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Mobile Operators Collaborate on Interoperability of Mobile Money across Africa

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Eugene Juwah, EVC, NCC
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Nine mobile network operators, including Bharti Airtel, Etisalat Group, Millicom, MTN Group, Ooredoo Group, Orange, STC Group, Vodafone Group and Zain Group, have committed to work together to accelerate the implementation of interoperable mobile money services across Africa and the Middle East regions. Collectively, these operators account for 582 million mobile connections across 48 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

The GSMA’s Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI) programme is a global programme which also includes mobile network operators from other regions and focuses on helping them to successfully launch and scale interoperable mobile money services through identifying and sharing best practices, guidelines and processes, creating performance benchmarks, and providing regulatory support.

“We have seen the significant benefits of mobile financial inclusion in the developing world and operators recognise that, through collaboration, there are opportunities to extend this inclusion even further. Mobile network operators are engaging with each other, with banks, financial institutionsregulators, governments and ecosystem partners, to identify and implement solutions that will successfully allow more mobile financial services to be delivered to a broader range of people across both regions, while maintaining high service quality. We are very pleased that these operators are taking the next steps in providing convenient, affordable and ubiquitous financial services to men and women across the region,” said Anne Bouverot, director General, GSMA.  

It is estimated that 2.5 billion people in lower to middle income countries lack access to financial services and cannot adequately invest in their livelihoods, protect their assets nor mitigate shocks that cause them to fall deeper into poverty.

However, it is estimated that 1.7 billion of these people have a mobile phone, providing existing infrastructure that can be used to sustainably offer financial services such as payments, transfers, insurance, savings, credit and cross-border remittances.

GSMA research has shown that the number of active mobile money users continues to grow rapidly, with more than 61 million accounts active as of 2013.

As of December 2013, mobile money in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East and North Africa regions showed significant growth:

The regions accounted for 58 per cent of the world’s 218 mobile money deployments;

Sixty-six per cent of all registered accounts and 73 per cent of active accounts are located in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa; and

Mobile money users in these regions accounted for 77 per cent of global transaction value in June 2013, performing 341 million transactions totalling USD $5.7 billion.

Bouverot continued, “Mobile money is a young industry, with over 80 per cent of all deployments launched during or after 2010. In order to accelerate the growth of mobile money, we call on telecommunications, financial sector regulators and policymakers to provide a policy and fiscal environment that enables these services to be rolled out successfully to promote a nascent and important driver of commerce and socio-economic development.”


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Hotspot, Clear Blue Consortium Ink MOU for Solar-Powered Mobile Sites

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Hotspot, Nigerian last-mile connectivity and tower operator, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a consortium led by Clear Blue Technologies, solar-power company to deploy 312 solar powered mobile sites across Nigeria.

Hotspot, Clear Blue Consortium Ink MOU for Solar-Powered Mobile Sites

Under the deal signed earlier this week at Mobile World Congress 2025, the sites will feature Clear Blue’s Illumience Smart Power solar solution designed for telecoms infrastructure.

The Clear Blue consortium also includes Empower New Energy, which provides clean energy project financing across Africa, and Netis, which specialises in operating and managing telecom infrastructure and will the installation, operations, and maintenance services for the project.

Miriam Tuerk, CEO, Clear Blue, said the consortium has the expert skills and capabilities to quickly design, build and operate the network, solar power and tower sites.

“As everyone active in the telecom market in Africa is aware, it is a difficult operating environment with challenging TCO targets. And yet, it is probably the largest untapped telecom market in the world with significant growth potential”, said, Morenikeji Aniye, CEO, Hotspot.

“Clear Blue brings an innovative technology and service capability which, together with an innovative business model and structure, enables us to deploy and operate these sites while meeting stringent service and TCO targets.”

Clear Blue noted that the deal is subject to final contract negotiations and signatures.

Assuming everything goes according to plan, Hotspot will roll out the solar-powered sites at the end of this year.

 


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More Clients Turn to Glo’s Bulk Data Service

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Technology company, Globacom, has been experiencing substantial increase in the adoption of its Bulk Data services by enterprise clients. This surge reinforces the appeal of Glo’s innovative data solution among corporate organizations, schools, and tertiary institutions.

Glo’s Bulk Data offering is a user-friendly self-service portal that enables enterprise customers to gift data to other customers. This feature allows sponsors to allocate specific data amounts for free navigation of mobile apps or websites, with the sponsor covering the costs.

The service is particularly beneficial for educational institutions, which can purchase the Schools’ Bucket Data plan for students’ academic usage, valid for 90 days.

The Gifted Data Plan on its part, is available for a 30 days validity and offers flexibility, allowing sponsors to gift data to multiple Glo subscribers in various sizes, ranging from 200MB to 10GB, depending on the Pack the Gifting customer has subscribed to.

Sponsors can also customize SMS notifications to beneficiaries, setting Glo’s product apart from others in the market. Beneficiaries can easily check their balance by dialing *127*0# on their devices.

Glo’s Bulk Data service has become an attractive solution for enterprise clients seeking efficient data management, thanks to its flexibility, customization options, and user-friendly features.

The Bulk Data service is designed specifically for bulk data buyers, including corporate entities, schools, and tertiary institutions.


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MTN Strengthens Local Content Policy with Nord and GAC Partnership

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MTN Nigeria, one of Africa’s leading ICT companies, has partnered with automobile giants, Nord and GAC Motors to reinforce its commitment to its local content policy and support made in Nigeria products.

MTN

MTN

This partnership involved the procurement of a combined total of 33 cars for MTN’s customer-facing teams in Lagos and the North, including 22 locally assembled vehicles from Nord and GAC Motors, highlighting a strong commitment to local manufacturing. The additional purchase of 11 other cars further strengthened this operational initiative. These cars, essential tools of trade, play a key role in MTN’s customer engagement strategy, allowing their teams to commute to the field easily to deliver on targets.

In July 2021, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) established the Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NIDOTS), an office charged with the primary responsibility of ensuring the promotion of indigenous content in the Nigerian telecoms sector, through the enforcement of the Nigerian National Local Content Policy. This national policy serves as the framework for MTN’s local content commitments, supporting the Nigerian Federal Government in developing sustainable local societies, while championing digital and financial inclusion.

At a handover ceremony held at MTN’s Lagos Headquarters, Lynda Saint Nwafor, Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Nigeria, expatiated on MTN’s content policy and the relevance of this partnership. “At MTN, we maintain a stance on promoting local content development in Nigeria by enabling local supply chains through local procurement.”

Saint Nwafor further detailed how this partnership supports MTN’s logistics model: “We had some challenges over the years. The logistics model we initially wanted to adopt didn’t work, so we had to revert to the old model.

“This model allows our sales and client success teams to better commute to customer locations.”

MTN Nigeria remains committed to creating shared value and playing a positive and meaningful role in creating a sustainable and inclusive country.


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