Namibia trumps New York in terms of SMS business
Africa is considered an emerging telecommunications market as statistically few people have fixed line telephone and internet access. Cellphone access, however, is something else. In South Africa, there is almost 100% cellphone penetration and Google noted for the first time last year that more internet search requests were coming from cellphones than landline PC’s in South Africa.
As the world continues to spiral downwards economically it is likely that economic recovery will be led by China and other emerging markets including Africa. The GSM leaders at the 2009 World Mobile Congress held in February, 2009, Barcelona, Spain stated that: “we expect growth (in Africa) to come particularly within the Telecoms and Banking sector.”
Africa definitely has led the way in terms of banking mobility with two of South Africa’s biggest banks – FNB and Standard Bank both offering SMS transaction notifications and using text messaging functionality to act as fraud and identity theft deterrents. Kenya has recently changed its banking regulations to permit a broad range of mobile financial services that include cash to mobile, mobile to cash and mobile to mobile transfers. Hopefully South Africa will not be far behind.
The implications for Africa, which has a large proportion of unbanked and under-banked people, are that business can continue growing reaching even into inaccessible rural areas. With more than 300 million cellphones on the continent, the potential market is vast. Mobile banking options take the huge infrastructural investment needed to reach rural areas out of the equation for banks. Africans have already embraced and understand cellphone technology and are using SMS as their primary communication medium. SMS text messaging is the most obvious and most affordable means of communicating on the continent.
MTN’s Y’ello Money campaign is a secure way for MTN subscribers to send money, buy airtime and pay bills with their cellphone. With MTN MobileMoney customers do not need to have bank accounts. They have already launched in Uganda and central West Africa including Cameroon, Ghana, Cot d’Ivoire and Nigeria and now are setting up pilot projects in Benin, Congo Brazzaville, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry and Liberia.
With innovative SMS services like this operating through Africa, more formal banking institutions need to take note and follow suit before they are left out of this potentially lucrative market. Joe DiVanna is the MD of the Cambridge think tank Maris Strategies and the author of several books focusing on financial services. He had the following points to make on the 2009 World Mobile Congress website. Banking in Africa is about finding new customers across all levels of the economic pyramid, he says, and African bankers must learn to think like consumers. One of the problems that he identifies in today’s global banking system is that banks are focused on the transactions and not the customers. Fortunately for African banks, in most African markets more than 86% of the population has yet to experience formal banking of any kind. This presents a unique opportunity to do things right the first time around. One of these is to cater to the kind of banking system that is realistic and that works for customers – this is where SMS mobile banking enters the picture.
SMS text messaging can be used for a wide variety of banking functions. These include SMS fraud alerts, account activity SMS notifications, point of sale SMS receipts, security features like PIN codes being sent by text messaging and mobile payment and transfer options. There are additional security features that can be put in place to ensure that each SMS text message is sent and received securely. Mobile banking could revolutionise the way that Africa conducts business, firmly establishing the continent as a leader in this field.
Related posts:
- International SMS Opens Up World for African Networks (3) International SMS functionality offers particular promise for social networks operating...
- Understanding SMPP and How It Can Mobilise Your Business According to the South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF), 69.8%...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
No Comments Yet