The Management World Africa 2011, organised by TM Forum, in September 2011 in Johannesburg, brought service providers together to get insight into running a service provider business in the communication industry. Naturally, at the forefront of the proceedings was a detailed discussion and review of Africa’s mobile industry, and the opportunities that exist in it.

One of the most exciting things about the African mobile market is the opportunity to explore and capture markets. Since many services are barely existent for most customers, this opens up the market for service providers who can make their offering available to the market. The chance for saturation always looms ahead, as with any market. The Africa mobile market is growing rapidly each year, and it is likely to get saturated in five or eight years. In such a market, only service providers who have a strong infrastructure and customer support system can hope to survive.

In a market that is slowly getting saturated, operators and service providers must not only focus on new customer acquisition, but also lure their competitor’s customers towards themselves. How successfully they do this will depend on their products, their innovativeness, their understanding of the customer and how they serve them. This is possible with a dynamic business operation supported by IT.

An innovative market

Africa has emerged as one of the most innovative markets and one prime example of this is the way the market has embraced mobile payments.  This was initiated by Kenya’s M-Pesa which will soon expand to Afghanistan and later to India. Africa’s opportunity is in reaching out to global markets where they can capture a significant market share. The Africa mobile market has grown at an unexpected rate. Although local companies like MTN have their share of the market, names like Etisalat and Vodafone, recognising its huge potential, are poised to grab theirs.To retain their market share, the local providers must find ways, and formulate strategies to tackle their challenges, since those outside of Africa already have the experience to do this.

What does the future hold?

For Africa, the impact of mobile phones is different than in other parts of the world. Mobile phones allow people to work remotely, enhance communication and also promote ecommerce to some extent. While some parts of Africa have no connectivity of any type, some parts depend on the mobile phone to get their news and entertainment, and use their mobile phone to interact and conduct business.

In such a scenario, the future looks attractive, and it is the service providers in this market who will make the difference. Africa’s mobile market’s growth drives mobile communication trends. Considering that the market is yet to reach saturation, there is a lot of scope for new subscribers. That, and mobile banking are the two exciting drivers inviting outside investment.

Although the future looks bright, there also exist challenges for service providers.  One is the low revenue per customer, and the tendency of a majority of people to be on prepaid tariff. This brings up a security issue for service providers. Therefore, it all boils down to innovative customer service, while keeping an eye on the competition to survive and thrive in this exciting market.