The Word According to Yahoo: Growing Digital Opportunities in African Broadcasting

Colman Murray,  Global Brand Director, AFP RelaxNews 

Ahead of Africa Cast (part of the AfricaCom event) Yahoo’s Colman Murray talks to us about the growing digital opportunities opening up in African broadcasting.

IP&TV News: Where do you see the biggest commercial and creative digital opportunities in Africa?

Colman Murray: Our experience in the past three years has been hugely indicative of a wealth of opportunity across the continent. I refer in the main to West and East Africa where we have been hugely successful in attracting certain business verticals like finance, automotive, FMCG, communications and travel to name a few.

The measurability and immediacy of the digital results make the transition from a more traditional sphere all the more attractive. Mobile is a personal “soapbox” of mine and the potential for further development is mind boggling. In the past four years we have seen consumer media consumption stats rocket from 4 to 30% for mobile the US.  I remember seeing a stat quoting that 90% of South African internet users access the net via their smartphones. The smartphone therefore is effectively the African PC and we have to tailor our efforts accordingly. It is interesting to note that mobile ad revenues almost doubled globally last year and the mobile share of advertising also rose exponentially. The trend is most encouraging – with growth of 45% being realised in 2013…

How significant do you think the intersection between digital and broadcasting will be for Africa and why?

The move to digital is hugely significant and the trend reports are indicative of much greater digital assimilation going forward in Africa. The smartphone is the gateway to the internet for 90% of web users today here in South Africa – this in turn becomes much more than a communicative device for calls and email. We check weather, search the web, share pictures, watch videos, get sports updates. This is what digital offers and it is no longer the bastion of traditional broadcasters. It’s no secret that we are amidst a massive and ever evolving platform shift from traditional to digital, making events like Africa.com all the more relevant and important in evangelizing new media.

Can you give us some idea of the most exciting aspects of YAHOO’s current involvement in Africa?

For the past 20 years or so YAHOO has excelled in the areas of Email, News and Finance. The aforementioned platform shift to mobile for example takes these areas of excellence and makes them part of consumers’ daily habits by effectively putting them in your pocket. So having immediate access to my personal “daily habits” of communication, news, sports, weather reports and so on is hugely marketable in the US, Europe – and now in Africa. It’s relevant, immediate and important wherever you might reside in Africa.

People sometimes allude to the explosive growth of digital but this can be a misnomer as growth is not necessarily about the proliferation of devices but rather how much time we are spending on our devices – this has seen 5 fold growth in the past two years and that growth shows no signs of slowing. This alone makes YAHOO’s mission statement of making our consumers’ “daily habits” more inspiring and entertaining all the more relevant and exciting throughout Africa.

Where does the “fear factor” come in with regards to digital in traditional management?

I have recently migrated from the traditional arena where I had a great “schooling” courtesy of traditional news behemoths like TIME Inc in the 90s (when I first came to Africa) to my more recent tenure with Agence France Presse (AFP) here in Africa . There is a natural and understandable tendency to embrace and take solace in what you know and to be suspicious of change. Our business is no different and (despite the assimilation of digital into the marketing and commercial sphere) it does not get the share of voice or the budgets it deserves. I find when dealing with corporates on either a local or international level that there remains much in the way of education required to truly understand the upside in all matters digital.

How do you think this trepidation can be dispelled?

It’s happening and will continue to positively evolve in favour of digital. Events like Africa.com are critical in the ongoing evangelization of this massive and continuing platform shift. It’s awesome to see how digital is becoming such an inherent part of our daily lives and YAHOO is perfectly aligned to same. We have almost 800 million users on the YAHOO core sites globally and we will are projecting further and greater growth (thereby dispelling the “trepidation”). Digital is making our daily lives more convenient, inspiring and more consistent in ways considered almost impossible a few short years ago.

Colman Murray will be appearing at this year’s AfricaCast, Africa’s premier show on the future of broadcasting, which takes place on the 11th-13th November 2014 at the Cape Town Convention Centre, South Africa. Go here for booking and infoYahoo’s Colman Murray talks to IP&TV News about the growing digital opportunities opening up in African broadcasting.

IP&TV News: Where do you see the biggest commercial and creative digital opportunities in Africa?

Colman Murray: Our experience in the past three years has been hugely indicative of a wealth of opportunity across the continent. I refer in the main to West and East Africa where we have been hugely successful in attracting certain business verticals like finance, automotive, FMCG, communications and travel to name a few.

The measurability and immediacy of the digital results make the transition from a more traditional sphere all the more attractive. Mobile is a personal “soapbox” of mine and the potential for further development is mind boggling. In the past four years we have seen consumer media consumption stats rocket from 4 to 30% for mobile the US.  I remember seeing a stat quoting that 90% of South African internet users access the net via their smartphones. The smartphone therefore is effectively the African PC and we have to tailor our efforts accordingly. It is interesting to note that mobile ad revenues almost doubled globally last year and the mobile share of advertising also rose exponentially. The trend is most encouraging – with growth of 45% being realised in 2013…

How significant do you think the intersection between digital and broadcasting will be for Africa and why?

The move to digital is hugely significant and the trend reports are indicative of much greater digital assimilation going forward in Africa. The smartphone is the gateway to the internet for 90% of web users today here in South Africa – this in turn becomes much more than a communicative device for calls and email. We check weather, search the web, share pictures, watch videos, get sports updates. This is what digital offers and it is no longer the bastion of traditional broadcasters. It’s no secret that we are amidst a massive and ever evolving platform shift from traditional to digital, making events like Africa.com all the more relevant and important in evangelizing new media.

Can you give us some idea of the most exciting aspects of YAHOO’s current involvement in Africa?

For the past 20 years or so YAHOO has excelled in the areas of Email, News and Finance. The aforementioned platform shift to mobile for example takes these areas of excellence and makes them part of consumers’ daily habits by effectively putting them in your pocket. So having immediate access to my personal “daily habits” of communication, news, sports, weather reports and so on is hugely marketable in the US, Europe – and now in Africa. It’s relevant, immediate and important wherever you might reside in Africa.

People sometimes allude to the explosive growth of digital but this can be a misnomer as growth is not necessarily about the proliferation of devices but rather how much time we are spending on our devices – this has seen 5 fold growth in the past two years and that growth shows no signs of slowing. This alone makes YAHOO’s mission statement of making our consumers’ “daily habits” more inspiring and entertaining all the more relevant and exciting throughout Africa.

Where does the “fear factor” come in with regards to digital in traditional management?

I have recently migrated from the traditional arena where I had a great “schooling” courtesy of traditional news behemoths like TIME Inc in the 90s (when I first came to Africa) to my more recent tenure with Agence France Presse (AFP) here in Africa . There is a natural and understandable tendency to embrace and take solace in what you know and to be suspicious of change. Our business is no different and (despite the assimilation of digital into the marketing and commercial sphere) it does not get the share of voice or the budgets it deserves. I find when dealing with corporates on either a local or international level that there remains much in the way of education required to truly understand the upside in all matters digital.

How do you think this trepidation can be dispelled?

It’s happening and will continue to positively evolve in favour of digital. Events like Africa.com are critical in the ongoing evangelization of this massive and continuing platform shift. It’s awesome to see how digital is becoming such an inherent part of our daily lives and YAHOO is perfectly aligned to same. We have almost 800 million users on the YAHOO core sites globally and we will are projecting further and greater growth (thereby dispelling the “trepidation”). Digital is making our daily lives more convenient, inspiring and more consistent in ways considered almost impossible a few short years ago.

Colman Murray will be appearing at this year’s AfricaCast, Africa’s premier show on the future of broadcasting, which takes place on the 11th-13th November 2014 at the Cape Town Convention Centre, South Africa. Go here for booking and info

The Future of African Broadcasting ...

Special report: ABN & the future of African broadcasting - from George Twumasi who will be speaking as part of the Africa Cast programme at this year's Africa Com ....

In this special guest post, George Twumasi, the visionary force behind ABN (African Broadcasting Network), looks at the wider significance of African broadcasting, & the role next-gen broadcasting technology can play in the continent’s future.

In the past, Africa’s television broadcasters and media practitioners have had very little influence, if any, in shaping Africa’s image either within the continent or on the international stage.

Africans have simply been unable to effectively construct a positive image of Africa. Across the most powerful television newsrooms throughout the most advanced economies of the world, news concerning Africa continues to focus on war, famine, poverty, ill-health and corruption…

In Africa itself, it is not surprising, considering this historical use of the broadcast media in colonial subjugation, that with independence African governments moved quickly to control radio and other forms of media, which they mostly utilized to maintain an unwavering regime of intimidation and manipulation.

At the beginning of the 21st century, however, Africa’s restless youth – in spite of a broad set of challenges – are determined to achieve change.

Enter the African Broadcasting Network (ABN). Its mission is to imagine new possibilities for Africa’s young, restore hope, rebuild civic responsibility, and equip citizens with appropriate life skills. ABN strongly believes that public service oriented television broadcasting, underpinned by relevant educational programming, can play a unique role in these processes.

Fortunately for ABN, with the current strides in telecoms media & technology, Africa is set to embrace a multiplatform, digital content delivery environment within the next five years, through which hundreds of millions of Africans can be readily reached via mobile television broadcasting.

Digital opportunities…

Africa’s switch from analogue to digital broadcasting is opening up major opportunities…

Currently, nearly 70% of Africa’s 1.1 billion population are under the age of 30. Of these, over 900 million people are set to have access to a mobile phone by the end of 2015. Given easy access to mobile television broadcasting, cheap broadband services will likely encourage the majority of these young Africans to skip traditional television and directly consume television entertainment content via personal mobile devices. Hence, the demand for affordable mobile television devices – like Huawei’s Ideos – is set to soar, as quality, African-produced content becomes increasingly accessible for millions of new, insatiable consumers.

However, specific to digital terrestrial television (DTT) (given the prohibitive costs associated with its development), many sub-Saharan African governments will be forced in the short term to opt for investments into direct-to-home (DTH) television broadcasting as a viable alternative.

An ensuing result is that, in order to recoup investment and ensure profitability, licensed carrier broadcasting platforms across Africa will have to offer several more television channels via the same spectrum that was previously only able to transmit a single analogue channel.

Viewers are therefore likely to be offered a wider range of channels. A negative knock-on effect of this, given the current dearth of quality African content, is that an ensuing demand for content would result in the rapid proliferation of non-African television channels.

That notwithstanding, in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Cameroon, a number of privately owned terrestrial television channels have triggered a significant, commercially viable demand for advertiser-supported local content. These channels could successfully combine and aggregate their current content offerings into a single bouquet, low-subscription pay-TV service.

The possibility of paying to view more than 20 engaging, locally produced television channels is one that tens of millions of low-income households would be willing to subscribe to. In addition, improvements in Internet access, digital storage technologies, and digital playout systems are bound to enhance commercial multi-platform distribution. This would enable Africa’s creative artists to produce increasing volumes of entertaining local television content

For the first time in its history, as the imminent convergence of a digital television and mobile network ecosystem becomes a tangible reality, sub-Saharan Africa’s local television content industries can expect explosive commercial growth. Therefore, African entrepreneurs that are able to generate monetisable business models will command handsome revenue streams.

Looking forward

The value of public service broadcasting is undisputable even in the developed western countries, where high literacy rates and socio-economic development have lessened the urgency of radio and television programming aimed at social equality and citizen empowerment. This cannot be said for an Africa struggling with the combined legacies of both a burdened past and the challenges and opportunities thrown up by globalization. Half a century after independence, Africa’s share of world trade has fallen from 3% in the 1950s to less than 2% in the 1990s.

Africa’s challenges today are as pressing as they were after attaining independence more than half a century ago. Africa may well have entered a new space with significant improvements in governance and economic growth, but its people remain underdeveloped.

Public service broadcasting and educational programming have a unique role to play in the process of emancipating and developing the minds of hundreds millions of Africans. It is a role that cannot be quantified in financial terms.

Furthermore, new strides in media technology are set to usher in an enabling environment in which existing African content libraries can be digitally archived and re-used as an invaluable resource for the creation of new television programming and niche content channels.

Cloud-as-a-service and big data in particular, are set to play a decisive role in determining which media enterprises grow their profits and market share during the next five-to-ten years. Africa’s content businesses, including its state broadcasters, will need to incorporate cloud and data services as an integral part of their business models by the end of 2017. Broadcasters who refuse to take stock of the cloud’s strategic and operational advantages will lose out. It is a transformation that will be underpinned by the key social media brands Facebook and WhatsApp: increasingly, these are set to become very powerful tools for social interaction and intellectual engagement among Africa’s youth.

I believe that Africa’s state broadcasting sector is ready for a major transformation through which it could play a large role in the mental emancipation and enhanced development of the African mind.

George Twumasi will be appearing at this year’s AfricaCast event. Register for tickets here!

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.

Video interview with Ike Orizu of Truspot on re-launching as an online music radio & TV station...

Watch the video with Ike Orizu, Founder / CeO of Truspot and speaker at the Digital Music stream at Africa Com - http://www.comworldseries.com/africa - on how he re-launched as a online music radio and TV station...

http://africa.comworldseries.com/ike-orizu/ 

OffComm News talks Slumming IT in Africa

Nic Rudnick, CEO, Liquid Telecom 

which has built the largest single fibre network in Africa.

In January 2014, OffComm News visited the Mathare slum, outside the city of Nairobi, Kenya. Mathare is one of the country’s oldest slums with a population of 180,000. Not only does it have its own football team, it’s a pretty well connected sprawl of dwellings. But how is that connectivity managed and who’s enabling this culture? We caught up with Nic Rudnick at Liquid Telecom to get his take on enabling IT in Africa.

What are the challenges with providing broadband outside the main cities in Africa? 

In Africa, about 700 million people out of about 1 billion live outside the urban areas. The dispersion of the population is such that the terrestrial telecommunication infrastructure is, today, only able to get close enough (about 25km) to about 480 million people.

The economics of telecommunication services are based on density of population around focal points (such as a town centre), except for satellite services. This means that a mobile operator will find it extremely difficult to finance a new base station in an area (relatively small around the new site) where an insufficient number of people dwell or are able to reach daily.

Moreover, densely populated town centres that are too far away from the nearest telecommunication node (another base station or a fibre optic cable node) may not be serviced as new backhaul to connect this new node could be uneconomical.

Finally, the population that lives too far (e.g. over 1km) from a focal point, assuming they cannot afford satellite service, may find that the service they receive is of poor quality, due to the weaker wireless signal in their area.

Universal service and access funds have been designed to remedy some of the economic issue. However local governments are still facing great difficulty to make an efficient and effective use of these funds for IT in Africa.
The migration of analogue TV signal to digital will free spectrum in the sub-800GHz bands. The use of this spectrum extends the area around focal points where the signal is good enough for populations to receive a broadband service. However this transition is slow and complicated and the efficient attribution of freed spectrum to operators is another difficult task for telecommunication regulators.

Liquid Telecom will continue to invest in long-haul and cross-border fibre optic infrastructure, as well as WiMAX, LTE and satellite technologies, to help all players in the industry to service the next 500 million African people that live too far away from the nearest fibre node.

With fibre creeping into inland Africa, is satellite on the way out?

Fibre optic networks are being built, for example by pan-African backbone network operator Liquid Telecom, to bring broadband services to as many people in Africa as possible. However it is likely that some areas, given the size of the African continent and the dispersion of the population in rural areas, will remain, for a long time, far away from Liquid Telecom’s fibre infrastructure. Here satellite can fill the gaps. Also satellite continues to play an important role in providing a backup solution.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE VISIT HERE

Alliance for Affordable Internet shed light on their objectives ahead of Nigeria Com

We are pleased to have partnered with the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) this year to support NigeriaCom. A4AI partner with the Nigeiran government (and several other governments around Africa for that matter) to strengthen the delivery of affordable internet to the public. Executive Director, Sonia Jorge, who will be speaking at NigeriaCom, took a moment to shed light on the alliance and their objectives and innovations:

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

Sonia Jorge: The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) is working directly with the Government of Nigeria to strengthen its efforts towards the delivery of affordable Internet to Nigerian citizens. Nigeria publicly committed to develop and implement the policy and regulatory changes needed to drive down the cost of broadband access when it formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Alliance in October 2013, becoming the first country to take this progressive step. It has since been followed by Ghana and Mozambique. 

As a key element of this work, A4AI has brought together a wide range of actors, including representatives from the Nigerian government, private sector and civil society, to identify policy and regulatory barriers to affordable Internet in the country, and to put into place a plan to overcome these obstacles. A national coalition has been formed, and is actively working to produce concrete solutions to the challenges. Through this multi-stakeholder process, A4AI hopes to help Nigeria increase its Internet penetration rate to 30% by 2017, as set out in the country’s National Broadband Plan.

Com World Series: What do you think are the top 3 major trends that are affecting your work in the region in 2014?

1. Technological innovation: The rapid emergence of new and innovative technologies has the power to drive down the cost of broadband access, when combined with an updated regulatory and policy framework.
2. Spirit of collaboration: As sectors with seemingly divergent interests recognise the shared economic and social benefits of pursuing increased access to affordable Internet, the region has seen improved collaboration and a rise in effective partnerships.
3. Shared infrastructure access and development: The increased willingness of government and private telecommunications companies to enter into partnerships is leading to more opportunities for the development of open and shared infrastructure (e.g., fibre optic lines, base stations) on both a national and regional level. Resource sharing through these partnerships will allow the government, network operators, and other infrastructure providers to reduce and share capital and operational risks, which will, in turn, reduce the cost for consumers to come online.

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? 

Sonia Jorge: New and innovative technological solutions to broadband affordability challenges—including innovative uses of spectrum, urban WiFi zones and data centres— are constantly emerging. While these technologies have shown promising early results in their ability to bring down the cost of Internet, all too often outdated and ill-conceived policies and regulations prevent the benefits of these technologies from being fully unlocked across the African continent. By working directly with national governments and a wide range of key stakeholders, A4AI aims to bring outdated policy and regulatory frameworks into the digital age, and to help to realise the UN Broadband Commission goal of entry-level broadband services priced at less than 5% of average monthly income.

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

Sonia Jorge: The diminishing cost of new technologies has caused a substantial uptake in the use of smart mobile technology in Nigeria, where currently around 25 percent of over 105 million mobile telephone subscribers use smartphones (TNS Global, 2012). The use of these devices and the number of people using them to connect to the Internet is expected to grow as more businesses based in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, use smartphones and tablets to link to the global economy and to efficiently conduct business. While the adoption of smartphones is increasing, the high cost of a mobile broadband connection, which hovers around 13% of average income, is restricting the ability of citizens throughout Nigeria to connect to and take advantage of information found on the Web. Only when the cost to connect to mobile broadband on these devices drops to a level that the average Nigerian can afford will the true impact of the use of these technologies be felt.

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

Sonia Jorge: A number of companies working in Nigeria and throughout the continent are using modern technologies to bring more people online—Google’s Project Link is providing faster, more reliable Internet to underserved urban areas like Kampala, Uganda, by connecting local Internet service providers (ISPs) to existing long-distance fibre lines; Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative is working to bring affordable broadband to rural communities via TV white spaces (i.e., vacant radio frequencies available for unlicensed use); and West African telecommunications company, Main One, has been working to construct and roll out a metro high-speed fibre network and data centre in Lagos, with the aim of reducing ICT costs and enhancing business profitability. Meanwhile, Research ICT Africa has consistently been delivering robust, high-quality research into communications issues across the region which helps to drive informed decision-making and debate.
Looking at national initiatives around the continent, Morocco emerges as a positive example of government innovation in the ICT sector. The country was ranked as the top developing country in A4AI’s 2013 Affordability Report, and is implementing a number of innovative policies in order to increase Internet penetration. These policies are encapsulated in “2013 Digital Morocco”, a plan aimed at intensifying usage through a focus on affordability of both devices and access. However, with mobile broadband prices sitting at around 20 percent of per capita monthly incomes, and about 80 percent of monthly incomes for those living in poverty (less than $2 per day), Morocco’s government has much work to do. As well as working to drive prices down, the country plans to equip all schools in Morocco with broadband access and ICT training, and establish PPPs to offer devices to marginalised sub-segments of the population.

Sonia Jorge will be speaking on the first day at Nigeria Com to hear her insights REGISTER TODAY.

African Insurers Urged to Review Mobile Strategies

Written By Emma Okonji, All Africa.

A recent report by Juergen Weiss, based on the Gartner 2013 Global survey, has predicted that by 2015 at least 40 per cent of the currently existing insurance-related, customer-facing mobile applications will be abandoned due to lack of demand.

The reason for this, the report said, is due to the fact that insurers have not designed their applications in a way that makes consumers want to use them and secondly, that consumers are simply not aware when new software applications are available.

The report therefore warned insurers to review their mobile strategies, in order to gain customers' confidence.

However, developing customer-facing mobile applications remains the third most important technology priority for insurers.

Head of African Operations for SSP, Rhys Collins, a major online firm in South Africa, said: "In Africa this would be second or first priority. There is a definite correlation between the growing download of apps in Europe with wider smartphone adoption".

"The percentage of users using a cellphone now far outweighs those using the internet. It is predicted that by 2017, 79 per cent of users will have adopted smartphones as opposed to just 49 per cent in 2013."

Users want to interact with service providers via their mobile device wherever possible. This has been driven by the wide adoption of social media, Collins added.

He said this raises three key issues for insurers namely: how insurance customers embrace mobile insurance (the demand view); what insurers should expect from mobile applications (the supply view) and finally, what are the best practices for a better mobile insurance experience.

According to the report, there are numerous reasons for the lack of mobile adoption by insurance customers. Collins asserts there are very few opportunities for interaction between customers and insurers.

He said the potential for interaction would continue to exist, but that to engage customers with these new interaction points, insurers need to overcome preferences like phoning a contact centre.

He explained that since the primary reason consumers select an insurance policy is price, if apps do not create or highlight any monetary incentive or benefit for customers there will be limited appeal.

Weiss recommends insurers avoid investing in the design of mobile apps without first having a detailed value analysis. Only then should they develop a holistic app strategy that allows customers to seamlessly use the app, one that is integrated into the entire insurance value chain.

"While the absolute number of mobile users in Africa looking to interact with service providers is far less than Europe, the opportunity still exists in certain market segments for one or two insurers to steal an advantage" Collins said. He insisted the insurance industry in Africa has not identified a 'killer app' that will dramatically increase customer adoption.

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"

Tier 1 African Mobile Operator Selects Mobile-Technologies’ SIM and Number Management Solution

As a leader in the provision of advanced telecom solutions, Mobile-Technologies has been chosen by a tier 1 mobile operator in southern Africa to deliver a fully automated SIM and number management solution to manage their entire SIM supply chain more effectively.

The Intelligent SIM Manager (iSM) is a highly sought after SIM and number management system that deals with all the aspects of the SIM lifecycle. It helps the sourcing of SIM-cards by automating the collection of all data required pre-production, secures data transportation, handles warehousing and distribution, and finally the SIM provisioning and activation from a single web-interface.

“Many network operators use in-house manual processes or outdated solutions exposing themselves to costly production and inventory mistakes, loss of data integrity across multiple infrastructure components and the potential duplication of SIM card records. Our iSM solution completely eliminates these challenges while bringing in more efficiencies and cost savings.” Says Eli Hem Jensen, CEO, Mobile-Technologies.

Eli continues, “Access to new mobile number ranges from regulators is often restricted and very costly. This makes optimal number recycling business-critical. The iSM solution is the perfect solution to deal with these challenges.”

The iSM solution is part of our ISL framework which enables the operator to embrace new opportunities and capabilities including offering number selection, customer registration (KYC - Know Your Customer) and dealer management in a progressive and cost efficient manner. For more information: www.mobile-technologies.com

About Mobile Technologies Co., Ltd

Mobile-Technologies provide advanced services and solutions for wireless operators across the globe. Our leading-edge technology is based on many years of experience in telecommunications and we are proud of the value our innovative solutions bring to our worldwide clients. Our products and solutions are tailored for Mobile Operators. We cumulate years of experience in SIM lifecycle management, customer registration, SIM provisioning and activation, prepaid vouchers management and dealers management.

Important information

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