Banks deploy 70, 000 PoS terminals in Lagos, says CBN

Hope Moses-Ashike & Ben Uzor Jr

Efforts towards sustaining Nigeria’s transition from cash to electronic-based economy are yielding fruits. As at May 7, 2012, deposit money banks have deployed a total of 70, 000 Point of Sale (PoS) terminals to merchant locations in Lagos. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who made this revelation on Wednesday at the Cash-less Lagos Fair 2012 organised by BusinessWorld in Lagos, said that the intention is to deploy over 150, 000 PoS terminals by the end of the year. Sanusi, who was represented by Olu Adaramewa, deputy director of banking and payments, CBN said Cash-Less  policy was designed to promote financial inclusion, reduce the amount of cash payment and encourage electronic payment.

This, Adaramewa went on was because the cost of cash and associated risk of cash-driven economy to Nigeria’s financial system was high. In fact, estimates show that the direct cost of cash management would reach N192 billion by the end of 2012. In order to encourage alternative means of payment, he noted that banks and acquirers have deployed over 9,000 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in and outside of the bank branches, adding these machines have the capability to enable bill payment, funds Transfer, Virtual top-up etc. He also enjoined all Nigerians to support this initiative in order to make the country one of the world 20 economies in year 2020 and by extension, take her rightful place in the comity of nations.

He said the fair afforded the opportunity for CBN to further enlighten the public on the status of the project and clarify grey areas of the implementation. “The policy on withdrawal allows individual customer to make a free cumulative withdrawal of N500, 000 daily across the counters and ATM. Withdrawal above the free limit will attract processing fees of 3 percent for every N1000 above the limit. Corporates are allowed to make free cumulative withdrawal of N3, 000, 000 daily. Withdrawal above the free limit will attract a processing fee of 5 percent for every N1000 above the limit.” As it relates to cash lodgement, he explained that the policy allows individual customer to make a free cumulative lodgment of N500, 000 daily.

“Lodgment above the free limit will attract processing fees of 2 percent for every N1000 above the limit. Corporate customers are allowed to make free cumulative lodgment of N3, 000, 000 daily. Lodgment above the free limit will attract a processing fee of 3 percent for every N1000 above the limit”, he posited. In the same vein, Ade Shonubi, chief executive officer, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System plc (NIBSS), said the market was responding positively to the Cash-Less Lagos Campaign having tasted the convenience and security benefits of e-payments. “A major area of concern in the quest to grow the Nigerian Payment System is achieving effective Publicity and Enlightenment. Besides, electronic payment infrastructures are on ground and are being improved upon by various payment service providers.”

He called on stakeholders in the emerging ecosystem to do more to bring payment services to the doorstep of the consumers of payment services.

Driving competition in telecoms... imperatives of mobile number portability 

Ben Uzor Jr

In the last decade, the Nigerian Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector witnessed exceptional growth in terms of revenue and subscriber number. To this effect, Nigeria has emerged as the leading mobile telephony market in Africa. This growth however has been due largely to regulatory and policy reforms in the country, and the emergence of a quasi-independent regulator, which in turn ushered in an era of stability.

However, the resultant improvements in investor confidence led to a copious inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which provided the financial lubricant required to sustain growth in mobile telephony infrastructure and services deployment in Nigeria.

In recent times, telecoms consumers have continued to complain about the poor Quality of Services (QoS) delivered by network operators. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) strongly believes that when fully operational, Mobile Number Portability (MNP) will tremendously impact on the quality of services offered by service providers.

MNP is a practice in the mobile telecoms industry whereby a customer can move his number from one network operator or service provider to another. This process of transferring customer numbers between service providers is called ‘porting.’ Number Portability is not to be regarded as a subscriber service, which a subscriber can subscribe to. It is a network feature that allows the subscriber to keep a unique mobile phone number but must be agreed to among different mobile operators within the defined national or regional boundaries.

Though a recent phenomenon, MNP has recorded significant successes in Asia markets which is very similar to the Nigerian scenario. In 1997, Singapore was the first to implement the scheme, Hong Kong in 1999, and Taiwan also implemented in 2005.

But more basically, these markets at the time had already achieved 50 percent mobile penetration rate compared to Nigeria’s penetration rate of 25 percent which still offered a huge underserved market with a population under licensed territory of 140 million people and mobile phone subscription of over 40 million. Evidently, Nigeria is ready for MNP. In the last decade subsequent to the successful deregulation of the telecoms industry, subscription has grown from 400, 000 active lines in 2001 to the current 96.6 million active subscriptions.

MNP can be locality based which enables a mobile subscriber to move from one location to another without changing mobile number. This will significantly reduce CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) cost and reduce roll out time in different regions in the vast Nigerian land mass for a new operator like Etisalat.

Second type of number portability is Service Portability that enables a mobile subscriber to keep same number when changing different telecoms services and this is commonly used for mobile value added service. If a subscriber on a donor network wants to access a particular service on a receiving network, there will be no need to change number for the duration.

Lastly, the Operator Portability that enables a subscriber switch mobile operator without changing the mobile phone number is essential for fair competition among mobile operators and to help new entrants gain market share.

The scheme, according to industry watchers, represents consumer choice in Nigeria’s mobile industry and that undoubtedly promotes competition.

Competition

For Bill Best, a global expert and former chief technology officer (CTO) of the GSMA, MNP represents an opportunity for the industry to progress and develop by breaking down one of the biggest impediments to customer choice – number lock-in. “Historically, telecoms services have been provided by monopoly operators.

The customer for the first time has real options on where to go for their mobile services and competition is the driving force for better quality of service, new products, wider distribution and – crucially – more affordable price plans. Besides, economies of scale lead to lower costs for operators and customers, but more importantly, for retail device and handset prices.”

According to him, as the early markets moved towards saturation it was obvious that competition was being stifled by number lock-in. For many reasons, he continued customers did not want to change their number and this meant that they had no choice but to stick with their incumbent supplier.

This impedes market development and is the principal reason for introducing mobile number portability. Moreover, the introduction of MNP is indeed a catalyst for customers to be able to shop around and retain their mobile number even if they changed to a new service provider.

Steve Evans, CEO, Etisalat Nigeria, said in an interview that number lock-in was an immense challenge to telecoms customers’ choices which many industry experts do not really emphasise. “Once a subscriber has a number from a particular network, it is usually locked-in into that network.

This means that the subscriber is tied to the good and bad things that the service provider offers. “However, with MNP, an opportunity arises for a subscriber to switch to another network without having to buy another SIM.

With this, the customer now has real options on where to go for their mobile services and with competitive offerings from various providers, quality of service is improved, new products developed and a wider distribution and more affordable price plans are made available to subscribers.

“We have discovered that as the early mobile markets moved towards saturation, competition was being stifled by number lock-in. Customers, who do not want to change their mobile numbers, have no choice but to remain with their incumbent operator, no matter the quality of service.

This development hampers market development and is the prime reason for the introduction of mobile number portability,” he posited. Explaining the rationale behind the number portability regime, Tony Ojobo, director of public affairs, NCC in an interview, disclosed that scheme was a regulatory intervention coming from the NCC, to further deepen competition. “We needed to change the tactics.

We needed something new, and creative, we needed something tasking, which will make the operators stand on their feet and address the challenges of quality of service faced by consumers in their various networks. “The commission needed to empower the consumers while they make the choice as to what network they chose to stay on.

With the number portability, regime, if a consumer is not satisfied with the service of a particular network, he has the choice to switch to another network, without losing his number, which is his/her, identity,” he said. Ojobo further explained that the reason why some people have remained on a particular even with poor service quality was simply due to fear of losing their numbers, which has become their identity.

“There are people who have been on a particular number for ten years, so when they think about losing that particular number, and building their network of friends, business associates all over again, they simply remain with the stalling operator,” he said.

MNP service providers

In March 2012, the telecoms regulator had issued the license for number portability service. The contract for the establishment of the MNP Clearing House, which forms the pillar of the scheme, was awarded last October.

A consortium of three firms had won the bid to operate. The firms that make up the consortium are Interconnect Clearing House Nigeria (ICN) Telecordia of the USA and Saab Grintek of South Africa.

These operators, according to the telecoms regulator will make it easy for mobile network operators to comply with number portability mandates by creating a centralised system for porting all number types which would thus ensure a smooth and trouble-free process.

The commission had earlier explained that these MNP firms would have only six months to build out requisite infrastructure to implement the scheme. In addition, an extra two months, according to the commission would be given to the MNP operators to carry out testing before rolling out the scheme in the country.

Ojobo pointed out that it was expected that in the first few months after the number portability commences, the telecoms industry would witness some movement from the telecoms subscribers to other networks until there is stability in the service.

Explaining that the stake would lie in the hands of the consumer to decide which network he/she chooses to be on, Ojobo said there would be rules and guidelines, which will be laid down, to guide against the abuse and distortion of network by subscribers who might like to switch more frequently than was required.

Guidelines

Determined to meet its target of commencing MNP scheme before the end of 2012, the NCC only recently released the first draft of a document detailing the rules and regulations for running an MNP service in Nigeria. However, the commission said the release of the document was to invite comments from mobile telecoms operators and other stakeholders. The first draft of the document titled: “Nigeria Mobile Number Portability: Business Rules and Port Order,” sets out the business rules to manage the processes for porting mobile number(s) (MSISDN) between mobile service providers, NPC and subscribers, licensed by the NCC to provide mobile telecommunications service in Nigeria.

The document, however, refers only to MNP which means it does not cover Fixed Number Portability (FNP) or any other form of number or service portability. According to NCC in its introductory message, the document had been prepared without prejudice to any future requirement for number portability between fixed and/or mobile customers.

The NCC said: “In furtherance to the NCC’s objectives of protecting consumer interest through the development, monitoring and enforcement of compliance with regulations by telecoms service providers in order to ensure better quality services, fair pricing and competition, and in line with the provisions of section 128 of the Nigerian Communication Act 2003 which vests the NCC with the exclusive right to regulate numbers and number portability in Nigeria, the Commission developed a framework for number portability in Nigeria.”

The NCC stated that the approval of the need to introduce the scheme by all stakeholders had galvanized it into setting in motion machinery for developing an effective framework that will ensure its successful rollout within the purview of the established laws in the country.

“Following the approval of the MNP framework, the commission began plans to develop the regulatory, legal and technical framework for the implementation of MNP in Nigeria as well as the process of selecting a suitable vendor to run the Number Portability Clearing House in Nigeria with the publication of an Request for Quotation (RFQ) document for the provision of services with regards to the “Administration of Number Portability Clearing House in Nigeria,” the commission said.

Industry readiness

Some industry analysts strongly believe that Nigeria’s highly competitive telecoms market is not ripe for introduction of MNP given the circumstances that the industry is currently facing. According to them, there is an urgent need for all stakeholders in the industry to come together and agree on the modus operandi and terms of number portability. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), in an interview, said: “the industry is not ripe for it.

But I would say the operators are ready for number portability but given the circumstances that the industry is facing, it is a bit doubtful if the industry as a whole is ready for number portability.

But there is a way around it and that is that all stakeholders must come together and agree on the modus and the terms of number portability.

Informed sources close to some of the networks told BusinessDay that preliminary consultations have already begun between MNP firms and top-level management of telecom firms in Nigeria on technical and commercial issues critical to the successful implementation of the scheme.

This is ahead of September date set by NCC for the commencement of the scheme in the country’s telecoms sector. Beyond that, MNP will enable Nigeria’s 96 million mobile telephone users to retain their numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.

However, BusinessDay also gathered that the scope of the ongoing consultations from a technical perspective revolves around how MNP firms can integrate with telecom provider’s Operations Support Systems (QSSs) and internal business processes, such as customer care, billing and order management.

“I am not aware of this. “But, it is critical that network element systems are integrated so the network can obtain the correct routing information for calls to ported numbers. “Fundamentally, operators and MNP firms will be discussing systems integration and interoperability of their systems.

And of course, there will also negotiate on interconnect charges and network handshake. “There will also be legal issues to discuss as it is critical to the success of the scheme. Discussions will also revolve around terms of billing, terms of porting, etc,” Adebayo posited. “I am not aware of this development.

But I believe telcos and MNP firms will have lengthy discussions on technical issues relating to interface of systems initially before commercial issues. “There certainly has to be an interface between telcos and MNP providers if the scheme is to be successful”, Lanre Ajayi, past president, Nigerian Internet Group, said in an interview.

Barriers

Often the biggest obstacle is the reticence and reluctance of the larger, more established operators to deploy MNP. Alluding to these operators benefiting from being the first operators in the market which has enabled them build the largest customer base, Best noted that these older and more dominant operators, though they might come out overtly to express their distaste for the scheme, see MNP as a threat to their dominance.

They believe that they can only lose customers to newer entrants and small players in the market. This, according to Best is an error of judgment because “it is the operators with the best range of products and service, the best quality of service and the best price plans that win the most customers. MNP enables the best Service Providers to win in the market place – not the biggest.”

As of December 2011, official subscriber statistics showed that MTN had 41.6 million subscriptions, while Globacom 19.8 million; Airtel had 16.1 million. Fourth GSM operator, Etisalat had crossed a critical threshold in subscription numbers with 10.7 million in the voice segment.

According to the former CTO of GSMA, the larger networks should look at MNP as an opportunity, adding that but all too often they actually act to slow down its implementation. “This requires firm and decisive action from the regulator to prevent happening.

MNP brings about the prospect of additional competition in the market place. Added competition among Service Providers does mean profit margins are likely to erode, but this will encourage them to innovate and introduce new and differentiated services.”

Dominant operators such as MTN have openly expressed their support for the scheme. “We have been preparing our business for it and believe that MNP would separate the boys from the men.

We are confident that MNP will deepen competition, it will restore the customer as king and any operator that is not giving a compelling value proposition to its subscribers in terms of pricing, quality and customer care will be punished when MNP starts”, Wale Goodluck, corporate services executive, MTN Nigeria said.

Conclusion

There is a crucial role for the government and/or telecoms regulator in every market as it relates to the introduction of MNP. Industry watchers say the time is right for MNP in Nigeria, adding that the commission needs to show leadership in devising the precise solution for the market place and setting deadlines for implementation by all mobile network operators.

Against this backdrop, the telecoms subscriber will be the chief beneficiary by having more choice available. The additional competition in the market place will stimulate service innovation, speed up the introduction of high speed data rate services, encourage telecoms operators to service their customers better and provide better quality networks.

Increased mobile penetration in turn increases national gross domestic product. Nigeria should be at the forefront of developing modern and innovative telecoms services for its consumer and business users – the implementation of MNP should be aggressively pursued. The telecoms watchdog is already making significant headway in this regard with the appointment of a Porting Administrator.

Finally, the Porting Administrator must as a matter of urgency facilitate the following: “The setting up of inter-operator implementation committees, agreement of porting business rules, technical implementation procedures, testing regime, a deadline for introduction,” Best advised.

Improving Nigeria’s internet presence for economic prosperity

Improving Nigeria’s internet presence for economic prosperity

FG, states slow down N1.9trn investments in network expansion

Ben Uzor Jr

Efforts by operators in Nigeria’s highly competitive telecommunications market to meet Quality of Service (QoS) mandates of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) are at present being disturbed by agencies of federal, state and local governments who delay in approving the site building proposals for the operators, Business Day can now reveal. Industry experts who spoke to BusinessDay have criticised the government’s approach, labeling it as counter-productive to economic development, as it prevents operators from rolling out the requisite network infrastructure to guarantee better quality of service.

Expectations are that operators will have to deploy additional 50, 000 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) – a critical network component required to deliver telecoms service to meet quality of service thresholds. Analysts have said that the industry would require an estimated N1.95 trillion to build the remaining 50,000 base stations that would guarantee optimum quality of service. However, efforts to roll out infrastructure are being slowed down by various absurd charges emanating from governments and their agencies which demand enormous sums of money from the operators before allowing them to build their base stations.

“The cost of building base stations from the time you secure the land where you want to install the BTS and the time it goes live is around $250,000,” Steve Evans, chief executive officer, Etisalat Nigeria confirmed in an interview. So if a base station costs $250, 000 (about N39 million), operators would require an estimated N1.95 trillion investment to erect additional 50,000 base stations across Nigeria to improve the quality of service by over 100 percent for voice and data services. Telecoms companies, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators inclusive, have so far deployed 20, 000 BTS, leaving a wide deficit of 50, 000 BTS to be provided for optimum service delivery.

Telecoms subscribers have continually expressed apprehension about poor quality of service (QoS) in the various networks. Already, stakeholders in the telecoms sector have condemned and blamed the unsatisfactory quality of services on the insufficient number of BTS. “Multiple taxation and regulation by a myriad of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal, State and Local Governments, increase considerably the lead time to roll out and costs of deploying such infrastructure.

“Theft, vandalism and sabotage of network equipment, etc impede our capacity to carry out timely equipment upgrades contributing to protracted site deployment timelines”, Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said. For Okey Itanyi, executive commissioner on stakeholders engagement at the NCC, Nigeria has made significant advancement in the provision of telecoms services over the last 10 years, “but recent developments in the industry with regard to various spurious taxes and levies by the state, local governments and their agents, portend grave dangers for the sector’”.

Itanyi said apart from their legal tax levels, many government agencies at federal, state and local levels had designed all sorts of spurious and illegal taxes imposed on telecoms operators for their towers sited in their vicinity, in a desperate quest to boost internally generated revenue. “Where operators resist to pay the levies by seeking justification for imposing such levies on them, their personnel have been prevented from maintaining existing sites, prevented from building new ones to boost service quality in such areas or the base stations ordered shut down by the government authorities. “All these debar telecoms firms from rolling out BTS to the required number for the expected quality of service.”

First published on Monday, 16 April 2012.

Tapping the potentials of Nigeria's mobile app market

The advent of the Global System for Mobile (GSM) in Nigeria more than a decade ago has brought with it immense opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovative minds. Perhaps, one of the most untapped gold mines in the telecommunications sector is the applications development space. Phone makers, telecoms firms are increasingly looking to forge strategic alliances with mobile apps developers to further expand the scope of the market, writes BEN UZOR JR

Global perspectives

Undoubtedly, the last decade has witnessed a remarkable transition in the global mobile phone market. The extensive proliferation of devices and mobile applications has turned the heads of every successful business player in the world, in its direction. Interestingly, the robust growth prospects in both iPhone and Android application domain has been drawing new players and inciting independent application developers to step-up the quality-levels of their solutions. But more importantly, this decade will indeed be best remembered as the dawn of a new era in the field of mobile phones and applications development. Those culpable, Apple and Google, the two dominant players of this ecosystem, must be given credit for this metamorphosis that has seen the sub-sector become a massive revenue generator.

Some industry watchers strongly believe that it wasn’t until the launch of Apple Appstore that the mobile applications industry started to blossom in earnest. First, it fundamentally changed the revenue model in favor of the developers which has become the current de-facto standard (70/30) in the mobile apps business. Secondly, it brought more developers into the ecosystem. It also fostered the before now erroneous idea that to be relevant one needed to focus on just 1-2 platforms rather than the entire device ecosystem. And lastly, the time-to-market equation changed for developers so that they could get the application from conception to market in a fraction of a time of what was possible in the past. Finally, the importance of a seamless end-to-end user experience to increase usage and monetisation became a core principle in the mobile applications space.

Market projections

Expectations are that the total global mobile app market will be worth $25 billion by 2015 (up from about $6.8 billion in 2010), according to projections from MarketsandMarkets. Obviously, App Store holds nearly 20.5 percent of that particular cake, while the global market is forecast to record a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 29.6 percent from 2009 to 2014. Advancements in network technologies, reduction of mobile data usage costs, growing adoption of smartphones as well as a continuous increase in application usability are some of the critical factors contributing to this immense growth. However, the risk of data theft through delivery of phishing and spyware in mobile applications remain the biggest downside to the surge in the numbers of available applications and capable phones.

According to the report, North America led the market since 2009 with a 41.6 percent revenue share. On the other hand, Asia is the largest market in terms of downloads with 36 percent. The European mobile applications market stood at $1.2 billion in 2009, but is expected to become the largest market by 2015, at $8.4 billion and growing at a CAGR of 33.6 percent during 2010 to 2015. In emerging markets, the dynamics of the app market are quite different. To effectively monetise the significant app momentum, creative strategies are needed to attract new consumers and different business models will be required to make the regional ecosystems viable. This, according to analysts is essentially because the active user base and growth rates in some of these countries exceed those from the western markets, irrespective of the device type. Overall, by enhancing discovery, improving user experience, dropping price barriers, and increasing developer revenue share, the apps ecosystem can continue to prosper.

Prospects in Nigeria

A huge market for mobile apps exists in Nigeria and Africa, analysts have said. This is basically because Africa has been underdeveloped for so long, and mobile technology in general embodies the possibility of bridging the digital divide and making information, entertainment and productivity tools easily accessible to the man on the street. Moreover, the immense work Mobile Network Operators’ (MNO) in Nigeria have done in terms of providing coverage across the continent cannot be over-emphasised. Besides, telecoms infrastructure is perhaps the most robust communication network infrastructure available in Nigeria. Bayo Puddicombe, a publisher from Pledge 51 who developed an app that is available on the Nokia Store, in an interview, said strong demand for applications exists in Nigeria.

He however expressed discontent that the bulk of the supply is coming from foreign markets and developers. “This also means there is an opportunity for mobile developers to create relevant content which will be useful to local users within the African context. “Coming to Nigeria, it is said that one out of every five Africans is a Nigerian. We are also the 7th largest country in the world by population count. “This country has generated a lot of interest from several international players due to sheer volume of traffic generated from people who access the internet using their mobile devices. For instance, Nigeria is rated as the fourth largest market for the Opera Mini (mobile phone) browser in the world today. “What we have found is that for a number of people in Nigeria, the mobile phone is the primary means of accessing information via the internet. This represents a huge market for local applications and tools.”

Challenges

The most significant challenges are primarily due to infrastructure deficits in several key areas such as power, communications, electronic payments, etc. These, according to industry watchers add significantly to the cost of developing applications and also reduce the opportunities for revenue generation. Most indigenous developers are optimistic that there will be considerable improvements in several of these areas in no distant time. On the bright side, the barriers to entry for an aspiring developer are relatively low. “If well harnessed, this can be transformed into a huge industry with significant potential for growth. When critically analysed, the major resources required to develop mobile applications are your mind, a half decent computer and maybe internet access.

Then once you have succeeded in developing a mobile application product and made it available online, you open yourself to not just a local market, but a global one”, Puddicombe posited. Though, there are a number of indigenous developers doing great things in the field of applications development, Nigeria is not close to hitting critical mass just yet. It is in our best interest to encourage more young people to consider this opportunity. This is probably one of the many answers to the unemployment challenges amongst youths facing our nation today. Several critical elements for the establishment of a vibrant mobile developer community are already in place. In Nigeria, funding for innovative start-ups of any nature is still a bit of an issue as the venture capital industry is still in development.

Moreover, a number of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have specifically expressed their desire to support local developers. Anybody with the right skill set can readily tap into that.

Nokia’s experience

Mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia is a strong player in Nigeria’s budding applications development market. Nokia strongly believes that indigenous apps developers must build locally relevant apps for the Nigerian market in particular and the African market in general. Olumide Balogun, services manager, ecosystem developer experience, Nokia West Africa, said that opportunities abound for local apps developers in generating huge income from the Nokia Store. Alluding to the opportunities abound in the emerging ecosystem including app purchasing and in-app advertising, Balogun said that there were over 177 publishers of applications on Nokia Store with more than one million downloads for their apps.

He further said that app developers on the Nokia platform have a 160 percent chance of getting their applications downloaded than any other platform. This, he explained, was largely because of Nokia’s widespread availability across the globe, adding that the Nokia Store records 11 million downloads per day. In view of this, industry analysts argue that local apps developers to brace and develop apps that would attract download. “In my opinion, the challenge for application developers in Nigeria and across the globe is to build applications that will attract downloads from millions of Nokia consumers across the world. Developers of any application on the Nokia store get 70 percent of all accruing revenue.”

Expanding market scope

Forging strategic partnership is critical in the emerging ecosystem, industry analysts have said. This, according to them is because within the Telemedia value chain, no single entity can run alone. Only recently, mobile network operator, MTN opened up its network platform to support locally developed applications. To this end, indigenous developers of applications that run on smart phones now have an opportunity to tap into the multi-billion dollar applications development market.

Beyond this, the increasing popularity of mobile applications has driven a need for operators to start focusing on reducing the barriers to adoption. In another demonstration of its desire to further grow the application ecosystem, MTN in strategic partnership with Digital Solutions Group, introduced a number of enterprise apps designed specifically to provide mobile workers access to their organisation’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and applications on the go, thus making them more productive and efficient. MTN Enterprise Apps also helps transforms an organisation’s workers into an empowered mobile workforce that can effectively get work done in or out of the office.

Speaking at the launch of the MTN Enterprise Applications in Lagos, Babatunde Osho, chief enterprise solution officer, MTN, said the launch was another indication of the company’s commitment towards developing a vibrant community of local developers, by providing a platform for ideas generation and more importantly, assisting local developers’ monetise their skills. Industry analyst say applications have now emerged as a fundamental driver of enabling lifestyle and productivity, as consumers want to access relevant content from PCs, laptops, mobile phones and even in-car systems.

Some of the apps showcased at the launch were: The MTN Transport and Logistics App that enables organizations with large fleet, monitor, track and manage their vehicles, drivers and deliveries remotely from their phone or handheld device. The MTN Field Force Automation App, which allows field sales teams take customer orders remotely and initiate deliveries without having to return to the office. Others include: MTN Device Security, MTN Device Backup & Sync, and MTN Cloud Storage Apps. “We are a South African company that is working with MTN Nigeria on the mobile applications development space. We had a similar launch in MTN South Africa last year.

“We are helping MTN to develop apps that can unlock business potentials for large and small business. We have the BATs, Coca-Cola, etc who are using these applications for their workforce management. It is solution that takes care of unique problems. Hence, we emphasise the customisation capability of the solution. Every customer has different challenges. And some have already bought enterprise solutions in their respective companies. This will be a layer on top of that, it is an enabler. Most of the enterprise solutions that organisations have do not have the scalability and mobility. This is an add-on for them,”
Ramsey Mosethedi, sales director, Digital Solutions Group, said.

Conclusion

Most of the resources required are freely available online and so I would say that what is most required is infrastructure in terms of stable power supply and affordable quality internet access. Then we will truly be positioning the country to produce a generation of innovative internet/mobile start-ups that emerge from a garage or basement somewhere and grow into successful multi-million naira entities.

First published on Business Day Media, Tuesday, 03 April 2012

PPP central to driving rural telephony, say telcos

Ben Uzor Jr

Operators in Nigeria’s telecommunications market have pointed out the need to adopt a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model in order to deepen rural telephony services in the country. According to the operators, there is need to harness the growth potentials in rural communities which could be catalysed by telecoms services. Osondu Nwokoro, head of regulatory affairs for Airtel told Business Day at a telecoms forum recently that there calculating addressable markets have failed to capture.

“PPP is central to getting rural telephony to work. Collaboration however must cut across domestic and international partners. One of the problems we are having with rural telephony is that operator buy-in is lacking in the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). There are no set targets and time- lines in terms of implementation. “There should be a list clearly stating and delineating those areas in Nigeria that are unserved or underserved, so that requisite funds could be delivered to them for the deployment of telecoms services. Rural telephony must be target and performance driven, “ Nwokoro noted.

Wale Goodluck, corporate service executive, MTN believes that more incentives are required to ensure that rural telephony succeeds. Although, several bottlenecks impeding network rollout in rural communities exist, Goodluck challenged telecoms operators to adopt low-cost models in providing telecoms services in rural communities. According to him, the future remained in rural telephony, adding that there would be greater purchasing power in the rural communities soon. Goodluck also called on government to improve on electric power distribution and to consider subsidy on telecoms infrastructure to ensure better rural telephony penetration.

For Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications of Nigeria (ALTON), the huge amount spent on diesel, generating sets and other associated expenses could otherwise be spent on network investment towards the provision of qualitative services to Nigerians. Speaking on power as a major hindrance to rural telephony, Adebayo said “community agitation and militancy across the six geopolitical zones restricts rollout, constraints maintenance and re-fuelling of sites, especially in rural communities, and the challenges seriously affect our ability to deliver the desired grade of service across the federation.”

First published on Business Day Media, 10 April 2012

Telcos to fuel generators with N46bn this year

Ben Uzor Jr

Telecommunications companies in Nigeria will spend about N45.9 billion in 2012 to fuel generators that power Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) – a critical network infrastructure component required to deliver telecoms services. Informed analysts in the power sector told BusinessDay that the amount could provide 284.8 megawatts of electricity at $1 million per megawatt, as states like Yobe, Taraba and Akwa Ibom can have 24 hours power supply if they have 284.8 megawatts of electricity each.

This gives credence to a recent CEO Survey conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers International Limited, which stated that among the major concerns to Nigerian CEOs is energy cost, which rated 93 percent on the scale of their major sources of concerns. The telecoms operators are threatening to “do something radical” in the next 18 months if the country’s epileptic power situation persists. A source told BusinessDay that tariff hike may be one of the options on the table.

Titi Omo-Ettu, president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), spoke weekend at a consultation forum organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to obtain requisite industry input as the commission looks to develop a five-year (2013-2017) management plan. Omo-Ettu, who addressed a broad section of industry stakeholders, said operators use 25 million litres of diesel monthly to fuel 20, 000 generators located at over 15, 000 cell sites across Nigeria.

“This invariably means telecoms companies will spend N45.9 billion in 2012 to fuel generators, given that a litre of diesel is sold at N153. If in the next 18 months nothing is done about this, we might do something radical,” he said. He said telecoms services were poor across board, adding that power supply contributes significantly in lowering quality of service levels in the industry. In the same vein, Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators in Nigeria (ALTON), called on government to eliminate some of the bottlenecks hindering deployment of telecoms infrastructure.

Issues revolving around multiple taxes, right-of-way licences, according to him must be swiftly addressed in order to assist operators roll out networks timely to meet the growing demands of subscribers. According to him, Nigeria requires 60, 000 base stations to meet QoS thresholds. “There are currently a little over 20, 000 base station sites in Nigeria serving a population of over 150 million people by the end of year 2011. In comparism, there were approximately 55, 000 base station sites in the UK at the end of 2011 serving a population of just 60 million people,” Adebayo disclosed. On the other hand, the NCC disclosed that it had adopted some definite measures to address the issue of QoS. Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, NCC, said the commission had engaged the services of seven Driven Test Contractors to carry out quality of service testing in the six geo-political zones and Lagos.

“They will commence fully by April. It is expected to lead to comprehensive and across-the-country quality of service monitoring. In addition, our Monitoring and Enforcement Personnel have been very busy lately, either shutting down the activities of illegal users of spectrum or engaging importers of handsets that are not type-approved. We will not permit professional banditry in the industry as we are fully empowered by the Communications Act to deal with issues of compliance and standard,” he stated.

First published on Business Day Media, 1 Apr 2012.