MANY people know that “mobile money”—financial transactions on mobile phones—has taken off in Africa. How far it has gone, though, still comes as a bit of a shock. Three-quarters of the countries that use mobile money most frequently are in Africa, and mobile banking in some of them has reached extraordinary levels.
A new survey of global financial habits by the Gates Foundation, the World Bank and Gallup World Poll found 20 countries in which more than 10% of adults say they used mobile money at some point in 2011. Of those, 15 are African.
In Kenya, Sudan and Gabon half or more of adults used mobile money. In contrast, in countries with more developed financial systems, the share of adults who use mobile money is tiny—1% in Brazil and Argentina. If you think of banking by phone as just a way of using financial services, then these African countries—where people sometimes live several days’ walk from the nearest branch—are much more financially literate than you might think, just by looking at how many banks they have.
(via Mobile money in Africa: Press 1 for modernity | The Economist)
Bharti Airtel plans to go big in Rwanda by investing $100 million in the country over the next three years in a looming fresh round of rivalry in regional telecoms wars that could unsettle traditional giants. The Indian owned telecommunication company was licensed last year by the Rwandan government and it will roll out its services this year. In the Rwandan market, Bharti will take on MTN, which is not only the country’s leading mobile phone services provider by market share, but also the strongest operator in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of scale, network reach and profitability.
Rwanda is just one of the markets on the continent where MTN and Bharti square off. These two companies, the top two players in Africa’s mobile phone services industry — accounting for 28 per cent and 13 per cent of the revenues respectively according to reported figures for the 2010 financial year — will go neck and neck in an attempt to dominate the fast growing telecom market in Africa.
Bharti, according to Morgan Stanley seems to be gaining ground on MTN, and that by 2015, Bharti will have 15 per cent of the industry revenues, a two percentage point rise of the 2010 figures, while MTN will drop to 24 per cent.
— Airtel ruins the party with Africa telecoms wars - Business |theeastafrican.co.keGrowth of Internet use in Africa has superseded global average in the last decade reaching 2,000 per cent compared to the global’s 480 per cent.
The significant growth is attributed to information technology (IT) developments in the continent in recent years including improved means of connectivity such as links with the global fibre-optic cables, declining prices of computers as well as increasing access to mobile phone Internet enabled handsets.
However, a report by a market research company, Frost &Sullivan, still shows that Internet penetration is still lower in the continent compared to the developed world.
The World Bank’s Wolfgang Fengler has recently written a blogpost titled “Learning from the Kenyan revolution” referencing the penetration and use of not only ICT devices but also mobile money services. He makes optimistic predictions for the futures, viz.,
What are the lessons of Kenya’s ICT revolution for the broader economy of Kenya and for other countries? First, this revolution is not just for the young tech-savvy programmers that huddle at iHub. ICT is no longer a niche sector of the economy. It has become mainstream and affects virtually every actor and every sector of the economy. It’s misleading to talk about a so-called “new economy” because it has in fact changed the way the old economy is operating. Over the next years, the biggest innovations will probably come from the incubation of technology in “traditional” sectors. The financial sector is already in the midst of this transformation, with mobile money as the most visible sign.
This is truly a revolution on many levels observable and prevalent across socio economic strata
(via Our two shillings worth on the Kenyan ICT revolution at The Semacraft Blog)
Major operators are racing for territory in Africa, and recent figures from analysts at Informa indicate why. The region has become the second most connected in the world in mobile terms, after Asia-Pacific, and has the highest growth potential.
At the end of 2010, Africa was in fourth place among mobile regions, but just nine months later had 616m mobile subscriptions, overtaking western Europe during the second quarter of 2011 and the Americans in the third.
BM, which signed a deal in September to manage Bharti Airtel’s IT operations in 16 African countries, has embarked on an expansion programme across the continent.
“Industry analysts are predicting a 10 percent growth year-on-year in IT over the next two to five years across Africa … In east Africa, it’s even probably higher than that,” Tony Mwai, country general manager for IBM East Africa told Reuters.
“There is a very intense focus on Africa. There are growth opportunities in the banking sector, public sector and telecommunications.”
IBM opened a subsidiary office in Tanzania this week, its 20th outlet in Africa as it continues to increase its footprint on the continent.
The West Africa Cable System (WACS) on Friday landed on the shores of Ghana, gearing the country up for an unprecedented information communication technological revolution.
Touted as the largest design capacity submarine cable to land on the African Continent, the WACS landing will mean increased network capacity for Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) subscribers and an additional diversity for its enterprise customers’ Internet Protocol (IP), data and voice communication needs.
— West Africa Cable System lands in GhanaAfrica has passed Western Europe in the number of mobile connections during the final quarter of 2010, Wireless Intelligence reported on Thursday.
It comes as the telecom market on the continent continues to show marked improvement in both services and infrastructure, especially in North Africa. The new report said that African mobile connections reached 547.5 million during the final three months of 2010, up nearly 20 percent from the previous year.
In comparison, Western Europe reported 523.6 million connections, or an increase of less than one percent from 2009. Also, ARPU declined at a similar rate across both continents, down three percent in Europe and 3.29 percent in Africa.
According to the report, much of that slide was triggered by price wars in Kenya, Tanzania and Egypt.
— Africa passes Europe in mobile connections