The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Africa

  • Africa woos private equity funds

    From milk churning in Zimbabwe to rose growing in Ethiopia, private equity investments in Africa have returned to pre-crisis levels and should keep rising as funds seek bumper returns in far-flung markets.

    Private equity deals in Africa totalled $8.1 billion last year, the second highest on record after the $8.3 billion posted in 2007, according to the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA).

    This year could be even bigger as investors tired of low returns in developed markets look to cash in on the rapidly emerging middle-class consumers in Africa – home to many of the fastest growing economies in the world.

    Private equity deals in Africa between 2007 and 2013 earned 60 percent more than the MSCI emerging market index, AVCA says.

    Traditionally private equity buyouts in Africa have been supported by development organisations but there are signs over the last year that global funds are taking more aggressive steps to tap into a continent of 1 billion people.

    “The growth story in Africa is compelling,” said John van Wyk, head of Africa at Actis, an emerging-market focused fund with around $4.6 billion under management.

    “Global funds are realising they need to have some sort of Africa strategy and that hasn’t always been the case.”

    Large U.S. private equity firms, including TPG and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), have made their first investments in Africa over the last year.

    The New York State Common Retirement Fund, one of the largest U.S. pension funds and worth around $180 billion, said in April it could invest up to $5 billion in Africa over the next five years to boost returns and diversify its portfolio.

    TPG said in June it would invest up to $1 billion in African companies under a tie-up with Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim’s Satya Capital, which has interests ranging from healthcare in Nigeria to manufacturing in Tanzania.

    Investments are focused on fast-moving consumer goods, financial services, healthcare and telecommunications. Bigger funds are looking at infrastructure projects, including filling massive unmet electricity demand across Africa.

  • U.S. plans investor roadshow for Africa to boost investment

    The United States (US) will launch an African investor roadshow later this year to connect entrepreneurs with potential U.S. investors. This is part of a push for increased trade with the continent, the U.S. commerce secretary said on last Friday.

    Speaking on the sidelines of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, which President Barack Obama  addressed on Saturday, Penny Pritzker said the U S was seeking to address the main concern raised by African entrepreneurs’ limited access to foreign capital.

    “The president and our department are very focused on how to improve trade and investment between Africa and the United States. It’s really top of our mind. And what we’ve found is that there is an enormous amount of entrepreneurial activity happening here,” Pritzker told Reuters.

    “It’s a really important effort because everybody talks about access to capital here… We listened to the customer.”

    The roadshow will be launched in New York in September during the annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations. In 2016, potential investors will travel to African countries, she said, adding that the specifics have yet been set.

    Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta among others have been invited to participate, Pritzker said.

    A wide array of African companies have started up in recent years to meet the demands of the continent’s fast-growing economy and to add value to the raw goods it has traditionally shipped abroad.

    But access to capital is a common complaint, in part because commercial banks require very high interest rates.

    The Nairobi summit and the African Leaders Summit held in Washington last August, were important showcases for the continent’s significant business potential, and were helping to counter negative perceptions of African business, Pritzker said.

  • Africa’s leaders and term limits

    On April 30, on a street of Musaga, an outskirt of Bujumbura, two men held up a pair of placards reading: “Peace we need” and “We say no to the 3rd term”. The duo were among the tens of thousands Burundians, who poured to the street in a perennial protest asking President Pierre Nkurunziza to jettison his controversial third term bid for good.

    In neighbouring Rwanda, President Paul Kagame, has made no secret of similar bid. The body language of president of Benin and that of his counterpart in Democratic Republic of Congo reveals the same intention to remain in power despite attaining their constitutional term limit. In Zimbabwe, the continent’s oldest head of state, Robert Mugabe, is enjoying limitless tenure since the nation achieved independence in 1980. In the same vein, the Gambia’s long-serving President Yahya Jammeh, is not looking forward to extend his tenure for a handful of years or so. He told the BBC in 2011, that he would rule for “one billion years… if Allah says so”.

    These and many more African leaders, who are unwilling to relinquish power, have been on a collision course with ordinary Africans’ strong support of presidential term limits.

    David Shinn, the former United States Ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia was said to have referred term limits for a country’s most important political leader as an essential component of building democracy.  He advocated for a gold standard of maximum of two terms, each of which does not exceed five years (seven years at most). Term limits, he explained, “are usually thought to apply to the office of president. But for countries like Ethiopia, where the prime minister holds most of the power, it is more important that the constitution designates term limits for that position, not the office of the president which is ceremonial.”

    Perhaps term limits can be a major hindrance to policy sustainability and sometime frustrate institution, especially for incumbent leaders but even occasionally for the led. As a result of these, some have expressed preference for leadership continuity rather than rotation because of the stability that comes with the former. Besides, many heads of government, Africans or otherwise, can serve their people effectively in a third or even fourth term. For instance, the first Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, who governed for more than three decades – from 1959 to 1990. Yet he oversaw the transformation of Singapore from a third world country into one of the world’s richest and most civilized nations, and into a new type of political entity.

    However, we have a host of other cases where prolonged stay in power leads to “syndrome of power in perpetuity” especially in Africa and the Middle East. A potent viewpoint on persistent leaders holds that they can be a biggest roadblock to transformation and fresh ideas. Multiple terms in office provides breeding ground for corruption, nepotism, tyranny, impunity and so on.

    But across Africa, the number of sit-tight leaders has been soaring over the years following the full-on metamorphosis of heads of government from transient leaders to presidents for life. In this context the old cliché, that children of today are the leaders of tomorrow has lost its currency, as far as democratic power transition from one generation to the next is concerned.

    Despite the paucity of smooth power transition across the continent, some African leaders have willingly turned over power in compliance with constitutional provisions. They include: former leaders of Botswana, Benin, Cape Verde, Mali, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and Tanzania. A truly extraordinary late Nelson Mandela had earned a peerless reputation for stepping down after his one term in office. But Jerry Rawlings of Ghana and Daniel arap Moi of Kenya complied with constitutional term limits under duress.

    Several African leaders tried in vain to change the term limit provision of their constitution so that they could run again. Zambia’s Frederick Chiluba, Malawi’s Bakili Muluzi and our own Olusegun Obasanjo ultimately bowed to the will of the political system and accepted term limits.

    Unfortunately, an attempt by West African leaders in May this year to adopt a common ground in favour of a maximum of two terms for all presidents in the region failed following disputations from the presidents of Togo (which abolished term limits in 2002) and Gambia.

    Based on an extensive and highly revered report published by AFRO Barometer recently, the following key findings were revealed. In 34 African countries, about three-quarters of citizens favour limiting presidential mandates to two terms. Support of term limits has been consistently high over time and is the majority view even in countries that have never had term limits or that have removed term limits from their constitutions. More-educated citizens tend to express greater support for term limits, as do citizens with greater exposure to the news media.

    It is obvious that Africans generally see the merit in term limits. Thus, it is time for more African governments to add term limits in the constitution and for incumbent leaders like President Nkurunziza it’s time to abide by the existing ones.

     

    • Rayyan wrote from Abuja
  • Africa’s private sector must play leading role in continent’s development —Tony Elumelu

    Africa’s private sector must play leading role in continent’s development —Tony Elumelu

    Idea rules the world. This certainly explains why many business men and women, upwardly mobile business executives in particular,  hold their ideas close to their chests to prevent others from stealing them and reaping from where they did not sow.

    This business mindset was however punctured last weekend when Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of United Bank of Africa (UBA) and the founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation, generously shared his business ideas and principles with 1,000 young entrepreneurs drawn from 51 African countries.

    It was a day that the celebrated business mogul lavishly  emptied  his business ideas and knowledge on the young entrepreneurs. The participants were in no small measure overwhelmed by their encounter with Elumelu who interacted with them in a camaraderie atmosphere. He enjoined them to ask  questions without holding anything back. Riding on this, the participants, threw a barrage of questions bothering on his personal life and businesses at him and had all their questions answered to their satisfaction.  They unanimously called on other established entrepreneurs to follow the Elumelu example by deploying their knowledge and resources to helping budding entrepreneurs.

    The occasion was the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme(TEEP) boothcamp held at the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Bishop David Oyedepo of Faith Tabernacle, Mr Lionel Zinsou, the Prime Minister of Benin Republic  among  other dignitaries graced the event.  The participants had the benefits of learning first hand from successful entrepreneurs across the continent.

    Sharing his business principles with the participants, he said:  “If you must be successful as an entrepreneur, you must have principles that you must not compromise. As an entrepreneur, I have my principles which would be of immense benefit to you if you follow them.

    The first principle is hardwork.  If you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, you must be hardworking and as they say, hardwork doesn’t kill. You have to imbibe this principle and follow it to the letters.

    “You also need discipline to excel as an entrepreneur. Any entrepreneur that is not disciplined cannot succeed. The fact that you own your business should not be an opportunity to behave the way you like, instead, it should make you to be focused and always exercise self-restraint.

    “The third principle you must have is the ability to think in the long term. You must learn to forgo short term gains in the interest of the future. Keep visualizing yourself in the long term and not in the short term.”

    He continued: “ As an entrepreneur, you must dare to dream. You must not be afraid of dreaming. Have a dream first and ask yourself what to do to achieve it. You must set milestones for yourself.

    “As an entrepreneur, you must learn how to save and make sacrifices. You must learn not to eat with you ten fingers. You must equally learn to partner with others and also close your ears to a lot of things people say because a lot of people say all manners of things in this clime. Always put issues on the table and not under the table. Be disposed to discussing issues and appreciate where the other person is coming from. By and large, you must not compromise the interest of the business in all you do. Lastly, you must make integrity your watchword in your dealings as an entrepreneur.”

    The idea of the event, Elumelu, said, was borne out of the economic philosophy “ I call ‘Africapilism’   – the belief that Africa’s private sector must drive our economy and social development. The vision is to unleash the inherent ingenuity and passion of African entrepreneurs by empowering them to create businesses that will drive the continent’s transformation.

    Africapitalism in the words of Elumelu  is predicated on the belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s  development.

    The foundation strongly believes that entrepreneurs are essential to Africa’s development-many Africans are already running homegrown businesses based on deep insights into local consumer demand. “They also spot unique  gaps in the market for specific products  and services, tap into local networks, and often create innovative and disruptive solutions to complex changes.The model of Africapitalist entrepreneurialism  is one that empowers individual Africans and harnesses the power of innovation, personal initiative, hard work and market driven ingenuity previously intractable problems and change our continent forever.

    “TEEP is a holistic 10-year N100 million commitment that will identify, grow, and create 10, 000 African entrepreneurs. A programme built by Africans for Africans. Africa’s destiny lies in the hands of Africans and I am a testimony to entrepreneurship in Africa. If I could succeed in this environment, then younger ones can also succeed,” he said.

    President Muhammadu Buhari, in a letter to the foundation, said he was pleased to see that the efforts aimed at promoting self-help and creating jobs and opportunities for Africa’s youths are gaining ground without overt government intervention.

    “This demonstrates that the work of rebuilding our country as well as the wider continent is one all the patriots and stakeholders must actively engage in.

    I am proud that a Nigeria and a Nigerian is taking the lead in this effort to promote self-worth, encourage entrepreneurship, create jobs, build and promote networks for intra- African trade, business collaboration and investment.”

    He added: “ Our administration is committed to unlocking all such opportunities to restore dignity to our people. This programme is one example I hope others will emulate ad I commend Tony Elumelu and his foundation for their endeavour and leadership in this area.”

    Elated that the economic transformation of Africa is starting in the country through Elumelu, former President Olusegun Obasanjo  said: “I am delighted that the spark of transformation of Africa through entrepreneurship , has been ignited in Nigeria. I congratulate the 1000 African entrepreneurs who made it to TEEP. I urge you to use the TEEP experience as a roadmap to help your entrepreneurship journey. And may the road lead you to  prosperity that benefits the entire continent.

    Commendations for the soft spoken business executive were not limited to the country. Other African leaders also appreciated the gesture and sent their words of gratitude to the foundation and its founder.

    President Boubacar Keita  of Mali in his terse  remark of gratitude said: “ Tony Elumelu, we appreciate your work supporting young Malian entrepreneurs. Thank you for this.

    His Senegalese counterpart, President Macky Sali, while expressing his unreserved delight about the programme,  spoke about his expectations from the nationals that attended it, saying: “ It was a pleasure to meet the five young men from Senegal who were selected into Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme. I know they would make Senegal proud and that collectively, the 1,000 entrepreneurs from all corners of Africa will leave Lagos with the right networks, knowledge and inspiration to make our beloved continent  a better place.”

    Aware of the impact that the programme would have on individual participants, their countries and the continent at large, Dr Nkosangana Diamini Zuma, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said: “ As a public servant tasked with advancing African unity and cooperation,  I believe there is no stronger evidence of the potential of private sector to promote Africasn unity than self changing initiative conceived in one member state to be accessible to citizens in all member states.

    “The Tony Elumemlu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP)  embodies the spirit of African unity. Beyond that, it stands for African solutions to African problems. Congratulations to the 1000 African entrepreneurs that made it to the TEEP boothcamp in Nigeria. Through TEEP, you have been empowered and with that empowerment there are no limits to your success and no excuses. Individually and collectively, you can help create ripples and waves of economic transformation across the continent, that will be observed and felt on other shores.”

    In spite of the accolades showered on him and the foundation, Elumelu remained humble, strictly concerning himself with liberating the continent from poverty and economic dungeon.

    Defining success, Elumelu, said: “ Success to me is for young Africans to succeed.”

    One of the participants,  Anthony Nwajiugo said: “ The booth camp has added value to our businesses. We all came here with different challenges bedeviling our businesses and I can boldly tell you that we have been equipped with skills and practical ways of tackling the challenges.  For me, the booth camp will help me to transform my challenges to economic gains.

  • Nigerian is UN-Habitat’s Director, Africa

    Nigeria’s most senior diplomat  at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, has been appointed Acting Director, Regional Office for Africa (ROAF), UN-Habitat.

    The ROAf/UN-Habitat is in 24 countries in the Africa. They include Nigeria, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia.

    The key focus areas are: urban land, legislation and governance, especially land management, urban basic services including water, sanitation and the energy sector, risk reduction and rehabilitation, urban planning and design – especially preparation of national urban policies, housing and slum upgrading, urban economy and urban youth livelihoods.

    Oyelaran-Oyeyinka is the first Nigerian professor in Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Technology Management. An erudite scholar, who strives to translate ideas into practical action, he mixes rigorous scholarship with policy advocacy.

    He is a leader in Development Economics and a passionate champion for African development.

    He was first appointed a director at the UN-Habitat in 2007, and during the period, he led several housing, infrastructure, urban and social development initiatives at both states and federal levels in Nigeria, including co-authoring Nigeria’s recently formulated: “Nigeria Land, Housing and Urban Development Roadmap” by the Federal Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, Abuja.

    He led the design and implementation of “City Structure Plan Programmes” in Osun, Kogi, Ondo, and Zamfara states. He  served as Director Monitoring & Research Division in which capacity he provided intellectual leadership for the UN-Habitat flagship reports: “State of the World Cities Report” and the “Global Report on Human Settlements”.

    His postings in the UN was as professor at the United Nations University – Institute for New technologies (UNU-INTECH). He spent six years at this global citadel of research and training in the Netherlands.

    Before then, he was Senior Economic Adviser, UN Centre on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva where he coordinated a 10-year review of performance of Least Developed Countries. After serving as Senior Research Fellow, he was nominated a Professorial Fellow in Innovation and Development, United Nations University- MERIT, Maastricht, The Netherlands; and Visiting Professor, Innovation and Development, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom.

    He is the author of “Rich Country Poor People: The Story of Nigeria’s Poverty in the midst of Plenty” (2014) and co-author of “Urban Innovation in China’s Shanty Towns” (2014) among a dozen other books.

    He is a board member of several academic journals and programmes as well as a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.

  • Nollywood stars shine at Golden Movie Awards Africa

    Nollywood stars shine at Golden Movie Awards Africa

    Ramsey Nouah, Nse Ikpe Etim, Adesua Etomi, Ayo Makun and OC Ukeje won various awards, at the maiden edition of Golden Movie Awards Africa, which held on Saturday, June 27, 2015, at the State Banquet Hall, Ghana.

    According to report, the Golden Actor in Comedy went to Ayo Makun for his comedy flick, 30 Days in Atlanta, while Nse Ikpe Etim won the Golden Actress in Drama category.

    The Golden Soundtrack Original went to Knocking on Heavens Door, produced by Emem Isong and directed by Desmond Elliot, while Golden Supporting Actor Drama went to OC Ukeje.

    Others are AdesuaEtomi who emerged Golden Discovery winner, while Golden Supporting Actor in a Comedy went to Ramsey Nouah.

    The event, hosted by KSM, according to the organisers, was put together to celebrate excellence in the creative art industry and honour individuals for their outstanding achievements in the film industry.

  • Facebook opens first African office

    Facebook opens first African office

    Facebook has opened its first office in Africa to further the company’s commitment to help businesses connect with people and grow locally and regionally

    Based in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, the company’s  newest business office will be headed by Ogilvy veteran, Nunu Ntshingila, the company’s new Head of Africa.

    The office according to a statement by the company on Monday will support the significant growth in businesses and people using Facebook — Facebook’s active user population in Africa has grown 20% to 120 million in June 2015 from 100 million in September 2014.

    More than 80% of these people access Facebook from their mobile phones.

     “We are inspired by the incredible ways people and businesses in Africa use Facebook to connect. This momentum in Africa comes on top of strong advertiser partnerships and excellent adoption of our products across all regions. In Q1 2015, 52% of our total ad revenue came from outside the US and Canada. But we’re just getting started,” says Nicola Mendelsohn, VP, EMEA, Facebook.

      “Mobile is not a trend; it’s the fastest development in communications we’ve ever seen. This couldn’t be more true in Africa – where so many people are mobile-only. This new office is a significant milestone for Facebook and our teams want to partner with businesses across the continent,” Mendelsohn adds.

      “Africa is important to Facebook, and this office is a key part of our strategy to expand our investment and presence across EMEA. Facebook is already a central part of people’s lives in Africa, and with more than a billion people in Africa, we want to do more to help people and businesses connect.”

     Helping businesses of all sizes to grow

     “Our new African office will support our customers across the continent. We know that a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work when it comes to building products and solutions that address diverse needs on the continent, which is why we are committed to creating solutions tailored to people, businesses and specifically for African markets,” says Ari Kesisoglu, Regional Director, MEA at Facebook.

     Kesisoglu continued, “Our priority for the next few months is to continue the work we are already doing with some clients in this region. We will work more closely with businesses and agencies to understand the challenges, so that we can build solutions that help grow their business. People increasingly want to be connected to the world around them and desire information about new services and products to better their lives. At the same time, businesses need stronger, more flexible and less fragmented ways of reaching people in Sub Saharan Africa. Our mission will be to connect brands and consumers in Africa, creating value for all parties in the process.”

    Adds Mendelsohn: “We are delighted we have a strong leadership team in place on the continent led by Nunu Ntshingila, our new Head of Africa. Nunu will join our team in September of this year and work with businesses and agencies across the region.” Nunu helped drive the creation of Ogilvy’s network in Sub Saharan Africa, which spans some 27 countries. A graduate of the University of Swaziland and Morgan State University in the US, Ntshingila has also held senior positions at Nike and the South African Tourism board.

     Growth markets

     Facebook will initially focus on growing its business in anchor countries in the major regions of Sub Saharan Africa:  Kenya (East Africa), Nigeria (West Africa), and South Africa (Southern Africa). Other supported territories include Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

     It will partner with governments, telecom operators, agencies and other stakeholders to deliver localised solutions to advertisers and users continent-wide. It will continue to focus on tailoring solutions, metrics and ad formats to the needs of customers and advertisers in the mobile-first, mobile-only African environment.

  • $1b infrastructure development coming for Africa

    The African Development Bank (AfDB) raised almost $1 billion in contributions from regional governments for a fund to develop roads, ports and energy projects, said Donald Kaberuka, the institution’s outgoing president.

    The bank plans to seek money from private African organisations, including pension funds and insurance companies, and later investors outside the continent, Kaberuka said in an interview in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

    The lender has also asked African central banks with “excess reserves,” and some have import-cover of as many as 10 years, to invest part of that money in the fund, he said.

    Africa needs to invest $50 billion a year in infrastructure to keep pace with economic growth, according to the World Bank. To help meet that need, nations are accepting a growing amount of foreign investment including from China, which more than tripled financing to the continent to $26 billion in 2013 from $7 billion in 2008, Bloomberg Intelligence said in a report June 19.

    The fund, known as Africa50 and endorsed last year by finance ministers and central bank governors from across the region, is targeting $3 billion in initial fundraising and $10 billion in the longer run.

    About $300 million will be spent on assessing the financial viability of projects and preparing them for investment, Kaberuka said. Shareholders in the Africa50 fund will meet next month in Casablanca, Morocco. The fund, initially scheduled to be operational by March 2014, will start working next month, he said.

    The AfDB’s loans and grants climbed 22 percent to $7.8 billion in 2014 from the previous year.

  • Africa must fight corruption, says Don

    Africa must fight corruption, says Don

    The need to fight corruption and materialism by Africans has been emphasised as the only solution to tackle the under-development being encountered by the continent. A political scientist, Dr. Olufemi Badru of the department of Politics and International Relations of Lead City University, Ibadan, made this known while featuring on a discussion programme tagged “Rhythm of the Black Race,” held at the Arts Theatre of the University of Ibadan.

    While presenting a paper entitled:”Africa and the Burden of Underdevelopment: Philosophical Diagnosis and Prognosis,” Dr. Badru stated that Africans must collectively and conscientiously determine to fight the systemic corruption that has eaten deep into the system of many countries.

    He further pointed out that Africans must eschew morally base descriptive values such as high- level of materialism, exploitative interaction, social irresponsibility, among other things, adding that they must embrace desirable values such as altruism, fellow-feeling, social responsibility, which he said were largely lost in the present day Africa.

     

     

     

  • eTranzact to drive mobile banking in Africa

    eTranzact to drive mobile banking in Africa

    eTranzact  International has held a mobile banking Masterclass in London, England. It was titled: “The future of mobile banking masterclass”.

    The event was attended by some heads of e-banking and mobile banking from Nigeria’s top banks.

    Members of eTranzact’s top management, including its CEO, Mr Valentine Obi; ED, Business development, Mr Sullivan Akala; ED, Strategy and Corporate Development, Mr Ike Eze; Group Head, Business development, Mr Adeyemi Adeyemo and other top management staff attended the five-day event.

    The major goal of the Masterclass was to provide a platform to discuss new innovations in mobile banking targeted at making mobile banking more about the customer and launching new innovations to make the customer onboarding process easier.

    Topics discussed ranged from how to improve the mobile banking experience for customers and innovations in providing support for customers, to unveiling eTranzact’s improvements in the onboarding process and mobile architecture of the mobile banking appliacation.

    With over 15 million smartphones  in circulation in Nigeria and with efforts by the OEMs to increase this number by making smartphones even more affordable, mobile banking adoption in Nigeria has also increased, leading to the need to scale up technology resources as well as think up new ways to make the process easy for customers, and eTranzact has been heavily focused on building the infrastructural backbone of what is required to take mobile banking to new heights.

    Participants at the Mobile Banking Masterclass spoke about some trends they had identified among their customers as well as possible ways they could improve the process.

    Speaking on what the banks and their customers should begin to see immediately after the Masterclass, Obi,  said: “To us, every product we build is ultimately about the customer whether at the corporate or individual level, and we want to ensure that we are meeting their needs both locally and globally, pushing ourselves every day. We understand the part we play in the growth of mobile banking and payments as a whole and through constructive feedback from our partners and innovation; we want to continue to play this role now and in the future.

    ‘’At eTranzact, we believe in using the power of technology to build bridges across continents and we will continue to invest in research and build up our capacity to achieve these goals.”

    Mr Adeyemi Adeyemo, Group Head, Business Development, who spoke on the achievements by his company, said:  “We are excited about the steps we have taken to improve the overall experience of our partner banks and for their customers. We have a key role to play in driving innovation and we are ready to embrace it.

    ‘’We come with major improvements in the mobile banking applications for all our partner banks and hope we can begin to roll out the changes as soon as possible. The changes not only cover the user interfaces of the different banks, but also try to merge the user’s lifestyle and improve the signup process for the application.  We are also working with all our partner banks to help them enjoy the full capability of the USSD platform for mobile banking.

    ‘’As mobile banking becomes more segmented, the next step is to achieve greater personalisation, and we want to make the user’s habits and needs focal points of the newly redesigned apps.

    ‘’With our new onboarding process, we want to eliminate visits to bank branches so consumers can begin using mobile banking applications, while still maintaining the security of the platform.

    ‘’Taking a look at the opportunities in mobile, the gap between mobile banking and traditional banking has closed significantly, with Gartner Inc, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, predicting that the global mobile transaction market will be worth $721 billion and more than 450 million users by 2017.’’

    eTranzact’s effort in mobile began in 2003 long before mobile banking was introduced in the country. The team believed that mobile would be at the forefront of payment innovation, and had a dedicated team working on research and development. This led to pioneering research that kick-started the mobile banking sector in Nigeria.

    A giant in the sector, eTranzact has deals with over 50 commercial banks and 350 micro finance institutions across Africa. It builds and facilitates mobile banking transactions through its mobile switching platformand has more than 12 years’ experience processing financial transactions in Africa,