The Role and Challenges of Business Messaging in Africa
In this guest post, Chairman and Founder of Activatel Philippe Reinbold discusses the challenges facing enterprises bringing business messaging to Africa and the journey towards an inclusive digital economy across the continent. With 54 countries and a rapidly increasing population, Africa really is fertile ground for digital communication expansion – Business Messaging most definitely included! However, this growth is not without its challenges, including regulatory frameworks, pricing issues, and the broader implications of telecommunications in developing economies.
Insights from the MEF Leadership Forum in Cape Town
MEF Programme Director Anzelle Robertson shares an overview of last week’s MEF Leadership Forum Africa in Cape Town, where industry leaders, innovators, and stakeholders met to explore the evolving challenges facing Africa’s telecommunications landscape. On 13 November 2024, Cape Town hosted the Mobile Ecosystem Forum Leadership Forum, a vibrant gathering of industry leaders and innovators to explore the evolving mobile and telecommunications landscape across Africa.
Nigeria’s regulatory update: MNO pricing rules limit bundling, SIM Identity in place
MEF CEO Dario Betti shares an update on recent changes to mobile regulation in Nigeria, where interventions on pricing and tariff regulations for mobile services are working to reshape the burgeoning mobile market.
The Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has seen various significant regulatory changes in recent years, addressing aspects spanning pricing, identification of SIM’s, spectrum licensing, consumer protection, infrastructure security, investment promotion, and broadband penetration.
MEF Africa Roundtable – Securing Africa’s sustainable growth
MEF Advisor Ross Flynn share an overview from the recent MEF events in Cape Town, held during the annual AfricaCom event which returned to an in-person conference for the first time in two years.
It’s hard to believe it’s already been two weeks since the leading lights of business messaging, messaging fraud, carriers and more met on the rooftop of the Radisson Red Hotel in Cape Town for one of the must-visit events of the hectic week that is Africa Com.
MEF Africa Meet Up & Roundtable
MEF Advisor Ross Flynn share an overview from the recent MEF events in Cape Town, held during the annual AfricaCom event which returned to an in-person conference for the first time in two years.
AfricaCom, the Africa Tech Festival, is the largest digital infrastructure event in Africa and after years it was finally back in person. There was not one but two MEF events happening in Cape Town this year and afterwards there was no doubt that these were the essential events for all stakeholders who were down in the Cape this year.
MEF Connects Digital Transformation On Demand – Mobile Payments in Africa
Anzelle Robertson of Sam Media moderates a panel held during MEF Connects Digital Transformation on the topic of mobile payments in Africa – looking at the past, present and future of mobile transactions and e-commerce across the continent, focusing on mobile wallets, telco led mobile money wallets and direct carrier billing.
Ethiopia: The new greenfield Opportunity for mobile
A new market is opening up in Africa: Ethiopia. In July 2019 the government announced the privatisation of 49% of Ethio Telecom, the monopolistic incumbent currently 100% owned by the state. A new regulatory agency has been created for the opening of the Ethiopian market, ECA.
It will be ECA that will create a regulatory framework and issue two new mobile operator licenses in March 2020. The number of mobile operators has reduced recently from 880 to about 800 worldwide – the days of new operator launches are well past, today is more common to find news about network mergers and even closures, rather than the launch of brand-new operator.
The next stage of M-Pesa: Fuliza Micro-loans
The evolution of M-Pesa from simple payment tool to full fintech solution is still underway. Here, Dario Betti, CEO of MEF, reports on the results of the latest addition to Safaricom’s mobile money solution: micro-loans. M-Pesa is the long champion of mobile payments in Kenia and a number of African countries, but success brings higher expectation and it is now looking at expanding in other financial services such as micropayments. At November 2019, M-Pesa accounts for 33.4% of Safaricom’s revenue
How do you tackle messaging fraud in South Africa? Together
Last month MEF held a workshop in Cape Town to discuss how to tackle consumer fraud in business messaging. An open invite from MEF members to the banks and mobile network operators in South Africa brought together 3 of the 4 networks, the banks, local associations WASPA and SABRIC to share their own progress in the fight against fraud.
Nigeria: the rise of Fintech in Africa
Returning from a series of events in Africa, MEF CEO, Dario Betti, reports on the growing Fintech companies in the continent. Investment is flowing on African mobile payment solutions. Development in Fintech is progressing fast with new companies such as Opay, Interswitch and PalmPay emerging next to M-Pesa as the new financial infrastructure.
