mobile world - issue 47 | 2014

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call away, a text away and you could save a life! Yes, Mobile health (mHealth) applications such as text messages could save more than a million lives in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years, according to a report.

The report, produced by consultancy Pricewa-terhouseCoopers (PwC) India, says that mobile phone interventions to ensure patients com-ply with treatment, medical stock is available and healthcare workers stick to treatment guidelines could save some of the three mil-lion lives lost each year across Africa to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria and pregnan-cy-related conditions.

Though there is still low adoption despite the immense benefits, Shashank Tripathi, leader of the strategy and research practice at PwC India said Africa’s low adoption of mHealth solutions is mainly due to a lack of health literacy among patients.

But overall, things have changed for the bet-ter when it comes to health and technology, mhealth positive incursion brings great relief to millions of Africans. The continent has expe-rienced an incredible boom in mobile phone use. In 1998, there were fewer than 4 million mobile subscriptions on the continent, but to-day, there are more than 800 million subscrip-tions, and this is projected to reach 1.12 billion subscriptions by 2017.

Mobile technologies have the potential to transform the face of healthcare by serving as vehicles for delivering specific health interven-tions. This of health service delivery, is seen as a complementary strategy for strengthening health systems and achieving the health-relat-ed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in low-income countries.

Today, countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Ni-geria and South Africa are leading the way in using mHealth solutions for health service delivery, and this is driven by the convergence of a myriad of factors – expanding penetra-tion of mobile networks in rural communities, reduced costs of mobile handsets, general increase in non-food expenditure and innova-tive technologies that integrate mobile appli-cations with traditional health service delivery models. mHealth has found applications in treatment compliance, data collection and disease surveillance, health information dis-semination, point-of-care support for health

mHealth in Africatervention Scheme is delivered in partnership with the National Primary Health Care Devel-opment Agency (NPHCDA) is bound to en-hance the efforts of the Federal and State Min-istries of Health, towards improving health care delivery in Nigeria.

Despite these successes, challenges remain. A major challenge to the implementation of mHealth on the continent is the lack of stan-dardisation and regulatory frameworks to guide its scale-up. In addition, inadequate monitoring and evaluation and use of mean-ingful, consistent indicators and rigorous evaluation methods for cost-effectiveness may make it difficult to scale up mHealth in-terventions.

The healthcare systems of many African countries are constrained by high popula-tion growth, high disease burden, inadequate health workforce, widespread rural popula-tions and limited financial resources. mHealth is one innovative and potentially effective so-lution to overcome these constraints.

Enjoy this edition!

Akin NaphtalGroup Executive Publisher,[email protected]

A workers, health promotion, emergency medi-cal response, as well as drug supply-chain management.

mHealth implementation in Africa has the po-tential to improve health outcomes in many ways. The portability and ‘always on’ features of mobile phones, along with their increas-ing capability to carry and transfer data, make them unique for relaying health information. In addition, the functional and structural prop-erties, namely, low start cost, text messaging and flexible data plans make mobile phones attractive for use in healthcare interventions.

In pilot projects across the continent, the short messaging service (SMS) application has been successfully used to remind patients to take drugs and attend appointments.

Also, Health Management Information Sys-tems (HMIS) and Point-of-Care support proj-ects for healthcare workers, utilising mobile technologies, have been piloted across Africa with good results. A pilot project using an SMS and web-based data collection tool that en-ables health workers at district health centres to submit weekly HMIS reports with a focus on disease outbreaks and essential medicines in Uganda proved successful and is currently being rolled out to the country’s 5,000 health facilities.

In December 2013, MTNN Foundation commis-sioned the MTNF Y’ello Doctor Mobile Medical Intervention Scheme. Mike Ikpoki, MTN CEO, flagged off the project with the unveiling of four branded Y’ello Doctor Mobile trucks, at the MTN Corporate Head Office, Golden Plaza in Nigeria.

The MTNF Y’ello Doctor Mobile Medical Inter-vention Scheme aims to improve the qual-ity of Primary Health Care in Nigeria, through the deployment of six state-of-the-art Mobile Clinics (stocked with consumables and drugs), designed to provide maternal and child health services, as well as interventions for commu-nicable/non-communicable diseases, to com-munities in six states across the country.

These purpose-built vehicles will be deployed to Ogun, Delta, Abia and Taraba states in the first instance, while two other vehicles will be deployed early next year to one state each in the North-Central and North-West geo-political zones of the country.

The MTNF Y’ello Doctor Mobile Medical In-

PUBLISHER’S THOUGHT

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LiabilityWhile every care has been taken in the preparation of this magazine, the publishers cannot be respon-sible for the accuracy of information in herein, or any consequence arising from it.

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Published By:

Group PublisherAkin Naphtal

IT/Online ReporterTope Ajayi

EditorAnita Moritiwon

WriterMichael PhilipsVictoria Johnson

ReportersDerrick TagoeDeborah Arthur

Social Media ExecutiveJulius Ofori Boadu

Acting Group EditorKehinde Olesin

Contributing Editors David AjaoTerry Washington

Business DevelopmentGina Ibeh

Creative ManagerIsaac Agyeman - Duah

Associate Editor, GhanaCarol Opata

IT & Research, GhanaHenry Gyedu


Gemalto survey in Africa: 80% voice interest for mobile marketing if in line with “right person, right message, right moment” golden rule

ContentsREPOSITIONING

NIGERIA TELECOMS FOR GROWTH

MobileWorld Issue 47 | 2014

8.

19.

28.

MoboFree: The Swap is the Edge

Mobile Phone Penetration On theRise in Rwanda

Mobile Payment Transactions inSub Sahara Africa Lagging Behind

Africa; becoming a mobile Continent

Tigo: The Network for the Music Lovers

FEATURES NEWS

7.Access Bank, Airtel partner to launch Access Money

12.Glo Ghana empowers subs to call Nigeria free on Glo Kappah

14.Vantage Mezzanine Invests $30 million in Ghana’s Surfline Communications

26.Konga Launches Engineering Center with Massive Team of Nigerian Engineers

29.Onyeche Tifase Appointed as First Female CEO of Siemens Nigeria

31.Ericsson Mobility Report: Mobile subscriptions in Africa near the billion mark

32.MTN Ghana Debuts First Data Flagship Store

38.IHS Raises $2.6 Billion in Equity

22.

COVER STORY

16.

20.

24.

icrosoft Corp. an-nounced today the Mi-crosoft Lumia 535 and Lumia 535 Dual SIM smartphones running the latest Windows

Phone 8.1 operating system, bring-ing the latest Microsoft experiences to more affordable price levels.

Offering five great integrated Mi-crosoft experiences, a wide-angle 5 megapixel front facing camera, and a spacious 5 inch display - all for an af-fordable price - Lumia 535 and Lumia 535 Dual SIM help people do more of what they want, for less.

• Make memorable Skype video calls and seamlessly switch be-tween voice and video with built-in Skype integration.

• Access, edit and share Word, Excel and PowerPoint docu-ments and OneNote notebooks wherever you are, with the pre-installed Office suite.

• Save and sync photos, videos and Office documents securely with 15GB of free OneDrive cloud storage.

• Experience Cortana, a truly per-sonal virtual assistant that antici-pates people’s needs and makes tailored suggestions.

• Connect with work and personal e-mail while on the go, with Mi-crosoft Outlook built-in.

• Showcase photos and videos or get even more productive with Office on the large, 5 inch qHD display.

• Fit more memorable back-grounds or add more friends into Skype video calls and selfies with the 5 MP wide angle front facing camera.

• Never miss a call or text, and be reachable on both SIM cards at any time with Smart Dual SIM for

maximum flexibility.

Speaking on this, Jo Harlow, Corpo-rate Vice President for Phones at Mi-crosoft said “Lumia 535 comes with our “5x5x5” proposition, “Innovation should be avail-able to everyone, and we are doing this through the very best integrated Microsoft ser-vices free and out-of-the-box, a 5 MP wide-angle front-facing camera and a spacious 5 inch, qHD screen – all at an afford-able price.”

Lumia 535 and Lumia 535 Dual SIM will begin rolling out to key markets in November, and will be available in bright green, bright orange, white, dark grey, cyan and black. Pricing for Lumia 535 and Lumia 535 Dual SIM will vary by market and operator, but is estimated to be around 22,000 Naira (110 Euros) before taxes and subsidies.

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Microsoft Lumia 535: “5x5x5” Innovation With An Affordable

Price Tag


Jo Harlow, Corporate Vice President for Phones at Microsoft

Access Bank, Airtel partner to launch Access Money

eading financial institution, Access Bank Plc has collabo-rated with foremost telecom operator, Airtel to develop and launch mobile money service, Access Money pow-

ered by Airtel. This service allows customers to perform simple, secure and instant financial transactions us-ing their mobile phones.

With this innovative service, custom-ers on the mobile network can send and receive money, make deposits and withdrawals, pay their utility bills and buy airtime for their lines. Added to the convenience this service pro-vides is the ability of customers to receive money through agents na-tionwide or through card-less with-drawals from any Access Bank ATM machine.

Speaking at the launch of the prod-uct, Group Managing Director of Ac-cess Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe said, “Through Access Money, we will be providing financial access to more and more people and small busi-

nesses; creating an easier channel for the distribution of financial aid; and also making it easier for government to receive taxes and deliver welfare payments”.

According to him, Access bank and Airtel agreed to introduce Access Money powered by Airtel, into Nige-ria’s financial landscape in line with the Financial Inclusion initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) even as it serves as a platform bring more and more of the under-banked and unbanked into the world of banking. “It is something that reach-es new groups of people and helps them to build and grow the success stories of tomorrow. And it’s some-thing we are proud to champion.”

In his comments the Managing Di-rector and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, noted that Airtel as an innovative op-erator in Nigeria’s telecoms market was strategic in partnering Access Bank also one of the leading finan-cial institutions in Nigeria to create an enabling avenue for millions of

LNigerians to gain financial inclusion. With Access money powered by Air-tel, millions of Nigerians will be able to make purchases, pay for services and receive payments by the touch of a simple button on their phones. “We are indeed proud of our partner-ship with Access Bank and hope that many Nigerians will take advantage of this product”: he said.

To deposit money into their Access Money powered by Airtel wallet, cus-tomers can go to authorised agents, any Access Bank or a registered Ac-cess Money user can transfer from their own bank account to any wallet. Customers will receive confirmation or notifications SMS for transactions performed.

The service is also aimed at promot-ing financial inclusion for those with no access to formal financial services. This collaboration between Airtel and Access Bank will deepen finan-cial inclusion and bring more Nigeri-ans into the formal financial system. This will serve to support CBN’s finan-cial inclusion target of 80% of Nigeri-ans by 2020.


MD, CEO, Airtel, Segun Ogunsanya signing the MoU, with him is Access Bank’s GMD, Herbert Wigwe during the launch of Access Money powered by Airtel.


Dr. Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice Chairman /CE, Nigerian Communications Commission


Repositioning Nigeria Telecoms for Growth

n July, the Nigerian Communi-cation Commission, NCC, the apex regulatory body for the telecoms industry rolled out a new telecommunications sector corporate governance

code. The corporate governance code targeted at protecting the over $25 billion investment recorded in the industry was highly praised by the stakeholders in the sector.

According to Eugene Juwah, execu-tive vice chairman, NCC, the code became necessary to reposition the sector, to enable it contribute even more to the country’s GDP (Gross Do-mestic Product).

With this backdrop, it was not a sur-prise when the figures for the re-based GDP of the country came out; the telecoms sector came out in fly-ing colours, the sector was the star performer and the continuance ef-fort by the NCC to make the sector well grounded and contributory to the economy was a story well told. The figures tell it all.

According to the rebased GDP data, the telecommunications and infor-mation services sector currently con-tributes 8.68 per cent to the Nigerian economy, equivalent to N6.97 trillion ($44.3 billion) out of the total rebased GDP estimate of N80.22 trillion ($510 billion).

This compares with N364.4 billion ($2.3 billion) in the 2012 non-rebased GDP time series thereby positioning Nigeria’s telecoms sector ahead of other newly added ones, as the star performer in Nigeria’s rebased GDP figures.

Industry watchers have said that if the programmes and other collabo-rations by the Nigerian Communica-tions Commission with the super-vising Ministry of Communication Technology are anything to go by, the telecoms sector is set for a sus-tained development.

GAINING MOMENTUM WITH NEW PLAYERS

Earlier in January, the NCC auctioned the 30MHz slot of the 2.3 gigahertz spectrum to Bitflux, which is a con-sortium of three companies. In ad-dition, licences are to be issued to seven new infrastructure companies, InfraCos, before the end of 2014, to deepen broadband infrastructure rollout across the country.

In Juwah’s words- “We are also go-ing to license more retail services and encourage the operators where possible to extend fibre to homes and businesses on their own. Gov-ernment is committed to providing incentives to winners of infrastruc-ture licenses, “he said. According to him, InfraCos would enjoy govern-ment support, hence would be get-ting funding from government to rollout nationwide broadband infra-structure. “We are ready to provide subsidy to simplify entry. However, such a subsidy will come on the ba-sis of milestones achieved to ensure that we are realistic in the venture”, he said.

Following the successful auction of the remaining 30MHz spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band in February this year, the Commission has concluded arrangements to license another available frequency slot in the 3.5 GHz band. This new plan, would be as transparent and successful as the 2.3 GHz spectrum auction that saw the emergence of Bitflux as winner.

IAccording to the regulator, “NCC, in exercise of its func-tions as contained in the NCC Act 2003, is pleased to announce to interest-ed public, the availability of 3.5 GHz band in some states and the federal capital territory, which the commission is will-ing to sell to the public.”

The spectrum is available in 27 states and Abuja, with all the states having 25 MHz bandwidth available, except for Abuja that has only 20 MHz band-width.

The spectrum is expected to be li-censed on a state by state basis in the states where it is available, which means that winners of the spectrum licence will operate within the state or states where the licence is situ-ated.

Also, the commission has directed interested candidates to show inter-est, and enable it release a timetable for the auction the 700MHz spectrum band licence is planned for auction-ing in 2015.

INVESTMENT ATTITUDE

We must recall that the Commission had at the beginning of the year sketched and adopted a five-year Strategic Master Plan (SMP) that will run from 2013 to 2017. SMP, accord-ing to the industry regulator, is de-signed as an operational and man-agement template that will not only ensure further increase in telecom investment in the country but also

improve upon the regulator’s func-tions and framework that will in turn, see to a more market-driven commu-nications industry, promote universal access and make the commission a responsible world-class regulator.

Prior to the telecoms revolution in the country from August 2001, invest-ment in the sector was very scanty, recording a paltry $500 million and 450,000 telephone lines as invest-ment yield. Today, investment in the sector has shot up to over $32 bil-lion with over 129 million active tele-phone lines. Also, teledensity which measures the number of telephone connections for every hundred in-dividuals in the country has grown from about 0.05 per cent in the year 2000 to 92.42 per cent currently.

E-COMMERCE AND BROAD-BAND FACTORS

There is bound to be increased reve-nue when we look at the e-commerce activities and the increased broad-band penetration. Terragon Group Research, a new media business focused on Africa with strong com-petence across the new media eco-system, carries out periodic research on internet usage across multiple platforms. Its release for the second quarter of 2014, revealed tremen-dous growth in the state of digital media and users’ online behaviour in Nigeria over the past twelve months. The report which was compiled after a recent survey from a pool of online participants across various locations in the country, showed heightened growth in the area of internet us-age, social media participation and e-commerce, and the opportunities the trend presents for marketers. The comparative study shows growth patterns from 2013 to 2014, with fo-cus on mobile phone and internet usage, broadband penetration, Mo-bile Number Portability (MNP) and Mobile money.

Interesting to note were the insights presented for e-commerce which showed that there had been a 15 per cent increase in users’ purchases online from results in 2013. As at the end of June 2014, 63 per cent of Ni-gerian internet users had bought at least one item online. 60 per cent of these buyers claimed to have used

their mobile phones for these pur-chases. Considered to have influ-enced this increase in e-commerce activities, is evident in the increase in internet penetration through mobile, increase in data bundle purchases and online activities such as search, social media interaction, downloads and emails, within the period.

Eniola Moronfolu, Intelligence Lead, Terragon Group, spoke on the find-ings stating, “The increase in e-com-merce activities is very encouraging for an environment such as ours. It was interesting to note that a huge number of these purchases were mobile driven, and that mobile is the first and major point of access for all internet activities.”

The NCC also in its recent statistics made avail-able to the public indi-cated that there were 134.5 million active tele-phone subscriptions in the country as at the end of September, 2014. Of this figure, 65 million are active mobile internet subscriptions on Global System for Mobile Com-munications (GSM) net-works, indicating that there is increasing de-mand for data-enabled services.

BRIDGING THE GAP WITH OPEN ACCESS MODEL IM-PROVES THE GAINS

According to NCC, the objective of the Open Access Model (OAM) is to stimulate a new national broad-band network that is not only more widespread but also faster and more secure than what is available today, thereby stimulating other sectors of the economy and Nigeria.

The Nigerian Vision 20:2020 econom-ic transformation blueprint is a long term plan for stimulating Nigeria’s economic growth and launching the country onto a path of sustained and rapid socio-economic development.As part of the mission to achieve glob-al economic competitiveness, there is need for cost effective widespread deployment of robust national and metropolitan optic fibre transmis-sion network. Effective deployment would include ensuring an even play-ing field where infrastructure sharing takes place. Thus, the Commission has put in place a new broadband deployment environment through an ‘Open Access Model’ in line with the National Broadband Plan. The “Open Access Model” has been examined as the model for optic fibre transmission network deploy-ment to bridge the current gap and deliver fast and reliable broadband services to households and busi-nesses. The model is also envisaged to address the challenges of congest-ed and unplanned towns, the chal-lenges around infrastructure sharing and other issues such as high cost of Right of Way.

Additional, the Open Access Model will potentially help optimize the cost of broadband access across Ni-geria and ensure that all operators, whether large or small, have equal access to broadband infrastructure. In this regard, the NBN is envisaged to be an open-access carrier-neutral backbone and metropolitan fibre network that spurs service innova-tion. The NBN framework will provide an open access, non discriminatory and non-exclusive pricing to all ser-vice providers.

There are strong indications, looking at prevailing indices that the NCC is ready to take the telecoms industry in Nigeria to a world class height in no time.



lcatel-Lucent is opening up Africa’s most populous nation to the benefits of ultra-broadband connec-tivity by launching a su-perfast, 100 gigabit-per-

second fiber-optic network with MTN Nigeria, a subsidiary of Dubai-based MTN Group and the leading service provider in Africa.

MTN Nigeria, which covers more than almost 90 percent of Nigeria’s land mass, will deploy a 100G network that re-uses existing 10G optical as-sets thereby preserving MTN past investments while ensuring future proof and state of art solution.

Nigeria’s growing economy is fueling a proliferation of mobile subscrib-ers, which number about 275 to ev-ery one landline in the country. As a result, Nigeria has a significant need for reliable, mobile broadband ac-cess to support growing demand

A

MTN and Alcatel-Lucent to boost connectivity in Nigeria with ultra-broadband 100G fiber-optic data network for bandwidth hungry services such

as streaming video plus the ever-in-creasing need from enterprises for stor-age and data center connections.

The new network also gives MTN the capacity and flexibil-ity to offer wholesale services to other ser-vice providers in the region.

Key Facts:

•MTN Nigeria is the biggest mobile op-erator in Nigeria, Af-rica’s most populous country, and West Africa region with more than 58 million subscribers and also is the largest sub-sidiary in the MTN

Group – a multinational tele-communications group offering world-class cellular network ac-cess and business solutions to more than 210 million subscrib-ers in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East.

• MTN Nigeria’s network covers 88.8 percent of the country’s land mass giving 86.2 percent of the population access to mobile services.

• Alcatel-Lucent is supporting MTN Nigeria’s rapid growth in mobile subscribers by building a 100G DWDM/OTN network us-ing Alcatel-Lucent’s 1830 Pho-tonic Service Switch (PSS) plat-form, a family of equipment that has been designed according to the latest international SD-FEC zero touch photonics and coher-ent technology.

Alcatel-Lucent Agile Optical Net-working combines WDM, OTN, and GMPLS/ASON control plane intelli-gence to assure scalable, versatile, re-liable and efficient transport at 100G and beyond.Quotes:

Lynda Saint-Nwafor, CTO of MTN

Nigeria said: “MTN realized we needed to upgrade our network to meet customer expectations for ultra-broadband connectivity and high reliability within Nigeria’s very competitive marketplace. We wanted a state of the art solution that met three main cri-teria: increased network reliability, a high degree of scalability to prepare the network for 400G and beyond, and preservation of our existing 10G invest-ment. Alcatel-Lucent’s demonstrations showed that they could meet all of our criteria and we look forward to deploying the network overlay in 2014.”Hatim Zougari, Country Senior Offi-cer of Alcatel-Lucent in Nigeria, said: “We knew that MTN’s top priority was to provide reliability to their cus-tomers but they also wanted to offer ultra-broadband and they wanted to retain usefulness of as much of their legacy network as possible. We were able to show that we can give them a cost-effective solution that accom-plishes all of their goals in a way that no one else could.”

Lynda Saint-Nwafor CTO of MTN Nigeria

lo Mobile Ghana has in-troduced a new product with exciting tariff plan which will enable telecom-munication subscribers in Ghana to make free calls

to their friends, family and business associates in Nigeria. Aptly named the Glo Kappah, the product also of-fers subscribers outstanding credit for voice calls, sms and data usage in Ghana. The new product, which comes in two variants, Mini and Super, gives subscribers unmatched international minutes for calls to Nigeria and is available through a special SIM card. The SIM, which is available in Glo-world shops, prepaid dealers shops and through special activation part-ners across the country, is priced at GHc 3 for Mini and GHc 6 for Super. For the Mini package, a monthly rental of GHc 3 delivers 300 Glo to Glo voice minutes, 100 sms and 50 MB for data in Ghana, apart from free 15 minutes of call to any Glo number in Nigeria. The total value of the ben-efits accruable to the subscriber on this variant is GHc 43. That means a subscriber who pays GHc 3 for Mini

G gets local calls, sms, data and also international calls to Nigeria to the value of GHc 43. Equally, the Super variant delivers 900 Glo to Glo voice minutes, 300 sms and 150 MB for data in Ghana with 45 minutes of call to any Glo number in Nigeria. The GHc 6 that a subscriber pays on this variant gives huge ben-efits to the value of GHc 129 in return. Upon purchase and activation of any of these two packages, subscribers are instantly credited with the req-uisite on-net bundle with a validity period of one month.

To subscribe for the package, a cus-tomer with sufficient airtime on the line only needs to dial *750*3# for Mini value and *750*6# for Super val-ue. Subscribers can subscribe again after exhausting the package with-out having to wait till the end of the month. Additionally, subscribers on these two variants of the package will also enjoy calls at 5 Gp to five Family and Friends numbers. On a previous day’s usage of 50 Gp and above, customers are allowed

Glo Ghana empowers subs to call Nigeria free on Glo Kappah

to make Glo to Glo between 12am to 6am at 5 Gp per minute. Glo Mobile Head of Business, Mr Akeem Kazeem said the product was conceived to serve the growing com-munity of Ghanaians who have busi-nesses, friends and families in Nigeria and Nigerians residents in Ghana.

“With this product, we are sure that Glo Mobile is going to contribute in no small measure in helping people build relationships and grow their businesses with less hassle and at a low-er cost ”, he said.



MTN Ghana Launches Eazifon to Support SMEs

eading telecommunications company, MTN Ghana, has launched a new innovative phone - Eazifon, a fixed wire-less terminal and an alternative to the traditional landline fixed

phone to support the activities of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Eazifon comes with the properties of a fixed phone without the hassle of ca-bling and infrastructure.

The new device, which requires an MTN Sim Card, is available in three variations, namely Easifon Plus with extensions, Easifon Corded and Easifon Cordless., with the option to purchase at a go or pay monthly fees under a post-paid contract.

For a fixed monthly fee, the Easifon de-vice offers customers a bundled pack-age with many features which include

free minutes of talk time at a lower tar-iff; free SMS monthly; and free Closed User Group calls between Easifon exist-ing/new users and contract post-paid lines.

Other features are plug-and-play hand-sets that can easily be disconnected and reconnected upon relocation from one’s home or office; and extra hand-sets/extensions that can be used in the home or in small offices.

The product was developed by MTN in line with its vision of leading the deliv-ery of a bold new digital world to its clients.

Sam Addo, General Manager, MTN Business, said as a leading network operator in Ghana, MTN considered it a duty to develop product offers that were relevant to SMEs and promoted their sustainability.

According to Addo, SMEs plays a vital role in the growth of every economy by creating employment and driving income growth, and that Eazifon was bound to transform the way SMEs and individuals conducted their business activities.

He said the ultimate goal of MTN was to provide innovative solutions and services to enhance SME business op-erations, reduce overhead costs and facilitate growth within the sector.

L

Rwanda Launches its 4G LTE Broadband Network

wanda’s much anticipated high-speed (4G LTE) broad-band network has been fi-nally launched. The service has gone live after it was launched in Kigali.

Jean Philbert Nsengimana, the Minister for Youth and ICT, said “The rollout of 4G LTE will speed up national develop-ment goals by speeding up ICT based services as well as creating jobs and proving new opportunities to deliver

R

better services across the country.”

According to Nsengi-mana, the launch of 4G LTE is one of many activities that our Gov-ernment is putting in place so as to achieve a middle class knowl-edge based economy targets by 2020.

He said the Govern-ment will continue its support for ICT literacy to make the service impactful on the lives of Rwandans.

Patrick Nyirishema, Director-General of Rwanda Utility Regulatory Agency (RURA), described the launch of this service as an addition to the existing information and communication tech-nology eco-system.

“It is a new addition to the ecosys-tem, whatever benefits citizens were receiving due to ICT devel-opment in the country, will now

increase in terms of speed and ef-ficiency,” he said.

“We are increasing accessibility and Internet speed, we are making it easier for people to do business and have im-pact on fellow citizens.”

On affordability, Nyirishema said that as the regulator, they were sure it would be good business and sustain-able in the long run. He said the service will not be priced very differently from the 3G service that has been accessible previously.

“As a regulator we have an interest in ensuring that all the licensed entities are profitable because it is only then that we can have sustainability of the services they are issuing in the market. By issuing a license it shows that we are content that it is good business,” Nyir-ishema explained.

Under the EDPRS2 program, the gov-ernment targets to have 95% of citi-zens with access to fast and secure 4G LTE Internet by 2017.

Sam AddoGeneral Manager for MTN Business

Jean Philbert NsengimanaMinister for Youth and ICT


frica’s leading mezzanine debt provider, Vantage Mezzanine, has announced it had concluded a transac-tion with Surfline Commu-nications to provide $30

million (R330 million) of expansion capital to the company together with a fund co-investor.

The funds will be used for the on-going expansion of Surfline’s 4G LTE network in Ghana as well as to grow its product distribution and market-ing network. By deploying the first 4G LTE mobile network in Ghana, Surfline is able to offer high-speed internet connectivity (up to 10 times faster than the average speeds of-fered by the existing mobile network operators) at rates that are competi-tive with existing internet service providers. Because the Surfline net-work does not rely on the limited

fixed line telecommunications in-frastructure in Ghana, the company is able to rapidly roll-out its services across its coverage area.

Surfline was established to provide wireless broadband and related services to the Ghanaian market, including meeting the emergent and largely unfulfilled data needs of Ghana’s businesses, government agencies, professional and academic communities and residential users. The network achieved a very suc-cessful commercial launch in August 2014 and is experiencing tremen-dous growth in its customer base, in both the consumer and corporate/enterprise segments. Just two weeks ago, Surfline was shortlisted for the award of “Breakthrough LTE Develop-ment” category by the Africa Com-munications Awards for its successful deployment of Ghana’s first 4G LTE

network. John Taylor, Surfline’s Exec-utive Chairman, has also been listed in the 2014 World Finance 100, which celebrates 100 individuals who have reached the pinnacle of achievement in their field of expertise.

John Taylor said, “Vantage provided us with growth capital in a share-holder-friendly structure that we required to expand the business by supplementing the existing financ-ing in place.”

Yaw Keteku, Associate Partner at Vantage leading their investment ac-tivities in Ghana, said “Under John Taylor’s visionary leadership, Surfline has assembled a team of highly-skilled profession-als and technical partners who have built a first class com-munication network to meet

AVantage Mezzanine Invests $30 million

in Ghana’s Surfline Communications

Ghana’s ever-growing data demand. We have developed a close working relationship with the Surfline team and we look forward to supporting the business as it grows.”

“We are delighted to announce that we have made our third investment outside of South Africa. Over the last five years, Vantage has reviewed over 600 investment opportunities and we consider Surfline to be one of the most exciting deals we have seen,” added Luc Albinski, Manag-ing Partner at Vantage. The invest-ment in Surfline follows Vantage’s pan-African strategy of focusing on high-growth African markets such as Ghana, Nigeria, the East African Com-munity members and some of the Southern African Development Com-munity (SADC) countries.

Surfline is Vantage’s second invest-ment in Ghana after its $18.5 million (R204 million) commitment to Gens-er Energy, an independent power producer that is currently commis-sioning a 30 megawatt power plant, which is expected to come on-line shortly. Mutle Mogase, Vantage’s Chairman, said “Vantage, with the support of its investors, is contribut-ing almost $50 million (R550 million) towards the improvement of infra-structure in Ghana by supporting the rollout of a broadband network and new power generation projects. The developmental multiplier effect of increased power generation ca-pacity and high-speed internet will drive further economic growth in the country.”

Surfline is the eleventh mezzanine transaction in Vantage’s second fund, of which more than 80% of available funds have been invested. More than half of the capital deployed has gone into growth projects such as Surfline. Vantage has commenced the raising of its third mezzanine fund, which is targeted to close by the first quarter of 2015 at $250 million (R2.75 billion).

Oxford & Beaumont Solicitors served as legal counsel to Vantage on this transaction.

ozilla, the mission-based organisation dedicated to promoting openness, innovation and oppor-tunity on the Web, is pleased to announce

that Firefox OS will soon expand to Africa. The Firefox OS ecosystem has gained support from three new key partners in the region: Airtel, MTN South Africa and Tigo, operated by Millicom, are the first carriers work-ing with Mozilla to soon bring first Firefox OS smartphones to Africa. “We are proud to see that with Airtel, MTN South Africa and Tigo, Firefox OS gains additional support to soon extend the Firefox OS footstep into

Africa”, says Rick Fant, Mozilla’s VP Planning and Ecosystem. “The con-tinued growth of Firefox OS holds great promise for enabling millions more people to access the mobile Web at an affordable cost, while helping to remove control points in today’s closed mobile ecosystems.” Firefox OS is the first device platform built entirely to open Web standards, with every feature developed as an HTML5 application. Its flexibility, scal-ability and powerful customisation empowers users, developers and in-dustry partners to create customised mobile experiences.

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Firefox OS Ecosystem To Expand To Africa With Support From New Partners


n about a decade, financial transac-tions made via internet on mobile phones which has been termed Mobile Money has been embraced by majority, and has become a pri-ority for financial institutions, mo-

bile operators,and technology firms.

Africa is said to have the highest rate of mobile penetration on the globe today and two-thirds of adults in sub-Saharan Africa currently use mobile phones. How-ever, financial transactions via mobile phones in sub-Saharan Africa still lag be-hind. One would have thought that the huge penetration of mobile phones in the region will greatly influence mobile money transactions. GSMA, the mobile industry lobby group reveals that 2.5 bil-lion people in developing countries lack access to banking services, yet one billion of them have a phone that would allow them to use the mobile money service.

This is not to say that the continent has not recorded massive growth in this sec-tor since it came into use. At the end of 2013, there were more mobile money accounts than bank accounts in nine de-veloping countries mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, according to GSMA; with Kenya leading the region with its tremendous success story of mobile money.

Success Stories

About 61 million active mobile money customers are using the service globally, up from 37 million in 2012.

In Kenya, M-Pesa has 13 million active customers. Transactions grew 22 percent and contributed 26.6 billion shillings ($303 million) or nearly a quarter of Safar-icom’s revenue in the year to March 2014.

French telecom operator Orange, which runs Orange Money, has seen significant growth with about 10 million customers worldwide, most of them in the West Afri-can CFA franc zone.

Thierry Millet, vice-president for Orange Mobile Payments and Contactless, said the total value of mobile money trans-actions made on its networks topped 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) last year and is expected to exceed 4 billion in 2014.

In Uganda, MTN launched its own mobile

money in 2008. The service contributes about 15 percent of the total revenue of MTN Uganda and as much as a fifth of the country’s economic transactions are done through MTN mobile money solu-tions, says an MTN executive.

The potentials and opportunities for mo-bile money therefore is huge, hence the need to fill the unprecedented digital gap. The limited state of financial inclusion on the continent makes it more demanding that stakehold-ers maximize and exhaust the use of mobile money

The Wide Gap

Despite the amazing fig-ures that characterize mo-bile money in sub-Sahara Africa only a small percent-age of upper-income households enjoy the con-venience of card-based, online, and mobile banking and payments, while most consumers still pay with cash.

In Ghana for instance, most illiterates and rural dwellers do not know that transactions can be carried out through their phones. Those living in the rural communities who have their relatives send them money from the big cities only know have the privi-lege of receiving money via their phones. They are not aware that they can even pay their bills via their phones.

Ajei Yaw, A fisherman who lives in Birwa, about 15 minutes drive from Cape Coast, has a mobile phone, but has no idea about getting money via his phone.

“I have a phone quite alright, but I have no idea you can get money through your phone, how is that possible? This must be some kind of miracle”, he told MobileWorld with so much amazement at this technology.

For Mawusi, a farmer in his early 50s, who lives in Vakpo, a suburb in Volta Region, has his son sending him money from time to timeand he goes to the nearby MTN office to collect his cash. He com-plains bitterly of having to walk a long distance to get this money. However he has never paid any bill using his phone, he is not even aware he can make such transactions.

“My son sends me money from Accra, he would ask me to go the MTN office to col-lect my money, in fact the first time he asked me to do that I was very surprised, I asked him if MTN has become a bank”

Interesting is the story of Mame Adwoa, a petty trader who resides at Madina, a suburb in Accra, Ghana’s capital. The word mobile money sounded strange to her as she had no idea what it meant.

“I don’t know what that means, I only buy credit and put on my phone, but make payments with my phone? That sounds new to me… “

IMobile Payment Transactions in Sub Sahara Africa Lagging BehindBy Carol Opata


This goes to show the level of mobile money penetration in rural communities and even cities. This technology is mainly associated with the, educated, middle and high income earners.

Gallup’s survey of 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa found that more than 80 percent of adults make payments or re-mittances with cash.

Currently, an average of 54 percent of adults in sub-Saharan Africa make one or more long-distance payments in a given month, totaling approximately five bil-lion transactions annually. The total vol-ume of these flows is approximately $760 billion, and sadly, 50 to 60 percent of the

transactions are in cash. With a conserva-tive estimate of revenues at 2 percent of volume, this results in annual revenues of about $6.6 billion from electronic pay-ments.

Financial Implication

A recent study by McKinsey has it that if person to person (P2P) transactions are done through digital payments similar to the culture in Kenya, where 70 percent of all transactions are currently electronic, economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa would increase regionwide by 60 to 70 percent, from $1.6 billion to $2.7 billion. Corresponding digital-payment revenues

would rise from $6.6 billion to $7.7 billion.

It goes further to say that if in the situ-ation where business and government entities in sub -Saharan countries pay for wages , goods and services digitally like it is done in Kenya, total revenue for electronic payments in the region would grow by 50 to 60 percent, to between $10 billion and $11 billion annually. This implies, for example, that combined pay-ment revenue in Nigeria would grow from $0.6 billion to $1.3 billion and in South Africa from $1.5 billion to $1.9 bil-lion.

If the region’s P2P electronic payments were to grow higher, its electronic-pay-

ment revenue would ex-ceed its baseline by about 50 percent, reaching $15 billion to $16 billion. In Nigeria, for example, the analysis estimates that revenues would climb to approximately $1.8 billion a year.

Economic Benefits

Time is saved and pro-ductivity is increased. One does not have to be in long queues to make DSTV pay-ments for instance. As such time can be used for other productive things.

Broad acceptance of mo-bile money or digital-pay-ment platforms also ben-efits stakeholders beyond the payment industry.

Governments also benefits highly from adopting digi-tal payments, as this re-duces payment costs and also increases transpar-ency. And the public ulti-mately benefits, too, when tax revenues grow concur-rently with the increased

documentation, transparency, and over-all economic growth that accompany digital payments.

When digital payments take hold, as they did in Kenya, consumers eventually profit from the related savings. The cost of mak-ing remittances via M-Pesa is about half that of other formal domestic-remittance services. Moreover, customers can in-stantly send payments from their mobile phones instead of traveling an hour or more too distant bank branches. Many customers in sub-Saharan Africa need bank services but simply live and work too far from a branch office.

Most importantly, mobile money brings financial services to vast numbers of un-banked and under banked families. They dramatically reduce transaction costs, greatly increase customer convenience, and minimize the need for expensive physical infrastructure, including branch networks.

The Way Forward

For mobile money to grow faster, mobile operators and financial institutions must educate the masses on the use and ben-efits of this technology having the rural dwellers and uneducated as a priority.

The service must be kept simple and reli-able while educating users on how to use it. Operators also need to develop thou-sands of sales networks to reach more customers and expand the services on offer to include larger transfers targeting merchants and government payments

Regulators must encourage investments while guaranteeing fair competition, and assuring customers that systems are se-cure and their money is safe.

Research has shown that Safaricom was successful with M-Pesa because it had a dominant share of the Kenyan mobile market and operated with little regula-tion at its launch.

In the West Africa franc zone, the central bank introduced regulations as early as 2006 to enable the launch of services, the neighbouring Central Africa franc zone trailed behind.While operators in the West Africa zone can conduct transfers with multiple banks and international partners, this is not the case in the Central Africa region, which groups Cameroon, Congo Republic, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Regulators in central Africa must loosen their policies if the whole of sub -Sahara Africa must enjoy robust mobile money transactions.

Regulators must also enforce interoper-ability between rival systems to allow money transfers regardless of the op-erators.Thankfully, In August 2014, Af-rica’s first Interoperability agreement was launched between three of Tanzania’s mobile networks, Tigo, Airtel and Zan-tel. With this customers are able to send money to each other whether using Tigo Pesa, Airtel Money or EzyPesa on their mobile handsets. This must be duplicated in the whole of sub-Sahara Africa.


here is no doubt that com-petition in the African social marketplace has deepened, even more recently. Mobo-Free, the new entrant into Nigerian social marketplace

is set to make the space more excit-ing for millions of prospective users. The new platform will allow people to buy, sell and swap products with other trusted people. To many mil-lions, the swap could be the edge.

HistoryLaunched more than 2 years ago with head office in Vilnius, Lithuania (East-ern Europe).

Achieved 2.5 M registered members without any outside investment. To-day it has 3.3 Million registered mem-bers total. More than 3000 new regis-tered members are joining MoboFree every day. Top markets include Nige-ria, with over 2Million registrations. We also have a strong footprint in Zimbabwe, Uganda and Ghana.

Competitive advantagesMoboFree has technical solution which works on all devices. It is well adopted not only for PC and smart-phones but also for old phones with small screens (so called “feature” phones). More than 60 % of African population access internet only via old phones. So our technical solu-tion makes buying and selling online

TMoboFree: The Swap is the EdgeKehinde Olesin available for any African user with

any device.

Extremely high attention to safety.Online scam and high level of crimes is serious problem in its target mar-kets. It can be dangerous to go to “blind date” with buyer or seller with money or expensive item in your pocket.

Most boards of classifieds provide only poor contact info – phone and sometimes email.Mobo Free approach is different. This is because big part of community members are involved in scam con-trol activities as volunteers.The firm has dedicated technical solution al-lowing to identify suspicious behav-ior.

Every classified advert goes live only after manual check by customer sup-port officers. It is social and it em-powers its social network to make trading more save. Before going to meet buyer or seller – each member can communicate and negotiate online with-out leaving Mobo-Free, can check com-mon friends, photos, history, feedback and ratings of other mem-bers.

MoboFree is SOCIAL marketplace and

has unique user- centric approach instead of traditional item-centric approachThe platform allows its buyers and sellers to get a lot of personal infor-mation about each other –starting from photos and common friends and ending with ratings or other data which allows to identify if person is worth to trust.

Negotiation and communication during buying/selling process is very important part of African culture. Members conveniently communi-cate and negotiate without leaving a platform. They can do it via private messages or via chat. Our members send over 8 M private messages per month.

MoboFree personalizes project and proposals according to customers’ behaviour and interests. It allows to make buying and selling much more effective.


henever the global digital divide is men-tioned, Africa pops up and the reason is simple; first because, only a meagre 16%

of internet users can be attributed to Africa according to figures released by the International Telecommunica-tions Union for 2013. Secondly, the ICTs infrastructure in Africa lags be-hind grossly as compared to the rest of the world.

In recent years, Africa has done every-thing ‘digitally’ possible to bridge the global ‘digital divide’ that separates the continent from other countries in the Western Hemisphere where technology has taken deep roots. The continent once labelled the “dark horses” of mobile telephony and in-ternet penetration has changed tre-mendously in the past years.

Researchers have forecasted that the number of consumers who access

internet on their mobile device in Af-rica will grow rapidly in the next five years, 20 times the rate of the growth in the rest of the world. This predic-tion means that more and more Afri-cans will have access to the internet on their mobile phones; a welcome development for a continent that currently has only 16% of its popula-tion having access to the internet.

The sub-Saharan African countries with the most mobile subscriptions are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ghana, with Kenya having more than half of its consumers accessing the internet on their mobile devices; smartphones, tablets etc.

The low cost of mobile devices and the need to connect with friends on-line means more Africans especially the youth are driving towards a more digital alternative way of living. Thus, affordability and easy connectivity makes mobile devices the first point of call for many internet users in Af-rica particularly the urban dwellers.Also, the mobile phone has already become an important reference when you talk about e-commerce

in Africa. Consumers in Africa have taken to the use of mobile phones for their internet activities as an alterna-tive to the traditional use of laptops and other PC devices. It is reported that about 25% of internet users in Africa shop online using their mobile devices.

Social networking remains the num-ber one activity on the internet for most internet consumers in sub Sa-haran Africa. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks attract huge traffic from mobile data. The Mckin-sey Africa Consumer Center Survey in 2013 revealed that about 57% of 15,000 Africans interviewed across 12 cities spend their time on the in-ternet browsing social networks.

Statistics also show that by the end of 2014, there will be more than 635m mobile subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa. This is predicted to rise, to about 930m by late 2019, as three in four mobile subscriptions will be internet inclusive. The growth is at-tributed to the rise of social media, content-rich apps and video content accessed from a new range of smart-

AFRICA; BECOMING A MOBILE CONTINENT Derrick Tagoe

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phones costing less than $50 (£30).

“Sub-Saharan Africa is currently undergoing a mobile digital revolution with consumers, net-works and even media companies wakening up the possibilities of 3G and 4G technology,” said Fredrik Jejdling, sub-Saharan Africa head of Swedish tech company Er-icsson, which published its research recently.

“We have seen the trend emerg-ing over a few years but in the past 12 months the digital traffic has in-creased over 100%, forcing us to re-vise our existing predictions.”

The study by Ericsson also revealed

that 70% of users in the countries it researched access the web on mobile devices, compared with just 6% who use desktop computers. That pin-points to the fact that, mobile inter-net usage is experiencing an upward trajectory and looks more likely to continue.

Today, Africa has 12% (835 million) of the total mobile subscriptions worldwide, making it the third larg-est region worldwide, larger than Latin America, North America and India, and the figures are still grow-ing. This number is expected to grow and it will likely have a positive effect on mobile internet usage in Africa ac-cording to IPC Datashots.

In 2013 alone, mobile phone users in Africa accessed 37,500 TB (Terabytes) of data per month and this figure has doubled to 76,000 TB per month in 2014. In 2015, the figure is expected to double again reaching 147,000 TB

a month. With 3G technology billed to become the dominant technology across the region, we should antici-pate more growth in this area.

By 2019, it is predicted that 75% of mobile subscriptions in Africa will be internet inclusive (3G or 4G), a feat which will put Sub Saharan at the forefront of becoming a mobile con-tinent.

Cisco in its ‘Visual Networking Index Global Forecast and Service Adop-tion’ for 2013 to 2018 rates Africa as one of the fastest growing markets in terms of internet protocol traffic and will see a 38% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the next five years.

Obviously, a once bleak ICT indus-try has seen a new dawn; one that will herald a seamless way of doing things for most Africans.

echnology giant, IBM has opened its first research lab in Africa in Kenya. The facility, which has posi-tioned Kenya as an ICT hub on the continent is situated

at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi.

It is also IBM’s twelfth research lab in the world and its first commercial lab. The lab will be a centre of creating IT solutions and taking them to market based on research and data on differ-ent sectors generated from around Africa.

Through the centre, the youth will have the opportunity to learn from the best minds from the world such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

During the official opening of the laboratory at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, President Uhuru Kenyatta stated that the role of Infor-mation, Communication and Tech-

IBM Launches Africa’s First Research Lab in Kenya nology is a

key driver to the countr y ’s t a r g e t e d economic g r o w t h p r o s p e c -tive of 10 per cent annually.

“The en-v i s a g e d activit ies of the p a r t n e r -ship will yield solu-tions and systems that will address very spe-cific local problems through com-mercially viable innovations,” the President said.

“Through applied and exploratory research, people will be empowered to overcome challenges and improve their lives, while entrepreneurs in-volved will generate incomes and employment,” he noted.

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The 12th IBM lab in the world and the only of its kind in Africa brings together the academia, industry and government. Key areas the lab would focus on include smarter cities, medi-cal healthcare, education, water, agri-culture and transport. “These are the areas which government intends to concentrate its resources and trans-formative strategies,” said Kenyatta.


Gemalto survey in Africa: 80% voice interest for mobile marketing

if in line with “right person, right mes-sage, right moment” golden rule

emalto, the world leader in digital security, is releasing the results of a new survey conducted by Ifop in South Africa and Nigeria on con-sumers’ perceptions of mo-

bile marketing. The findings reveal that although 80% of respondents feel an-noyed when receiving unsolicited mes-sages, the same proportion could be won back by operators and brands if they implemented best practices to improve customer engagement.

The survey clearly highlights that con-sumers in South Africa and in Nigeria share the same desire to be in control of the mobile marketing campaigns they re-ceive: 83% of respondents consider that mobile marketing should be permission-based and 90% want to be able to easily identify the sender. They also want mes-sages to be relevant to them and there is room for improvement in this respect as nearly 70% said they received pro-motional messages not in line with their interests. Consumers also want tangible

G benefits: 53% of South Africans expect, in order of preference, immediate dis-counts, loyalty benefits, and the possibil-ity to collect points and gifts.

In conclusion, the survey indicates that there is a clear and strong potential for mobile marketing in Africa, provided mo-bile operators and marketers implement the golden rules: right person, right mes-sage, and right moment. If the end user is given control to opt in, optout and se-lect the frequency; and if messages are relevant and provide value, then 80% of those surveyed in both countries would become “connected ad lovers”.

On the South African market, mobile end users can be won back by adopting best practices which are more respectful of their wishes. As for Nigeria, where mo-bile marketing is still in its infancy, those golden rules can be implemented right from the outset.

“In a continent where the mobile phone is the most widespread screen, mobile

marketing has tremendous potential for operators and brands to engage better with their audiences,” said Nadia Gonza-lez, Vice President of Mobile Marketing at Gemalto. “Mobile operators have key assets for improving end-users’ experi-ence of mobile marketing. Starting with a respect for consumer privacy, their ability to segment campaigns by end-users’ pro-files, location and interests puts them in the driving seat in helping brands apply these golden rules.“

Methodology

French research firm Ifop, on behalf of Ge-malto, conducted face-to-face interviews with 800 adult (18 years of age and older) owners of a mobile phone in Nigeria and South Africa, to understand consumer perceptions regarding mobile marketing and to identify blockers and drivers for mobile marketing in each region. The sur-vey was fielded in July 2014 and included 400 respondents from South Africa and 400 respondents from Nigeria.

or the past 27 years, mobile operator, Tigo has continu-ally set thebenchmark in the competitive telecoms indus-try in Ghana. The telcogiant has proven that its innova-

tion and creativity is unparalleled, considering the kind of services it of-fers to its millions of subscribers.

From the launch of its ‘Free Bonto’ promotion which offered subscribers double bonus airtime after recharg-ing with an amount of GH¢ 2 and triple bonus air time after recharging with GH¢ 5 or more, Tigo Ghana is once again blazing the trail with an-other industry first; Tigo Music.

In a continent where music content is currently the second most popular mobile phone feature, Tigo seems to have hit the jackpot with this latest offering.

After its partnership with global music streaming service Deezer, the Millicom owned telco has made the

service live in Ghana, bringing to Ghanaian music lovers a rare experi-ence with their favorite sounds and tunes fromGhana and Africa’s great-est music icons. With this service, Tigo is making available 35 million tracks from musicians across the globe.

The service which targets Tigo Gha-na’s youth customer base has seen a massive uptake after it was launched at the well-attended Tigo Music ‘Un-plugged’ on October 31st. The Presi-dent of the Musicians Union of Gha-na, Bice Osei Kuffour professed at the launch that this new service will rev-olutionise the music industry. Just a few weeks after he said this, it seems his words have come true as lots of people especially the youth have ac-tivated this service on their devices.

What makes this move even more appealing to the youth is the fact that, this service with Deezer can be accessible via mobile devices and any other smart device provided one is subscribed to the service on Tigo.

“It’s like Tigo is bringing music to us rather than we going for

FTigo: The Network for the Music Lovers it and its just awesome, I can

stream music all day with this service,” said Kofi Annor, a student of the University of Ghana.

In addition, the mobile operator also introduced three data bundles to al-low customers to access this music experience without interruptions. The telco has provided customersop-tions ranging from the Weekend Un-limited Music’ at GHS 4.99 for 500MB; ‘Weekly Unlimited Music’ at GHS 11.99 for 1.5GB and ‘Monthly Unlim-ited Music’ at GHS59.99 for 9GB.

It’s no news that music plays a major role in Ghana’s rich and diverse cul-ture and this innovative service from Tigo Ghana has indicated that the ‘buzzing’ telco knows what to offer Ghanaians. Its only right that this will certainly improve the operator’s sub-scriber base as it strives to move up in terms of customers. With the cur-rent trend and massive endorsement for Tigo Music, it won’t be long be-fore Tigo improves on its figures just in time for the quarterly reportof the National Communications Authority.


Roshi MotmanCEO, Tigo Ghana

igeria’s largest online mall, Konga.com recently an-nounced the opening of its new engineering center in Yaba, Lagos. The com-pany’s expansion to the

new office was necessitated by the growth of Konga’s massive engineer-ing team.

Today, Konga.com has one of the most remarkable teams of software engineers in Nigeria comprising over 100 engineers. Most of these engi-neers are now located in the new Lagos office with a smaller hub open-ing soon in Cape Town, South Africa.

Konga’s team of highly self-motivated and driven tech gurus work on devel-oping the cutting-edge software and applications which Konga.com runs on today. With a keen focus on in-novation, some impressive software developed by the tech team range from the actual Konga.com website, to other platforms such as the ‘Seller-HQ’ – a trading Platform which allows sellers all around Nigeria to upload pictures of their merchandise, man-

age stores and actively trade on the Konga.com.

Konga.com’s engineering team also created the Konga Shopping App which runs on Android and iOS, Konga’s Konga’s SellerHQ App on An-droid as well as several Logistics Ap-plications and internal operational tools.

The company’s Director of Products and Enterprises-Technology, Mr. Ola-tokunbo Fagbamigbe expressed his delight with the growth of the en-gineering team. He remarked that, “Konga hires the finest multidisci-plinary engineers in Nigeria to design and develop the core systems for our online customer experience today; ranging from the actual e-retailer site to other back-end systems. Our team is driven by the challenge to engineer world class systems to help Konga be the engine of trade and commerce in Africa”.

The company’s CEO and founder, Sim Shagaya commented on the role of technology in firmly establish-ing e-commerce as a major indus-try in Nigeria saying, “The growth

potential for e-commerce in Nigeria is astronomical. We recognize that to be success-ful in this industry, every point in the consumer’s online shop-ping experience on Konga must be first-rate. From providing ease when placing orders, to the moment the consumer holds the product in his hands, our proprietary technology fol-lows through to ensure that the experience is as satisfying as possible”.

The amazing thing about Nigeria is that we have millions of vibrant youth, providing a large pool of great technical talent to choose from for the development of this technology. As a company founded in Nigeria, we believe that we must play our part in developing the country. We firmly believe in building capability and this is one of the reasons we recently launched a peer training programme for our engineers called the Konga Tech University. In addition to this, we will established a knowledge ex-change programme with the experts from our South-Africa hub.

Konga Launches Engineering Cen-ter with Massive Team of Nigerian Engineers

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MTN invites customers to join fight against Ebola epidemic

TN Group today invited its over 219 million cus-tomers across Africa and the Middle East to join hands with the company in a 3-month

campaign, starting 1 December, to raise funds for a “United Against Eb-ola” initiative.

In response an appeal from the Afri-can Union (AU), MTN and other lead-ing companies in Africa committed logistical support and in kind con-tributions as part of the first wave of pledges at a recent Africa Business Roundtable hosted by the AU in Ad-dis Ababa, Ethiopia. The companies also agreed to leverage their resourc-es and capacity to help galvanise citi-zen action around a “United Against Ebola” campaign, and to provide in-dividuals across Africa and globally with an opportunity to contribute.

As part of its pledge, MTN has com-mitted US$10 million and is now in-viting customers to participate in an SMS campaign to donate a minimum of US$1. MTN is also working with some of Africa’s most celebrated mu-sicians to produce an inspirational song for digital download on its MTN Play store. All proceeds from sales, post publishing rights and subscrip-tion payments, will be donated to the AU campaign.

MTN has been an integral part of ef-forts to tackle the spread of Ebola in countries where the company oper-ates, with special emphasis on Guin-ea-Conakry and Liberia.

“MTN is supporting this cam-paign to give further impetus to concerted efforts aimed at combating the Ebola epidemic and saving lives. As MTN, we believe the only way to start reversing the devastating ef-fects of the outbreak is to come together to tackle the spread of the disease, and ease the suf-

fering it continues to inflict on families and communities,” says Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN Group Presi-dent and CEO.

In affected countries where MTN op-erates such as Guinea Conakry and Liberia, MTN is working closely with authorities to curb the spread of the disease. MTN has set up a number of interventions to assist staff, their families and communities.

Some of the measures include dis-tributing information about the disease, its transmission and pre-ventative measures. Working with International SOS, MTN has set up a website where staff can access up-to-date information on the disease and its management. As part of this part-nership, a medical response team has been set up to offer advice and refer-ral to medical care, if required.

In Liberia, for example, MTN has im-plemented a robust business conti-nuity programme to, among other things, keep the network operation-al. Health measures taken include

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enhanced cleaning of office prem-ises, with particular focus on bath-rooms and toilets. MTN is also issuing personal protective equipment and clothing to employees who are either field or frontline staff, such as those in stores and service centres.

Other measures include the sanitisa-tion of vehicles and establishment of a work from home solution for staff whose jobs permit. MTN has also ad-vanced salaries to employees, so that they can stock up on supplies. MTN has also established an SMS short code to facilitate enhanced internal communication with personnel.

MTN Liberia staff also has access to two dedicated medical doctors and medical facilities. And in line with an intervention aimed at helping local communities, MTN has established a crisis call centre with authorities on the ground, as part of a collaborative response with the Liberian govern-ment to help minimise the impact of the disease.


Sifiso DabengwaMTN Group President and CEO.

obile phone penetra-tion in Rwanda has seen a rapid rise which is evident in the num-ber of mobile operators currently having opera-

tions in the East African country. The meteoric rise of phone penetration in Rwanda is one of the success stories of Africa especially looking back at its war torn past.

Mobile telephone subscribers in the country have continued to show an increasing trend with mobile tele-phone subscribers increasing from 7,482,354 in August to 7,518,616 in September 2014. With MTN, Tigo and Airtel as the three major operators in mobile telephony, the penetration rate has continued to grow while the fixed telephony sector has remained the less impressive. According to the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (Rura), mobile phone penetration currently sits at 72% representing a 7.3% increase as against 63% in Janu-ary this year.

Two of the three operators all re-corded rise in subscribers save one.

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Mobile Phone Penetration On the Rise in Rwanda

This further indicates that more and more Rwandans are turning to the use of mobile devices. For in-stance, between the months of Au-gust and September, MTN Rwanda gained close to 12,000 new subscrib-ers sending its subscriber base to 3,741,923. The regulator’s report also indicated Tigo has about 2,635,547 subscribers with Airtel Rwanda hav-ing over 1,090,493 subscribers. These figures show an impressive record for a country whose population stands at 12,337,138 according to index-mundi.com.

This rise recorded could only be at-tained because of Rwanda’s commit-ment to excel and an unprecedented example of public private partner-ship. In June last year, the Rwandan government partnered KT Corpora-tion, a South Korean telecoms ser-vice provider, to launch a joint ven-ture called olleh Rwanda Networks (oRn), to facilitate the launch of the country’s first 4G LTE services which will cover 95% of the country’s popu-lation in the next three years.

The use of mobile devices has been

described as “the new solution to efficient provision of services”

across sectors by various industry ex-perts. With mobile money services, customers can to-day pay utility bills, insurance, TV sub-scription besides being able to access their bank accounts using their phones. They can also send and receive money through mobile money agents and automated teller machines.

Mobile operators in Rwanda have also contributed to the upward in-crease of mobile phone penetration by introducing new products and con-

ducting promotions over the year. These promotions range from free mobile money transactions, cash prizes for using mobile money and SMS bonanzas.

In a recent speech, Jean Baptiste Mutabazi, the Head of Communica-tion and Media Regulation at Rura, noted that promotions by the telcos increased activities in the industry. Mutabazi also remained optimistic that penetration levels would start inching up at a monthly average of one per cent from the current aver-age of 0.7%.

With the launch of its first 4G LTE ser-vices, mobile phone penetration in Rwanda is billed to further improve and set the country on its way to be-coming one of Africa’s power houses in terms of mobile phone penetra-tion.


Paul KagamePresident, Rwanda


Airtel Ghana Launches ‘2X’ Data Offer

irtel Ghana has launched its latest Value Added Service, the Airtel ‘2X’, a new data offer that al-lows Airtel custom-

ers to double their internet and enjoy the best browsing experience.

Airtel, touted as the smart-est network for your smart-phone, has come up with this offer to enable its custom-ers to experience more of its 3.75G network in their daily lives and business. With a minimum of GHC1 bundle, Airtel customers in Ghana can get two times the amount of internet they bun-dle. Customers can activate and enjoy double and limit-less fun by, recharging with any Airtel scratch card, dialing *141# to get onto the ‘My Air-tel My Offer’(MAMO) platform to select their special offer or dialing *125*2#. Customers may also visit www.bundles.airtellive.comto select

their preferred offer and get double internet instantly.

“Airtel 2X has been launched at a time

when internet usage is on a steady increase.This is the best offer on the

market for savvy data customers to get more from what they spend on our network,” commented Director of Data Business at Airtel Ghana, Jean

Claude Domilongo Bope.

He also indicated that Airtel was taking data provision-ing for customers a notch higher by rolling out inno-vative offers that is set to revolutionize the internet landscape in Ghana.

“Whether you are a social network enthusiast, a heavy downloader or are con-stantly surfing the internet, Airtel 2X is for you. We are dedicated to offering amaz-ing value added services that meet the current and future needs of our custom-ers. That’s not all; we also have our innovative service, data roll over, which allows customers to roll over their unused data credit before it expires. Now you have one more reason to choose Airtel internet services,” he

added.

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frican women continue to excel in taking up leader-ship positions in the busi-ness world, Mrs. Onyeche Tifase has been appointed as the new Managing Di-

rector / Chief Executive Officer of Sie-mens Limited Nigeria.

Mrs. Tifase with her new appoint-ment sets the record of being the first female chief executive officer of the Nigerian subsidiary of the German multinational company that has had a long impressive history in Nigeria.

A Before her recent appointment, Mrs. Tifase has served Siemens in vari-ous notable capacities, including her most recent position as the Head of Energy Management MS at Siemens Nigeria.

As a result of her hard work and dedication, she has been given the mantle of leadership in November this year as she takes over from the former CEO, Mr. Michael Lakota, who has served the company within the last couple of years.

Onyeche Tifase Appointed as First Female CEO of Siemens Nigeria

Lucy QuistCEO, Airtel Ghana


Innovative products; Leading the Way for Etisalat Nigeria’ 20 million subscribers

he telecommunications in-dustry in Nigeria is a very competitive one. With ma-jor players like MTN, Airtel, GLO and Etisalat all operat-ing in the country, the in-

dustry is rife with stiff competition and aggressive marketing strategies to gain monopoly in the sector.

With Nigeria being Africa’s most pop-ulous nation and the fastest growing economy in the region today, the role and the success story of its tele-communications sector cannot be overlooked. According to the Nige-rian Communications Commission, the telecommunications sector in Nigeria contributed about N6.97 tril-lion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013 representing

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9% of the total GDP. Thus an industry that is very vital for the West African country.

Etisalat Nige-ria, with its six years of opera-tions in Africa’s most populous nation is one of the Opera-tors that have made Nigeria’s telecommuni-cation success story a com-pelling one.

In a highly c o m p e t i t i v e environment, Etisalat Nigeria has not only sailed through hurdles in the industry to hit its 20mil-lion subscriber –base mark within six years, the in-novative tele-com operator has raised the benchmark in

Nigeria’s Tele-com space with its unrivalled cus-tomer service, innovative products and brand loyalty by customers.

Amazingly, this time last year, its subscriber base was just about 17 million, implying that Etisalat gained over 3 million subscribers in less than 12 months, representing 18 percent growth in less than one year.

This impressive record by far sets the mobile operator to be touted as the fastest growing telecommunications network in the country. A growth that signifies an impeccable mile-stone for a company competing with established market leaders like MTN, GLO and others.

Indeed, the innovative products and services introduced by the operator contributed to this impressive show in market share. The company in-troduced a wide variety of innova-tive and unparalleled products and services such as the first-of-its-kind educational tool in the youth market, Cliqlite; the first loyalty proposition in the Nigerian telecommunication industry, Etisalat GEM and the new state of the art Gold Series and Flag-ship Experience Centres.

Apart from the timely introduction of innovative products and services, the company has a sterling reputa-tion for customer service and is the only telecoms operator in Nigeria that continually exceeds all the qual-ity benchmarks set by the industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).The operator’s re-markable feat therefore comes as no surprise

Its Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Wilsher attributes this milestone to two factors-the company’s staff dedication and the responsiveness of Nigerians to Etisalat’s innovative products.

“I must emphasize that the remarkable growth we have recorded is a direct result of two factors - the commit-ment of our staff, who serve as a vital link in the chain which drives our operations, and the loyalty and warmth of our millions of subscrib-ers. We can only respond to them by constantly improv-ing our products and service delivery,”With such impressive results for a relatively young company, it is only right that it continues steadily to be-come a market leader.

Matthew Willsher CEO, Etisalat Nigeria

Ericsson Mobility Report: Mobile subscriptions in Africa near the billion mark

• By 2020, 90 percent of the world‘s population over 6 years old will have a mobile phone, and smart-phone subscriptions are expected to top 6.1 billion

• Mobile subscriptions in Africa at 880 million in Q3 of 2014 with a 77 percent mobile penetration

• 26 million new subscriptions add-ed in Q3 2014across Africa

• Mobile video traffic to increase tenfold and constitute 55 percent of all mobile data traffic by 2020

he latest edition of the Erics-son (NASDAQ:ERIC) Mobility Report, a comprehensive up-date on mobile trends lever-aging big data from live net-works worldwide, launches

today and reveals that proliferation of mobile technology continues at a rapid pace: Africa has topped 880 million in mobile subscriptions for Q3 2014, whilst90 percent of the world’s popu-lation over six years old is predicted to have a mobile phone by 2020. Further-more, by 2020 smartphone subscrip-tions are forecast to top 6.1 billion.

Ericsson also predicts that 85 percent of Middle East and Africa mobile sub-scriptions will be 3G/4G by 2020.

Fredrik Jejdling, President & Regional Head of Ericsson sub-Saharan Af-rica says: “The increased availability of

low-cost smartphones in sub-Saharan Africa will lead to a rapid increase of smartphone subscriptions in the re-gion.However, GSM/EDGE-only sub-scriptions will remain the most com-mon subscription type for the next five years due to the high numbers of lower income consumers using2G-enabled handsets.”

Smartphone penetration: 800 mil-lion new subscriptions in 2014

Smartphone growth continues as 65-70 percent of all phones sold in the third quarter of 2014 were smart-phones, compared with 55 percent in the same quarter for 2013.

Despite this increased rate of sales, which will see the addition of an esti-mated 800 million new smartphone subscriptions by the end of 2014, the report finds there is still plenty of room for growth in the sector. Smartphones currently account for just 37 percent of all mobile phone subscriptions, mean-ing that many users have yet to make the switch to the more feature-rich, internet-friendly option.The report predicts a strong uptake in the coming years as the number rises from 2.7 billion smartphone subscrip-tions today to the forecasted6.1 billion in 2020.

Video: largest and fastest growing segment of mobile data traffic

Video continues to dominate mobile networks: in 4G-dominatednetworks it currently constitutes 45-55 percent of mobile traffic, driven largely by in-creased usage of video streaming and improvements in the mobile video ex-perience.

Video is increasingly appearing as part of other online applications such as news and adverts, and on social media platforms. At the same time, growth in video streaming is being driven by access to over-the-top (OTT) services and content, such as those provided by YouTube.

Devices used to watch video are also evolving. Many have larger screens, enabling higher picture quality for

streamed video, which results in video being consumed on all types of devices and in higher quantities, both at home and on the move.

In terms of future outlook, Ericsson es-timates that mobile video traffic will increase tenfold by 2020, ultimately constituting around 55 percent of all mobile data traffic in 2020.

5G: subscriptions on the horizon

5G is expected to be commercially de-ployed in 2020, and the technology is predicted to have a faster uptake than 4G LTE, just as 4G had a faster uptake than 3G. The difference here is that, in addition to new radio technologies, 5G will also encompass evolved versions of existing radio access (such as 3G and 4G), cloud, and core technologies to cater for the thousands of new ways that mobile technology will be used. 5G growth will be driven to a large extent by new use cases, especially in machine-type communications.

This is the seventh issue of the Ericsson Mobility Report, which shares forecast data, analysis and insight into traffic, subscriptions, and consumer behavior to provide insight into current traffic and market trends.

Ericsson regularly performs traffic mea-surements in over 100 live networks in all major regions of the world. Detailed measurements are made in a select-ed number of commercial WCDMA/HSPAand LTE networks with the pur-pose of discovering different traffic patterns.

The forecast period for the latest report has been updated to cover the period from 2014-2020.

Tool for custom data

To accompany the Ericsson Mobility Report, Ericsson has created the Traffic Exploration Tool for creating custom-ized graphs and tables using data from the report. The information can be fil-tered by region, subscription, technol-ogy, traffic, and device type.

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Fredrik JejdlingRegional Head of Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa


MTN Ghana Debuts First Data Flagship Store

hana’s leading Tele-com Operator MTN, has launched and opened its first data flagship store in Osu to create an opportu-nity to connect with cus-

tomers. The Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Se-rame Taukobong disclosed that the shop aims at offering experiential data service to customers.

High-end data enabled handset, phone accessories, laptops as well as other internet devices such as mo-dems and routers will be offered at the new data store.

According to Taukobong, customers will be able to experience a world that extends far beyond the initial offering of voice and enable them to truly experience the benefits of digi-tization.

He added that “MTN stands at the doorway of innova-tion in Ghana. This shop is the first in the industry and is another proof of MTN’s market leadership in the delivery of a new digital world to our cus-tomers”.

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Serame TaukobongCEO, M TN Ghana

CT is a great tool for Gender inequality in most develop-ing nations says Dr. Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s Minister of Communication Technology. She said this at the GEM- TECH

Awards 2014, where she received an award on behalf of Nigeria for initi-ating policies and programmes em-powering women and girls through ICT.

She explained that currently, there are 200 million fewer women online than men, and this yawning gap could grow to 350 million in three years, the Nigerian Minister said highlighting that globally women are coming online later and more slowly than men. Out of the world’s 2.8 bil-lion Internet users, only 1.3 billion are women.

“The disparity in adoption of ICT by women and girls globally reveal a big gulf between men and women in the adoption of ICTs that needs to be bridged, Dr Johnson told the top-lev-el technology meet in South Korea.” She added.

“ICT is a useful tool for bridging the

ICT is a Tool for Gender Inequality in Developing Countries

digital divide and plays a crucial role in the socio-economic em-p o w e r m e n t and develop-ment of com-munities and nations across the globe. It is the bedrock of develop-ment and the leveraging of this critical tool not only helps to cre-ate wealth and jobs, but it also enables inclusive de-v e l o p m e n t at all levels-

health, agriculture, education, devel-opment, trade”, she expatiated while giving her speach.

The minister noted that women ac-count for fewer than 20% of ICT spe-cialists in developing economies and it is estimated that by 2015, 90% of formal employment across all sectors will require ICT skills.

Additionally, 21% of women are less likely than their male counterparts to own a mobile phone representing a mobile gender gap of 300 million. In Africa, only about half of the female population makeup the number of men connected to the Internet.

The Award by the International Tele-communications Union ITU and UN Women in the 7th category for Ni-geria was amongst the 360 nomina-tions received from over 74 coun-tries across the globe featured in the maiden edition of the joint ITU and UN Women awards.

The Federal Ministry of Communi-cation Technology was amongst 37 finalists selected from 360 nomina-tions from 74 countries and went on

to win the award in the 7th of “ICT and Broadband strategies, policies and frameworks that promote wom-en’s digital empowerment.”

Dr Johnson described the award as an important recognition and valida-tion of the efforts of President Good-luck Jonatahn’s administration on gender inclusion and empowerment facilitated by ICTs.

She said that with the underrepre-sentation of women and girls in ICT, especially in emerging economies like Nigeria and the growing im-portance of ICTs for national socio-economic development, closing the digital divide has now become a de-velopment priority for Nigeria.

“We are committed to get-ting more women and girls into ICTs. We want to en-sure that Nigerian women and girls are encouraged and empowered to em-brace ICTs”, she adds.

The Ministry under the window of the Growing Women and Girls in Nigeria (GWIN) initiative of President Good-luck Jonathan came up with three ICT intervention initiatives geared at empowering Nigerian women and girls to reduce the gender divide in the country.

The gender based budgeting initia-tive aims to drive the economic and social inclusion of women in Nigeria. GWIN is being implemented through a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministries of Finance, Communication Technology, Agricul-ture, Water Resources, Health, Works and Women Affairs.

The Ministry of Communication Technology has three flagship initia-tives under the GWIN programme The Digital Girls Club, Huawei 1000 ICT Girls Training Programme and the Smart woman Nigeria project.

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ricsson and Etisalat Egypt celebrate the completion of their project providing Eti-salat subscribers with more flexible on-demand data sub-scriptions to mobile broad-

band and ADSL services.

Subscribers can request and update account information and stay in-formed about costs, balances and bonuses in real-time.

As part of their ongoing efforts to provide better services to mobile broadband and ADSL subscribers, Etisalat Egypt and Ericsson replaced the operator’s previous Policy and Charging Rule Function (PCRF) with the Ericsson Service-Aware Policy Controller (SAPC).

Etisalat Egypt will use Ericsson’s In-tegrated Policy and Charging (EIPC) solution to enhance the services the operator is able to offer to both mo-bile broadband and ADSL internet subscribers. The EIPC solution will now enable subscribers to request and update account information and

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stay informed about costs, balances

and bonuses in real-time. These ca-pabilities, considered crucial to sub-scribers today, will ensure that sub-scribers are aware of what they are paying for, what they get in return and exactly how much each service costs.

This new solution will allow Etisalat Egypt’s customers who subscribe to both ADSL and mobile broadband to merge the subscriptions into one bundle. Therefore, users will be able to access the internet from different devices such as their tablet, laptop or mobile device, with the same sub-scription fee.

In addition to software solutions, Er-icsson provided professional systems integration services to meet Etisalat Egypt’s requirements. These services included supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the new PCRF (Ericsson SAPC), swapping out the existing PCRF, and integration with the charging system.

Khalid AlMansouri, Chief Information Technology Officer at Etisalat Egypt

says: “Providing our subscribers with the most ad-vanced services is essential for Etisalat Egypt to achieve its long-term vision for both our busi-ness and the in-dustry in Egypt. We are pleased to be working with Erics-son once again and through strategic collaboration we have been able to provide enhanced services and pack-ages to best serve our subscribers.”

Rafiah Ibrahim, Presi-dent of Ericsson Re-gion Middle East, says: “With today’s growing internet subscribers’ demands, end users

are expecting to have full control on their internet usage via their differ-ent devices anywhere and anytime. Ericsson’s solution enables operators to do so offering their subscribers an enhanced subscriber experience. This latest collaboration between Etisalat Egypt and Ericsson is a testa-ment to our successful partnerships, and I hope that Etisalat continues to place its trust in our solutions and services in the future.”

Ericsson has a long-standing pres-ence in Egypt, beginning in 1897 when the company was tasked with establishing the first telephone ex-change system in the country. The leading provider of communications technology and services continues to work with partners and customers in the country in an effort to further de-velop the local ICT industry and tran-sition to a truly Networked Society.

The celebration took place at Erics-son OSS/BSS Summit in New York and it was attended by top senior ex-ecutives from both companies.

Etisalat Egypt & Ericsson Celebrates Completion of Internet Bundling Project

mile Communications has announced plans to cover 60 cities and 9 additional states in Nigeria by the end of 2015. The announcement was made by the company’s

Chief Marketing Officer Alero Ladipo.

She said the company began its op-erations in Oyo State in 2013, and has extended its services to Lagos, Rivers States and Abuja. The company said it will be launching its services in Be-nin City, Abeokuta, Enugu, Owerri, Kaduna, Kano and Jos in 2015.

s part of efforts to boost customer and user experi-ence in the Western and Ashanti regions, mobile network operator, Tigo Ghana limited, has started

work on a US$3.2 million overhead fibre-optic cable project.

It is expected to end indiscriminate fibre cuts by illegal miners, road contractors and property develop-ers which is affecting Tigo’s network quality and user experience particu-larly in both regions.

“On the average we record about 51 cable cuts every month between the Ashanti and Western regions and this is mainly due to the operations of illegal mine workers and on-

Tigo invest US$3.2 million in overhead fibre-optic cable project

Smile Communications Set to Cover 60 cities in Nigeria by 2015 “Providing good customer experi-

ence is key to our business growth, and that has been the focus of Smile Communication in every community that we rollout our services. We strive to provide the best of customer ex-perience, by providing the right kind of service at the right time.

“For example, we have a prod-uct known as My Smile Portal, which gives the customer full control over their own data us-age. That experience alone is highly cherished by Nigerians who had long been waiting for a time where they will have

going road expansion projects in both regions.

“Apart from spending millions an-nually to replace these cables, the impact on customer and user expe-rience is damaging to say the least,” said Obafemi Banigbe, Chief Opera-tions Officer for Tigo Ghana.

He explained: “Putting the cables on overhead concrete poles would stop people from digging them out in the ground and this will boost network quality, improve Customer and user experience and also increase Tigo’s coverage footprints in both the Ashanti and Western regions. Both consumers and businesses will get value for money and see a massive improvement in service delivery”, he added.

The project is in 3 phases and will cover a 360 kilometre stretch from Dunkwa through to Kumasi. It in-

control over their data usage,” Ladipo said.

volves putting up some 4, 600 con-crete poles and will be completed by February 2015.

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Obafemi BanigbeChief Operations Officer, Tigo Ghana.

Alero Ladipo, Chief Marketing OfficerSmile Communications

igerian phone tower group IHS has raised $2 billion in equity and $600 million in debt in what it says is the biggest equity fund raising by an African company this

decade.

IHS, the continent’s largest tower company, will use the money to fi-nance infrastructure spending and recently agreed acquisitions, accord-ing to a company statement.

The loan facility is split into two parts: a seven-year tranche of $500 million denominated in U.S. dollars and an eight-year tranche of $100 million in Nigerian naira.

According to IHS chief executive Is-sam Darwish , Ecobank, Standard Chartered, Standard Bank, Investec and the World Bank’s International Fi-nance Corporation (IFC) participated in the loan.

IHS Raises $2.6 Billion in Equity

“This is the largest equity raising by a private entity for the past 7-8 years in Af-rica -- you’ve had mining, banks and now telecom infrastructure as a stand-alone sector is command-ing this much interest from the international markets,” said Darwish.

“This sends the right signal, it’s saying the international investor communi-ty believes in Africa and they’re put-ting a substantial amount of money behind that.”

Building and maintaining mobile communications towers in Africa is typically more expensive than in oth-er regions because of security costs and electricity shortages, while rev-enue per user is often lower.

That has prompted many mobile op-erators to sell or lease towers to spe-cialist companies such as IHS, which

can reduce building and mainte-nance costs by hosting multiple ten-ants -- mobile operators and Internet providers -- on the same towers.

In September, South Africa’s MTN agreed to sell 9,151 mobile towers in Nigeria to a new joint venture with IHS in a deal MTN said would cut its costs and boost its call and data capacity in Africa’s most populous country.

That was MTN’s fifth tie-up with IHS following deals in Ivory Coast, Cam-eroon, Rwanda and Zambia.

IHS in August agreed to buy and lease back 2,136 towers from Etisalat Nigeria, a unit of Abu Dhabi’s Etisalat.Darwish said a “substantial part” of the money IHS has raised would go towards paying for its recent acqui-sitions, with the remainder spent on boosting its infrastructure in the five countries it operates in.

He said IHS would complete the two acquisitions soon, with one set to be concluded soon.

Darwish predicted demand for broadband would drive growth in Af-rica’s telecoms sector.

“The size of the middle class in Africa is now roughly one-third (of the pop-ulation) -– 15-20 years ago it was 10 percent or less,” said Darwish. “Broad-band penetration is extremely low, less than 10 percent, so the potential is massive and you need towers to service that.”

He predicted Africa could need 200,000-300,000 mobile towers over the next 10 years to meet future broadband demand, including up to 40,000 in Nigeria alone.

IHS may raise further debt before the end of 2015.

“Things keep growing and evolving for us so we may come back to the market very soon,” added Darwish.

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Mr.-Issam-DarwishCEO, IHS

mobile world - issue 47 | 2014

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