Nigeria grows subscribers to 121m:

Nigeria’s mobile phone subscriber base has grown to 121 million, with internet user numbers up from 45 million two years ago, to 48 million. This is according to President Goodluck Jonathan, whose message was delivered in Bangkok this week at the opening of Nigeria’s Pavilion at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecom World 2013.years ago, to 48 million.

The president said the telecoms sector had brought over $25billion to the economy in foreign direct investment (FDI), while operators have displayed commitment to invest another $6 billion in the sector in the future.

The president, who was represented by the Minister of Communications Technology, Omobola Johnson, lamented that while the national economy was growing, “Challenges still persist with poverty reduction,” adding however that income distribution was improving while the “consumer class” is expanding.

“As at September this year, there were over 121 million active SIM (subscriber identity module) cards in the country,” the president said, adding that there is a high occurrence of multiple ownership of SIM cards, estimated at about two to three per subscriber, which he said meant that there were tremendous opportunities for growth in the sector.

“Opportunities also exist in the data and Internet markets. Internet users in Nigeria have risen from 45 million in December 2011, to 48 million in June 2012. That is three million new users in just six months.

“Figures we have from the four major operators (MTN, GLO, Airtel and Etisalat) show that between June 2012 March 2013 an additional 9 million new mobile Internet subscribers; that is equivalent to one million new subscribers per month,” President Jonathan said.

He recalled that at last year’s Telecom World forum in Dubai, Nigeria communicated its commitment to create enabling environment for the ubiquitous roll-out of broadband across its territory.  To achieve this, he said he had just inaugurated a multi-stakeholder committee to develop a roadmap to achieve a five-fold deployment and increase of broadband penetration by 2018.

“Since that time, this Broadband Committee has completed its work and its output, National Broadband Roadmap, is galvanising investment in the ICT sector.  A Broadband Council has also been inaugurated to track the implementation of this Roadmap; and important agreements and collaborations have been established between government at all levels and telecom operators,” the president said.

MOBILE MONEY: Boom yet to come in Africa:

Although Africa has taken giant strides in the mobile money ecosystem, only a small fraction of Africans are currently partaking in the mobile payment system. Olubayo Abiodun, Clifford Agugoesi and Chimezie Ndubisi look at the challenges and opportunities for the continent in the mobile financial services.

AFRICA is bustling with renewed vigour in this digital economy age. Several pundits have predicted that the continent would leverage the new opportunities that digital present. This optimism has been founded on the achievements in the digital mobile phone sector in many African countries.

Indeed, at various forums such as at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Mobile World, GSMA, AITEC, Africa Telecommunications Union, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) Africa has been acclaimed as the fastest growing digital mobile market in the world and biggest after Asia.

In the mobile money ecosystem, the three platforms evolving across the continent are mobile payments, mobile banking and retail money transfer. And as these platforms continue to evolve, new partnerships and offerings are needed to capitalise on the growing number of transactions. For instance, the Bank of Uganda revealed that more than one billion Shillings ($383,880) is transacted through mobile money each day.

Similarly, the CEO of VeriFone Mobile Money, Chris Jones, said that “with the value of electronic funds transfers in Nigeria alone expected to climb to N160 billion ($1.01 billion) per day by the end of the year, the opportunity for mobile network operators, banks, merchants and financial institutions is enormous”.

Africa’s leading role in the global mobile money market is reflected in the fact that it accounts for 15 of the top 20 countries by mobile money usage. And with an estimated 80 per cent of adults still unbanked, the potential for growth is enormous in Africa. This has become even more so with the new developments in commercial payments and the huge youth market that predominantly tied to mobile phones.

And as a result of the shift to the digital economy, the trend in the financial services ecosystem in Africa now includes mobile money, mobile banking, cashless economy, cashlite transactions, internet banking, and Point of Sale (PoS) terminals. These have also led to new transaction strategies within the ecosystem. These strategies include Person-to-Person (P2P) electronic transfers, Business-to-Business (B2B), Government-to-Government (G2G), Business-to-Government (B2G), Person-to-Government (P2G) and vice versa amongst others.