259 contracts processed per day on averageThis is also the case in the clothing sector 55On Pariser Platz tents will be installed with the European diversityThe lobby is a large rectangle of light to the LoireIt is in archaic stock markets that the more twisted can outA status that the MFA wants to step challengeIt can remain for years in this quiet StateThe kitchen is not the slightly and it is as well like thatA way to campaign to lower costs but also hoped reach new audiencesThe company grows more opening abroad increasesAfrica is still amaze us. View our rich continent sometimes more than 100 mobile penetration rate, one might think that the African continent will never be able to compete with Western growth models in telecoms. It is certain, and yet... Uses of the telecoms, the "business models" that develop in Africa are far from negligible. They meet specific features and local ways of life. It would have believed, Africa is even tip in some areas and many lessons can be drawn.
Five years, some 400 million mobile should be sold on the African continent. If the geographical disparities are still significant, with penetration rates higher than 60 in the Maghreb or in South Africa and less than 10 in Central Africa, they reduce each year. Contrary to received ideas, competition in Africa is real. Monopoly situation countries rely on the fingers of one hand while more than half of the 50 countries of the continent is to deal with 2 to 4 of the 6 major transnational groups present (the Dutch Celtel, Etisalat of United Arab Emirates, South African MTN and Vodacom, French Orange, the Egyptian Orascom and American Millicom Tigo).
Telecoms are a significant part in the economy of the countries of the continent with many created both jobs in the formal economy as informal. With, on average, 5 of the families, the Telecom budget, most mobile services, weigh double relative weight in Europe. This rate is explained in part by the fact that telecoms substitute, more than in Europe, other faulty sectors. This is the case in particular of transport. In view of the State of roads and the extent of the territories, several African regions are inaccessible to the transportation and distribution networks. Also, thanks to the telecoms, it, for example, possible for farmers to know the prices of the market in the city without moving. In Uganda, FoodNet has thus created databases, searchable by SMS, integrating information concerning certain agricultural products and their wholesale and retail prices. With daily update of these data, farmers can find the best prices without the use of often random transport.
The development of economic activities specific to the African continent is one of the interesting lessons of the telecoms boom in recent years, in microenterprise. Women were able to create their trade with the help of the Village Phone (VP) program implemented by Grameen Telecom Bangladesh and extended later in Uganda and Rwanda. The VP program is to connect areas isolated by connections, satellite for example. The women of the villages, having initially low income, were able to contribute and borrow enough money to buy a handset and pay their own for the launching of payphone service. The Village Phone operators perceive as two times higher than the income per capita earnings national average. The number of indirect jobs created is estimated at 100,000. Telecoms also played an undeniable role in social development as the opening up of remote territories because it is less expensive to deploy mobile networks and terminal equipment is less expensive than a PC. Thus can cite examples of Orange Mali Mopti region or country Dogon, SMS medical monitoring for patients of tuberculosis in South Africa or even sustainable development (traceability of mammals by VHF or GPS sensor to the Zimbabwe Hwange national park).
But the unexpected lesson lies in the fact that Africa is the cradle of innovative services that could be launched tomorrow in Europe. The most evocative example is micropayment, an area in which Africa is at the forefront of the news.
The explosion of the number of subscribers allows the mobile to become a means of initiation and execution of financial transactions online, which can be a solution to the low rate of bankarisation in Africa. The mobile allows to accelerate access to m-payment services, such as online payment, the bankarisation and micro-credits that are fully part of cultural uses, such as tontines and the launch of small business. Several offers are operational. Kenya, M-Pesa, m-payment platform developed by Vodafone in collaboration with the Financial Deepening Challenge Fund, allows the distribution of loans granted by an institution of microfinance clients, repayment being made via the distribution of Safaricom network. In South Africa, Wizzit provides access to the South African e-payment system for removing species via the Maestro payment card included in the offers of the partner banks. In Zambia, the Celplay system, launched by the Certel operator, allows customers to pay, pay his bills but also to transfer funds. In 2006, 2 of the GDP of the countries transited through this mode by opening access to the banking sector.
It can be seen, the telecoms in Africa are particularly innovative and offer offerings and business models adapted to African specificities. Of course, the brakes are still many, related to literacy, the purchasing power and very low development of the fixed Internet broadband. But some specificities of the continent such as the lack of fixed lines and the low bankarisation can be as much prickles. Africa, soon the continent of mobility
