnant women, namely, (a) enhances their voice and choice to push for health care quality, (b) enhances their access to emergency services while maintaining entrepreneurial activities, and (c) enhances their health literacy and social connectedness. However, personal, social, and environmental factors influence the conversion of the use of the mobile phone into capabilities by the pregnant women.