Seven out of ten Kenyans in the lower income bracket skip a meal or walk to work to spare money for mobile airtime, according to a study commissioned by the World Bank.

The research, carried out by Kenya’s iHub and Research Solutions Africa, involved interviews with 800 respondents over a period of six months last year.

And the report, released officially this year, has revealed the value low income earners in Kenyan place on mobile phones to help them land additional revenue earners.

“These substitutions were largely undertaken in order to strengthen the longer-term asset accumulation of micro-enterprises,” read the report dubbed ‘Mobile Phone Usage at the Kenyan Base of the Pyramid’.

The respondents had to choose between basic needs and keeping the phones loaded with airtime.

83% of those in the ‘base of the pyramid’, as the report refers to them, kept aside up to $1 from basic needs while 70% sacrificed provisions of between $1 and $5. The amount that respondents saved the most was between $0.1 and $3, at least once a week.

They sacrificed through buying less food or no food at all on certain days of the week, says the report. It further adds that the respondents even postponed buying of new clothes, cutting back on bus fares by up to 80%, not paying utility bills and even going without soap.

“I would rather go without bread in the morning and also walk to work, then pay bus fare back. What I will have saved will enable me recharge my credit which in turn will assist me in calling prospective employers because I need extra sources of income at this tough times, “said one of the respondents.

Most menial jobs that the lower income earners rely on - which include plumbing, housekeeping, and gardening - are advertised in cities and trading centers with the employers leaving contacts for interested workers to contact them.

The phone has therefore become the poor’s insurance against unemployment at such tough economic times, say analysts.

“These jobs are not permanent and with the prevailing economic hardships employers hire and fire at will. The job market is particularly affecting the poor as employers who are also feeling the effect of the tough economic times either do away with some of these menial positions or merge them. That is why the cellphone has become an important part of the poors’ lives and especially in their pursuit for work,” said Manasseh Mugambi an analyst with The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis.

The four mobile phone operators in the country have in the last four years lowered the denomination of prepaid scratch cards from Sh50 to Sh5 to cater to the poor who continue to record high uptake of cheap mobile phones further driving internet penetration in the country.