I want to purchase the actual yellow pages that are delivered to
people's homes in every "city" with a population of more than 250,000
people for the following countries (I have listed their general
location to help out): Congo (Republic of the congo): Western Africa,
Côte d'Ivoire: Western Africa, Equatorial Guinea: Western Africa,
Gabon: Western Africa,  Gambia: Western Africa, Ghana: Western Africa,
Guinea-Bissau: Western Africa,
Guinea: Western Africa, Mali: Western Africa, Nigeria: Western Africa,
Togo: Western Africa. I am not interested in the online yellow pages,
commercial directories, import/export directories etc. What I need are
the name of the companies or agencies that distributes them, along
with a contact name and phone number. Email addresses, websites,
costs, and weights would be nice but are not required. This will allow
me to contact each of them and provide payment and shipping
instructions.
 
Thank You, 
Joel

Hi Joel,

The African telecommunications industry is in quite a mess, with old
systems often being corrupt, neglected and miniscule. Most of the
countries you listed are in the process of switching to mobile
services. The government web sites for most of the countries were not
operating. It also appears that businesses in some of these countries
have a disliking for non-face-to-face contact.

There does not appear to be any print Yellow Pages for any of these
African countries, however I have given whatever extra information I
found.

Countries from your list that have cities with populations greater
than 250,000 are:

Congo:
Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire 
Only has 40,000 telephones in a country of 50 million people. Does not
appear to be Yellow Pages.

Côte d'Ivoire: 
Abidjan, Bouaké 
Does not appear to have a Yellow Pages. Their state phone company is:
Côte.d'ivoire Telecom Postel 2001
street Lecoeur
17 LP 275
Abidjan 17 
Côte d'Ivoire
Tel: (225) 20 34 48 05/34 40 00 - Fax:20 21 28 28 

Gabon:
Libreville
Only has 18,000 phones, could not find any indication that they have a
Yellow Pages.
http://www.ceasurf.org/gabon/infotech.htm
http://www.esmt.sn/excellence/onptgabon.htm

Ghana: 
Accra, Kumasi
I could not determine if they have a Yellow Pages or not. However,
these are the contact details for the state run phone company, and if
they don't publish one, nobody does.

Ghana Telecommunications Company Ltd.
Headquarters, Telecom House
Accra-North
Nsawam Road
Ghana
Telephone: 233-21-200200
Fax : 233-21-221002
Telex: 301 GTCFO GH.
Website: http://www.ghanatel.net/

"... it is important that U.S. companies establish and maintain a high
level of
personal contact within Ghana; it is generally not possible to mount a
successful enterprise via telephone or fax contact alone....Like its
neighbor, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghanaian values are more traditional than
those of Americans. This tendency extends to business dealings as
well.":
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/business/com_guides/1999/africa/ghana99.html

Guinea: 
Conakry
"Communications systems in Guinea are still in rudimentary stages
of development":
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/business/com_guides/1999/africa/guinea99_09.html

"The Guinean population is 85% Muslim, and Islam plays a major role in
shaping the customs and habits of the local business culture.  U.S
businesspersons should be familiar with the basic tenets of Islam to
facilitate business dealings. Friendship and trust are very important
in Guinean culture. It takes time to build a successful working
relationship in Guinea, and effort, patience, and face-to-face contact
may be required to bring business transactions to fruition."
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/business/com_guides/1999/africa/guinea99_04.html

Mali: 
Bamako
Unable to find any reference to Yellow Pages. Their phone company's
website has lots of details about what they are planning to achieve,
but no mention of phonebooks:
http://www.sotelma.ml

Nigeria: 
Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Benin City, Port Harcourt, Maiduguri, Zaria,
Ilorin, Jos, Aba
As far as I can ascertain, the national phone company of Nigeria,
NITEL, is very corrupt and hopeless. Even if they did publish a
printed Yellow Pages (after extensive searching I believe there isn't
one), I wouldn't expect that you could buy one from them and actually
receive it! See:
http://www.bibim.com/anc/nw20010814/53.html
http://home.pacbell.net/jpaladin/
http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/nigovinv.htm

Togo:  
Lome
They have a White Pages, which is the only one I found out of all
these countries. It has professional listings within it:

"Togo Telecom places at the disposal of its customers advertising
spaces in the directory. These advertisements are inserted in: lists
alphabetical and professional, interior pages, of covers and back of
cover inserts" (translated from French):
http://www.togotel.net.tg/html/annuaire.html

Contact details:
Togo Telecom
Directorate-General
Avenue Nicolas Grunitzky
Lome
TOGO
Phone: 221 47 14 
http://www.togotel.net.tg/

Countries without cities with populations greater than 250,000 people:
Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau

Taken from:
http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/demog/ctry.htm
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

Joel, I know you will be disappointed with the lack of Yellow Pages,
but they just don't seem to use them in this part of the world. As
always, feel free to request a clarification on any aspect of my
answer.

Best wishes,
from robertskelton-ga

I appreciate the research on this question.  If you run accross
anything else in the future, will you please let me know.