Central Bank of Nigeria discusses challenges, mobile payments and connectivity ahead of Nigeria Com

Chairman
Licensed Mobile Payment Operators

This year NigeriaCom has developed the mobile money section of the conference, involving the critical players within the mobile payments ecosystem, the regulatory body and some of the pioneering banks. With the Central Bank of Nigeria participating the discussion about reaching the unbanked population is a session not to be missed. We discussed the mobile payments landscape and some of the challenges for a cashless society in Nigeria with Dare Owolabi, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Mobile Payment Operators (ALMPO)

Com World Series: How is your company positioned in Nigeria and what are its future objectives? 

Dare Owolabi: Mobile Money Operators in Nigeria is positioned and believed that mobile money is sustainable and are taking a scalable approach to provide convenient and affordable financial services to the unbanked. Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) works with mobile operators and their future objectives are to provide a financial industry that accelerates the availability of affordable financial services that provide safety, security and convenience to the unbanked.

Com World Series:  What do you think are the top 3 major trends that are affecting your business in the region in 2013?

Dare Owolabi: The 3 major trends that are affecting mobile money business in the past years are:

• Level of illiteracy among subscribers: Mobile money operators have not sufficiently educated their customers on the use of mobile money.

• Financial Institution Regulators:  Articulation of policies that will improve the financial inclusion is still a far play

• High cost of USSD: transaction cost is high

Com World Series:  What are the remaining challenges in terms of connectivity and quality of services in the region and which technologies are most likely to resolve these issues?  

Dare Owolabi: Network connectivity is a major issue:  there are lots of interruptions due to unstable broadband. This makes subscribers to lose confidence in operation of mobile money. The technology that will resolve these issues is to transform telecommunication industry.

Com World Series: How are smartphones/tablets and cloud services impacting mobile/internet service providers in Nigeria?

Dare Owolabi: Most Nigeria use smartphones and tablets and this have increased the infiltration and usage of internet. It is left for the operators to continue to invest and improve data consumptions in order to buy subscribers credibility.

Com World Series: In your opinion, which companies are spearheading innovation in the region and what can be learnt from them?

Dare Owolabi: In our opinion all mobile money operators are trying their best to drive the industry and make sure it succeeds.
Dare and the Central Bank of Nigeria plus other distinguished speakers will be sharing views on Day One, 16 September at 15:40 on the panel: The mobile money advantage and reaching the unbanked

Nigerian Railways speaks on connectivity issues ahead of Nigeria Com

Connectivity across the public sector can have systemic impacts to how a city or country operates.  For a better understanding of the challenges at state level we discussed with Fredrick Onasanya, who is Assistant Director at the Nigeria Railway Corporation.  

Nigeria Com: How is your company positioned in Nigeria and what are its future objectives?


Fredrick Onasanya: Nigerian Railway Corporation is positioned in the Transport sector.

The objectives of NRC is to be the best in carrying passengers and goods at an affordable price through a well seasoned,trained experience staff with modern tools/equipment

Nigeria Com:  What do you think are the top 3 major trends that are affecting your business in the region in 2014?

Fredrick Onasanya:  (.a)The policy that established .Nigerian Railway Corporation does not give room for individuals to operate Railroad transportation
(b)Government is not releasing sufficient funds to finance railway compared to her counterpart in other countries

(c) Inadequacy of locomotive and rolling stock

Nigeria Com:  What are the remaining challenges in terms of connectivity and quality of services in the region and which technologies are most likely to resolve these issues?

Fredrick Onasanya:  Lack of rural connectivity

Challenges( a) .deficiency of energy supply (b)Lack of' Last mile' infrastructure (c) Extravagant cost of Internet connectivity (d) High cost of Bandwidth

Nigeria Com:  How are smartphones/tablets and cloud services impacting mobile/internet service providers in Nigeria?

Fredrick Onasanya:  APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY: WIMAX, VSAT, Cellular Telephone Network

Nigeria Com:  In your opinion, which companies are spearheading innovation in the region and what can be learnt from them?

Fredrick Onasanya:  The best GSM telecommunication company is Durban Communication Networks ltd Abuja

The best bank is Zenith bank.

JOIN FREDRICK ONASANYA ON THE 16 - 17TH SEPTEMBER.


REGISTER TODAY.

1st Speaker interview for Ngiera Com 2014 with Tom Allen, COO, Smile Communications

The ComWorld Series team engaged with Tom Allen, COO, Smile communications ahead of the NigeriaCom conference and exhibition, taking place at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria, 17-18 September. We found out a little more about the activities of Smile as a new LTE player in embracing the Nigerian market. Here are some insights from Tom ahead of the event.

ComWorld Series: How is your company positioned in Nigeria and what are its future objectives?

Tom Allen: Smile is planning to be the Broadband provider of choice and at the end of this year we aim to be in 12 cities. 

ComWorld Series: What do you think are the top 3 major trends that are affecting your business in the region in 2014? 

Tom Allen: The demand for data services, OTT challenging the Telcos from voice to video, Capacity on networks are the major limiting factor.

ComWorld Series: What are the remaining challenges in terms of connectivity and quality of services in the region and which technologies are most likely to resolve these issues? 

Tom Allen: Capacity is an issue, manifested by poor quality; Quality of service beacons will emerge such as Smile with much better networks. With the lack of fixed infrastructure then only 4G LTE services can provide the quality and capacity needed.

ComWorld Series: How are smartphones/tablets and cloud services impacting mobile/internet service providers in Nigeria?

Tom Allen:The wave is just starting, capacity is self limiting these. Smile will bring these to life with much better quality and speeds. Tablets (or large format Smartphones) will become dominant with these can already providing local personal hot-spots for wider usage. Simple OTT offerings will start to emerge and will dominate.

ComWorld Series: In your opinion, which companies are spearheading innovation in the region and what can be learnt from them? 

Tom Allen: The issue is making more capacity available – poor networks stifle innovation. Smile is a challenger.

Find out more at www.comworldseries.com/nigeria. Tom Allen will be speaking on Day 1 at 12:15 on the session “LTE Showcase: Breakthrough and impacts of 4G/LTE for Nigeria"