The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mobile

  • UBA introduces mobile PoS

    United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has introduced mobile Point of Sale (mPoS) terminals to boost its e-banking transactions.

    The mPoS terminal is about the size of Blackberry Curve phone, but works like the traditional PoS now used in many stores and cash collecting business outlets. mPoS terminals are portable, low cost and extremely secure.

    Many stores and cash collecting outlets that have already operated the new UBA mPoS have discovered it to be a good strategy to increasing sales and expand their customer base. Existing large retailers are also adopting Mobile PoS solutions and integrating them into their current point-of-sale environment to enhance the retail and payment experience.

    mPoS allows even the smallest business to track and analyse sales and trends as all sales are automatically and instantly captured on the retailer’s system thereby enthroning accountability. It is also suitable for firms that have agents on the field collecting cash on their behalf as an option to the less secure pay on delivery system.

    UBA’s Deputy Managing Director/CEO Africa Kennedy Uzoka: “mPoS is just one of our many e-banking innovations.We have driven other initiatives, such as the acceptance of international cards on our PoS terminals.

    “Our PoS terminals are also enabled for Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), which means customers and non-customers using foreign payment cards on our PoS, can see their transaction value in the currency of their card or home country,” adding, that this aids transaction tracking and personal account reconciliation.

    Last year, the lender  introduced bill payments, such as airtime top up, utility bills payment and Cable TV subscription on its PoS terminals in designated locations.

     

  • ‘Mobile vending taking firm root’

    Like any regular working class Nigerian, Samuel Roland dresses up and leaves his home in Iyana Ipaja, Lagos, every morning for his business at Ogba. He returns to his family of five (a wife and four children) in the evening with his day’s earnings.

    Mr. Roland’s first three children are plying their ways through primary school. The last is the latest addition to the family with no burden, but worries the parents with increasing expenses. His wife does not work.

    He does not own a car, but he can afford transportation fare for himself and his family. He does not suffer lack of food, as he confirms that he and his family eat three square meals every day. He pays his utility bills diligently and wears the best of the outfits he can afford.

    Mr. Roland is a mobile vendor at the Ogba motor park where he advertises his goods by himself everyday from 8:00am till evening and sells as much as he can. His business thrives solely on his oratory power and his ability to convince passengers to patronize him. Another mobile vendor along Oshodi express way, Abdulazeez Adigun leaves home every morning, carrying his big bag of plantain chips to the road side, where he walks in the middle of the traffic, exchanging money for each pack of chips that leaves his hand.

    Gone are the days when one had to walk long distances or drive through traffic to get basic goods and services. From the guys carrying electronic materials and food items, including drinks, in traffic, to the lady that jumps into buses carrying a bag full of pharmaceutical products which she introduces to prospective customers in an attempt to encourage their patronage; including the yoghurt sellers wheeling their bicycles with an attached cooler of yoghurt.

    Mobile vending affords customers ease of access to materials they need to acquire on as short notice as possible and at the fastest pace. It is as easy as rolling down the windows of one’s vehicle on your way to work and you can get almost anything you want, or entering into a commercial bus and your needed product is in front of you and at cheaper rate sometimes.

    Mr. Roland, who sells herbal products at Ogba bus stop in Lagos, says the business is profitable. According to him, he makes about N15 000 at the end of every week. For him, graduate unemployment exists only in the imagination of people that are not creative or lazy.

    A Business Administration student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, he manages to cater for his family, including his education and that of his children. With his education and occupation, Roland also combines his music talent on which he dazzles his audience in churches as often as he is given the opportunity, with the stage name, Ojima.

    “Seeing people such as me shouting in the garage to attract patronage is very rewarding. You not only make profit, you also acquire very good oratory skills. It helps you to master the art of public speaking and you must convince your customers to buy the product. I can even talk to the president now, without fear,” Mr. Roland said.

    A plaguing challenge on the business, however, rests on the quality of products sold by mobile vendors. The products are not affiliated with a certified retailer and the sellers rarely maintain the same position for too long, hence the fear that the goods are substandard or out rightly fake. Counterfeiters do not make the case any easier with their dubious ways of selling fake items to unsuspecting customers.

    Angered and vengeful, Mrs Onwenu Chisom vowed never to patronise roadside vendors anymore since she was deceived into buying a phone that had no battery in traffic. Her tale recalls the verbiage, once bitten, twice shy, as she lamented, “I didn’t want to buy that phone that day, but I needed a small phone urgently and there was no time for me to visit any of the mobile phone dealers in the market, so I just risked buying from one of these boys running about in traffic, not knowing that I would regret it”.

    There is much happier news from Adewumi Adeleye, an engineering student of a prominent private university, who was wearing her sun shades proudly, recently purchased from a mobile vendor.

    Mr. Roland also confirmed that another setback for his business is the mentality of many Nigerians that cheap products mean fake products. According to him, all kinds of people, including millionaires buy his products and even make special orders from him, but it is only those who believe in the potency of herbs.

     

  • Etisalat, FirstBank partner on mobile money

    Etisalat, FirstBank partner on mobile money

    Etisalat Nigeria and FirstBank have partnered to provide Firstmonie on the Etisalat Easywallet subscriber identity module (SIM) application solution.

    The partnership between the telco and leading banking institution will promote the use of Firstmonie on the mobile technology driven easywallet SIM application.

    Director, Business Segment at Etisalat Nigeria, Lucas Dada, said the partnership between Etisalat Nigeria and FirstBank will provide added value to all customers and stakeholders in the mobile money industry.

    “Etisalat Easywallet, is one of the most secure and convenient platforms for mobile money services. With the Easywallet, Etisalat subscribers can make financial transactions such as Peer-to-Peer transfers, Bills Payment and Airtime top-up, directly from their mobile device,” he said.

    He added that Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Africa collectively contribute a lot to the nation’s economy and this necessitates the need to support this segment of the economy by making financial transactions easier, safer, more efficient and innovative. He described Easywallet as one of Etisalat’s strategies of facilitating financial integration of the SMEs.

    Etisalat Easywallet is the first to partner with prominent Nigerian banks and independent Mobile Money Operators including FirstBank, GTBank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Zenith Bank and Pagatech. It is convenient and helps our corporate clients (SMEs) to also enjoy benefits of cost reduction, inventory management, streamlining intermediaries, ensuring price transparency and competitiveness, the telco said.

  • Mobile money: The new face of banking

    Mobile money: The new face of banking

    Gone are the days when depositors must visit the bank for all transactions. With mobile money, banking has become easier. This payment module, which has grown beyond its original concept, has a lot of prospect, writes COLLINS NWEZE.

    As 45-year-old lawyer Michael Obi waited out-side the courtroom for his colleagues, his smartphone beeped with a familiar SMS message alert. It was another reminder for him to pay his public power supply bills.

    In three minutes, he opened his mobile money platform on his phone and the payment was done. A few years ago, he could only have imagined been able to make such payment with such ease without going to the bank.

    This is the new face of banking via mobile money. The dream of getting financial services to all nooks and crannies of the country is being jointly pursued by both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).

    That vision, many analysts, said would be largely driven by mobile money, which refers to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed  via a mobile device.

    With mobile money, instead of paying with cash, cheque, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for a wide range of goods and services.

    In 2008, the global market for all types of mobile payments was projected to reach more than $600 billion by 2013. In developing countries, including Nigeria, mobile payment solutions are deployed as a means of extending financial services to the unbanked or under-banked. This group constitute about 50 per cent of the world’s population, according to Financial Access’ Report.

     

    Why financial exclusion persists

    A key reason for financial exclusion is typically the inaccessibility of the unbanked mostly people in the lower strata of the economy, by the financial services providers. The unbanked are often far removed from the centre of commerce, which tends to lower their participation in economic transactions.

    Thus, a combination of low demand for financial services and prohibitive costs without commensurate returns dissuades financial services providers, such as banks, insurance, and pension administrators from establishing physical presence in these locations.

    However, mobile technology and innovations in the financial services industry, coupled with the phenomenal growth in telecoms’ subscriber numbers, have altered this situation.

    Financial services providers continue to leverage the reach of telecoms networks to provide mobile money services to otherwise inaccessible locations.

    The recent spate of agreements on mobile money services between financial institutions and telecoms networks, MTN and Diamond Bank, UBA and Airtel, Stanbic IBTC Bank, First Bank, Ecobank and Globacom, will doubtless ramp up the synergy that should lead to further growth in mobile money.

    The poster boy of the successful integration of the rural/informal populace into formal banking system via mobile money services is usually Kenya. And rightly so. M-PESA, Kenya’s mobile money system, has been hugely popular and successful in that country. Today, M-PESA has over 40,000 agents and 17 million users (“equivalent to more than two-thirds of the country’s adult population, conducting more than two million transactions daily.

    In 2010, Kenya had just 840 bank branches and 1,510 ATMs to serve a population of 47 million people. M-PESA, with its 40,000 agents, helped to plug the supply hole and provide access to financial services to ordinary Kenyans.

    Micro finance institutions piggybacked on M-PESA to penetrate remote areas very quickly without substantial increase in costs.

    In other countries, some financial institutions seemed to have found the right mix to ensure successful deployment of mobile money. Standard Bank (parent bank of Nigeria’s Stanbic IBTC Bank), for instance, has been successful with mobile money in Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa.

     

    Bank-led model

    The bank-led mobile money model adopted by Nigeria may be slightly different from Kenya’s telecoms-driven model but the underlying peculiarities are broadly similar.

    Access, costs, lower economic activities, and partnerships are common threads. The lessons of M-PESA are not lost though as mobile operators like MTN Nigeria is beginning to play more significant roles in mobile money.

    One of the mobile money pacesetters is the Diamond Y’ello Account, a mobile money product developed by Diamond Bank in partnership with MTN. For instance, since the introduction of the product four months ago, the bank has grown its mobile banking customer base by more than 600,000. The bank projects that it would have five million mobile banking customers, double the current size, a year from now.

    Among the partnerships positioning to offer mobile banking services in Nigeria, the Diamond Bank/MTN deal perhaps has the greatest advantage due to MTN’s experience in the sector in countries, such as South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya.

    Even better is the telecoms giant’s Nigerian footprint. MTN’s reach covers 223 cities and towns, more than 10,000 villages and communities and across many highways in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Its fibre optic transmission backbone traverses over 10,000 kilometres.

    Chief Executive Officer (CEO), MTN Nigeria, Michael Ikpoki, said the network would focus on meeting the significant market demand for financial services and mobile content with an expected positive impact on data revenue.

    “The success of Diamond Y’ello Account and other basic mobile money services is expected to lead to the adoption of more sophisticated mobile payment solutions such as bulk mobile payment designed for corporate organisations. This service makes it easier for organisations to send money in bulk to their suppliers, employees or other business partners without the beneficiaries necessarily having to own a bank account,” he said.

    Mobile money providers are also expected not be shy to adapt and replicate what works in other places but continue to innovate and develop bespoke products and services to excite consumers and boost conversion rate.

     

    Benefits to consumers

    Some of the benefits to the consumer include security, convenience, accessibility, speed and ease of transaction, competitive charges, access to quality advisory services, and integrity of transactions; the customer literally carries his bank in his pocket or bag wherever he goes.

    Other not-so-obvious benefits, which are nonetheless important, are better cash flow management, enhanced financial planning, and inculcation of sustainable savings habit, which boost financial security and comfort in retirement.

    “Mobile payments, which I perform on my phone, help to reduce my travelling costs,” a farmer in rural Nigeria who uses mobile payment services said.

    Mobile money also has the potential to galvanise economic activities, leading to higher socio-economic development, lower cost of transactions and reduction of cash handling costs, among other benefits.

     

    Role of regulators

    Nigeria’s telecoms subscriber base, put at 131 million as of last September by the NCC, should play a major role in bringing the unbanked into the formal banking system.

    With over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s adult population unbanked, mobile banking could be the catalyst that will help quicken the adoption of banking services by this critical segment of the population.

    CBN Director, Payment Systems Unit, ‘Dipo Fatokun, said apex bank believes that mobile money and agent framework is the frontier of cashless boom.

    “Mobile money is the next thing expected to transform CBN’s cash-less policy. The apex bank believes that such initiative will aid both telecommunications and banking industries to further serve Nigerians better,” he said.

    Offshore portfolio managers appear to be similarly persuaded and they are already positioning to take advantage of the expected growth in mobile money.

    For instance, Carlyle Group, a United States-based global alternative asset manager with $203 billion of assets under management across 129 funds and 141 fund of funds vehicles, recently acquired a $147 million (about N27 billion) minority stake in Diamond Bank, partly on the strength that the bank’s new mobile banking service “will help rapidly boost the lender’s customers and profits.”

    Also strengthening mobile money is the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Commission’s (NDIC’s) extension of deposit insurance cover of up to N500, 000 to mobile money account holders.

    That, analysts said, implies that with NDIC’s Pass-Through Insurance, a mobile money account holder is indemnified to the tune of N500, 000 if a mobile money service provider becomes insolvent.

    They insist that many such consumer-centric regulations are needed to excite stakeholders and engender further uptake.

     

  • PAPDAN to showcase best of mobile innovation at expo

    PAPDAN to showcase best of mobile innovation at expo

    The Phone and Allied Products Dealers Association (PAPDAN) is set to showcase the best of mobile innovation at the Phone Expo Nigeria (PEN 2014) in Lagos next month.

    Its Chairman Mr. Iyke Nwosu, said the influential trade group would leverage on the event to bring the best in mobile handsets, devices and technologies “under one roof for the benefit of Nigerian consumers.”

    At a briefing, he said the event packaged by Technology Times Events, would feature exhibitions of latest mobile technologies and collate unique events at the annual gathering of the mobile ecosystem.

    The PAPDAN head lauded the expo initiative, saying that it would offer members of the association a platform to connect with consumers.

    “We also believe that PEN 2014 will enable PAPDAN to promote the mission of the association to promote the interest of Nigerian mobile consumers,” Nwosu said.

    He  said the association had become a catalyst in the growing mobile telephony  sector.

    PAPDAN, based at Ikeja Computer Village, Nigeria’s biggest technology market, has over 5000 members employing more than 25,000 across the mobile value chain, Mr. Nwosu said.

    According to the chairman of PAPDAN, in Computer Village alone, members of the body recorded in excess of four million units of monthly sales of diverse handsets and devices to consumers coming from across states in the country and the West African sub-region.

    “PAPDAN has been crucial to the growth of the mobile telephony market in Nigeria as our members were the first to introduce dual-SIM phones. The big brands were cynical at the time but they are all now playing catch-up to gain market share in the country,” Nwosu added.

    He further said: “When we introduced dual-SIM phones, people were laughing but you can see that today, a lot of the established brands are also playing catch-up.”

    Nwosu said insights gained from mobile phone market trends in Nigeria show that consumers need and preference continue to grow for latest technologies and innovative products.

    “One factor that drives everybody is pricing. The market is highly price-dependent and driven but consumers still want phones with lots of functionalities. Most of the consumers are looking for cheap phones and brands within the N5000 to N15000 price range are the market leaders that we have seen”,  PAPDAN chief explained.

    He said consumer preferences were also shifting towards android devices that “allow them to do a lot of things”, noting that there is increasing demand for bigger screens that allow them to watch videos on the devices.

    Based on market insights, the PAPDAN chairman said consumers still ask for established global brands but several relatively newer players are recording impressive performance in Nigeria because they bundle good features and also compete on “good price points”.

    According to him, brands that have been able to fit into the “affordable” device segments of the Nigerian market include Tecno, Gionee, Maxtel, G-Tide, Gowin, M-Horse, among others due to compete features and pricing.

    Nwosu said Nokia is witnessing a market rebound as the number one in the device market with growing demand for its cheaper phones like the Nokia X, which bundles Windows Phone and Android OS.

    According to him, “Nokia is now doing very well and has become number one because most of their sales are coming from the low-end phones.”

    Tecno is considered number two in the mobile device segment because the brand fits very well within the affordable phones category ahead of Samsung, he said.

    According to him, Samsung is number three and has gained market attraction with an aggressive marketing and introduction of new brands.

    Nwosu believed that Gionee ranks fourth in Nigeria driven by price advantages, features and local “market consistency.”

    He said: “PAPDAN activities in the areas of combating counterfeiting has increased consumer confidence and that is part of the message that we are bringing to the PEN 2014 Show.”

    PAPDAN has prevailed on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to improve on the standards of phones shipped into Nigeria and establish Service Centres to provide support to consumers, he said.

    “So far, PAPDAN has registered 46 brands that have met the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) standards for certification and packaging,” he added.

  • eTranzact wins best mobile money service award

    eTranzact wins best mobile money service award

    eTranzact International PLC, Africa’s leading provider of mobile banking and payments services, has been named best mobile money service category of the AfricaCom awards and Lead Africa Awards 2014. One famous product offering, “PocketMoni” ,won the award.

    eTranzact’s effort in mobile began in 2003 long before mobile money was finally introduced in Nigeria. The team always 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 and eventually birthed “PocketMoni”, the mobile money service.

    The service has won a series of awards and grants, the most recent one coming from EFInA, a financial development organisation which is funded by the UK Government’s Department of International Development (DFID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the tune of USD250,000. As part of the terms of the grant, eTranzact will also put in USD100,000 and will drive the execution of a mobile money project called the “PocketMoni 500” in North and South Western Nigeria.

  • Mobile money transactions hit N98.1b

    Mobile money transactions hit N98.1b

    •‘46% financially excluded’

    The Minister of Communications Technology (ComTech), Dr. Omobola Johnson has said total transactions achieved through the use of mobile money since it was introduced about four years ago has hit $600million (about N98.1billion) while total number of people that have subscribed to the initiative is also about one million.

    She lamented that while the situation is gradually improving, currently 35 million adult Nigerians (about 46 per cent) are financially excluded.

    Dr Johnson who spoke at the Centre for Value and Leadership (CVL) Economic Growth Sectorcelebration in Lagos, said more people in Nigeria have a mobile phone than have a bank account, adding that 75 per cent of adults living in urban areas and 39 per cent of them living in rural areas have access to a pre-paid mobile phone services.

    According to her, 18 mobile money operators have so far been registered while since the commencement of operations, approximately one million people have subscribed to the alternative payment platform.

    She said about 67,000 persons have been registered as agents while over 11million transactions of over $600million have been conducted

    “While uptake has been initially slow, improving infrastructure, fine-tuning of legislation and increasing confidence in product by consumers will result in significant acceleration

    “Mobile money is currently mostly used to buy airtime; it however has the potential to serve as a platform for drawing more people into formal financial services,” she said.

    She lamented that analysis has shown that a significant proportion of payments in the country are cash based with total payments estimated at $695billion (about N113.7trillion) per annum. Of these, cash accounts for over 90 per cent of transactions in terms of volume, and about 60 per cent in total value

    “Bank transfers and cheque payments combined make up less than 0.5 per cent in terms of volume and approximately 38 per cent in terms of value.

    “Other digital forms of payment are increasing in volume however they currently make up only about two per cent in value

    “Most payments (in terms of value) are between businesses and persons (B2B, B2P, P2P); government payments however have high potential to change the payment landscape of the country,” the minister said, adding that cash-based transactions are not only expensive but risky and promote insecurity in the financial system and the country.

    According to her, to redress this situation, the Federal Government has started implementing policies to increase the adoption of digital forms of payments with information communications technology (ICTs) being at the heart of the success of such policies, especially in the area of providing infrastructure for the delivery of services, applications for management, security and adoption of services.

    She said: “Although the situation is improving, currently 35 million adult Nigerians (about 46 per cent) are financially excluded. Adoption of products and services not supplied by deposit money banks have contributed the most to reducing exclusion (that is. the “formal other” category).”

    According to her, specific policies and legislation crafted relating to the development of the ICT sector include: National ICT Policy of August 2012; National Broadband Plan 2013-2018 of May 2013; and Guidelines for Nigerian Content in ICT of November 2013

    She explained that while the Connect Nigeria initiative was aimed at speeding up the building out of communications infrastructure so that all Nigeria has access to good quality and affordable, high-speed telecom and internet services, Connect Nigerians ensures that Nigerians have affordable and convenient access to devices and have the capacity to use them; so that all could share in the benefits of ICTs.

    Local Content in the industry is also targeted at lowering the barriers to entry and increase the participation of indigenous companies in the ICT sector and stimulate job creation in the industry

    Other measures include “Increase the adoption of ICTs by government to achieve greater transparency, efficiency, and productivity in governance and citizen engagement; implementing a national broadband strategy and roadmap that seeks to increase broadband penetration from six per cent to 30 per cent by 2018; 3G/LTE Wireless Broadband Coverage to 80 per cent of the population; Fixed broadband to 16 per cent of population based on fibre by 2018; Minimum download speeds of 1.5 Mbps; and Open Non-Discriminatory Access.”

  • Mobile health delivery blues

    Mobile health delivery blues

    The liberalisation of the telecoms sector over 10 years ago made access to phone easy. Today, Nigerians use their phones for various things, especially business. The revolution is also opening a new vista for poor rural and urban dwellers to access health care services. How far can this go? LUCAS AJANAKU reports.

    Forty-three-year-old Blessing Adewumi lives in Egbeda, a Lagos suburb. A petty trader and mother of four, she lost her husband about four years ago.

    Since then, life has been difficult for her, because she sponsors the education of her  children.

    Recently, she took ill. Instead of going to the hospital, she asked Tina, her eldest daughter, 18, to call Mama Kazeem, a popular drug hawker in the neighbourhood.

    She said:  “I don’t have money to go to the hospital. Iya Kazeem will ‘count’ malaria drugs for me and I will be well. She is our family doctor. By the time I give her N200, she will ‘select’ drugs for me and in no time, I will be back on my feet. Going to the hospital is expensive. I have to pay house rent, school fees and feed my four children without any support. Aside God, there is no supporter, so I always pray to God not to allow my children to fall sick.”

    Another housewife, who simply identified herself as Mama Glory, also has a sad tale to tell. She was not feeling fine, so she visited one of the private hospitals where tests were run on her. When the result came out, it showed that she had typhoid fever. She was billed N10,000 and was told she would be on admisison  for three days.

    She never went back. Reason: She does not have enough money. “If I have N10,000, I will start a ‘pure’ water business immediately. Instead, I will go to the market and get Iya alagbo (herbs seller) to arrange agbo for me. It will flush it out of my body system,” she said.

    Mrs Adewumi and Mama Glory are few of the many poor Nigerians not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) because they are not engaged in the formal sectors of the economy.

    Their stories are common, especially among rural dwellers. They cannot pay for their treatment. Many of them toil all day long, trying to eke out a living.

    Minister of Communications Technology Dr  Omobola Johnson lamented that the ability of many sub-Saharan African countries to improve their rating and ranking on the Human Development Index (HDI), especially those that relate to health, is constrained by several socio-economic and infrastructural factors.

    She said: “For example, Nigeria’s per capita spending on health is $161, comparing unfavorably with the $ 948 calculated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the recommended total global spending on health per person per year. Inherent in this low per capita spend on health is an acute shortage of healthcare workers.

    “Africa faces a severe shortage of trained medical personnel–we have approximately three per cent of the world’s health workers despite having 11 per cent of the world’s population, a statistic that is indeed worsened by the fact that many healthcare professionals opt to work abroad after their training because of better remuneration, better facilities and better opportunities for career growth and aspirations.”

    It is in view of this grim picture that the  partnership among NHIS and information communication technology (ICT) firm, MTN and Salt & Einstein MTS, to launch a health insurance programme, which will afford its customers who cannot access quality health care, the opportunity to do so through MTN Y’ello Health Cover is instructive.

    Airtel Nigeria also launched an initiative in this direction to deepen health insurance scheme and bring health at affordable costs to its subscribers.

    The MTN Y’ello Health Cover is an all-inclusive mobile health insurance programme, which will afford Nigerians the opportunity to access good, affordable and quality healthcare service wherever, whenever the need arises.

    Through the programme, the NHIS is working with all the leading Health Management Organisations (HMOs) to enabled mobile subscribers to opt into a micro healthcare insurance cover where, they can access a range of pre-defined medical treatments for which affordable premium can also be remitted through the subscribers’ mobile phone.

    According to the telco, this will enable subscribers under this programme have access to unlimited number of visits to the hospital with as low as a daily or weekly airtime deduction of N35 and N250 to access effective health care as many times as treatment is needed annually. It also gives access to a combination of over 7000 hospitals and primary healthcare providers nationwide currently registered under the NHIS scheme from which subscribers can choose.

    The main objective of the programme is to ensure the removal of financial barriers, which means, poor people can have unfettered access to good and effective healthcare without the usual “out-of-pocket expenses”. It is not always that one has substantial amount of money in the pocket, particularly when one is facing health challenges.

    Health insurance is a type of coverage that ensures the cost of an insured individual’s medical and surgical expenses are paid by the scheme on the behalf of the insured. It is being provided through this programme to save the masses from self medication, or from shying away from receiving treatment because of cost or other competing needs or considerations.

    Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, NHIS, Dr. Femi Thomas, said MTN will leverage on its huge subscribers to take healthcare to the nooks and crannies of the country.  He said: “MTN is a big player in the Nigerian economy, having a good number of registered Nigerians on its database. To be able to reach out to Nigerians, we at NHIS decided to partner with Salt & Einstein MTS and MTN Nigeria on this new initiative to achieve “Universal Health Coverage” for Nigerians nationwide.

    “The time has come for us to extend health insurance to Nigerians from all walks of life. With Nigeria’s population in mind, NHIS in partnership with MTN Nigeria and Salt & Einstein MTS is bent on providing more efficient health care services to those who indeed cannot afford them. This will help pool risk and share healthcare costs equitably across the population.”

    Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Michael Ikpoki, said the focus market for the Y’ello health insurance cover are Nigerians who have no health insurance cover principally because they cannot afford the regular health insurance services in the market.

    “These individuals like everyone else, need medical care. However, without access to insurance, they probably would be having occasional challenges paying for medical treatment, because such expenses would usually be without or at short notice. It is to take away this burden of impromptu medical expenses that we are partnering to introduce this product,” he said.

    He added that the importance of education and sensitisation of the populace about healthcare and commended the NHIS for its drive to provide universal healthcare to Nigerians.

    The Executive Chairman, Salt & Einstein MTS, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, said bringing his vast experience in mobile technology and telecommunication industry in Nigeria to the table, identified the need to leverage the market penetration and unmatched reach of mobile telecoms in Nigeria. The former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said statistics reveal that mobile telecoms subscription in Nigeria is over 129 million. This creates adequate grounds for direct health insurance provision to Nigerians who, without this, would have no access to the NHIS.

    Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Salt & Einstein MTS, the 0obile insurance services aggregator, said findings have shown that Nigeria still has less than four per cent of its population covered by basic health care services at this time in our nation’s history. “There is no disputing the fact that, one of the best things to do at this time is to come together, working with NHIS and of course, starting off with Nigeria’s leading telecommunications operator, MTN, to bring this health insurance cover to Nigerians who, hitherto, have been excluded  from access to good health care service. MTN has demonstrated that they are interested in the social good and welfare of Nigerians. We hope to create more products that benefit Nigerians across the country,” he said.

    The MTN Y’ello insurance cover is one of the many ways Africa’s leading telecommunications network is adding value to the lives of it subscribers. The next leg of the launch will take place in Abuja at a yet-to-be-announced date.

    To make health care accessible and affordable to all, the WHO, the World Bank and other experts recommend among other things: mandatory and publicly subsidised health insurance scheme.

    Experts say while the initiative is commendable, more will still need to be done in the area of enlightenment.

    The partners in the project would need to do plenty of work in getting the message about the product across to the rural poor that are largely illiterate. This, they said, could be achieved by running the messages in the major indigenous languages on the operators’ network as well as in both print and electronic media.

  • Big year for shopping on mobile phones

    As more people become comfortable with the notion of using their mobile devices to shop, families are planning to turn to their handhelds to aid in their shopping. A recent survey in lagos found 30 per cent of smartphone owners shopping for items and researching products using their mobile device.

    The survey also says, one out of five people will make purchases via their smartphones. While many will simply shop online directly through their smartphone, one-quarter will use their device to find information about a physical store.

  • Airtel, Thuraya partner on mobile satellite connectivity

    Airtel, Thuraya partner on mobile satellite connectivity

    Leading mobile satellite services (MSS) operator, Thuraya Telecommunications Company, and Bharti Airtel International, have signed an agreement to provide the telco’s customers mobile satellite products and services in Nigeria and 16 other African countries.

    According to a statement, the partnership will provide the telco’s customers voice and broadband connectivity through Thuraya’s satellite network across the continent’s most remote areas, adding that with effect from next month, Airtel will sell Thuraya’s products and airtime packages at their retail outlets and through their enterprise account team.

    Extending mobile networks into remote or rural areas presents both geographical obstacles and business challenges for connecting people in Africa. Thuraya’s satellite network helps bridge the digital divide by providing an immediate and cost-effective way for Airtel Africa to extend its coverage, while generating new revenue streams and providing vital connectivity. Thuraya’s mobile satellite service can address the diverse voice and data communication needs of Airtel Africa enterprise users across the mining, energy, media, government and humanitarian NGO sectors.

    Chief Executive Officer, Thuraya, Samer Halawi, said: “Thuraya’s partnership with Airtel Africa is a very positive development in bridging the digital divide in Africa. We recognise the massive impact that access to reliable communications can have on the lives of ordinary people. Thuraya’s robust satellite network will enable Airtel Africa to provide its consumer and enterprise users with reliable, high quality voice and broadband services. Thuraya is well-positioned to support customer-centric mobile operators like Airtel Africa that are looking to extend their network and services with satellite-based solutions.”

    Commenting on the deal, Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Africa, Christian de Faria, said: “Providing reliable connectivity in many remote parts of Africa can be challenging. This partnership enables us to further extend our coverage and services for businesses and general consumers who live or work in very remote areas. Thuraya’s satellite services will be combined with the reliable, high-quality voice calls and broadband access that our customers are accustomed to experiencing in our urban centers.”