Nigeria Mobile Marketing

Mobile Banking refers to provision of banking and financial services with the help of mobile telecommunication devices. The scope of offered services may include facilities to conduct bank and stock market transactions, to administer accounts and to access customized information. Also known as M-Banking in Nigeria or in some instances SMS Banking etc. It is a term used for performing balance checks, account transactions, payments and others transaction services via a mobile devices. Some mobile Banking applications in Nigeria use pre programmed configurations settings.
Mobile Banking in Nigeria started from the transaction based activities whereby Bank customers are Notified via sms when transactions are conducted on their account or via Atm. This is a one way event and only for informational purposes only. GT Bank was on of the earliest Banks to provision this service to customers.
That was the early days on Mobile Banking in Nigeria. Nigerian Banks are now deploying full fledge banking via the Mobile Phones with array of services which were only possible in the Banking Halls before. Zenith Bank, UBA , GTBank, Diamond and Intercontinental Banks are the fore runners of this innovation.
Despite the watch and see attitude that some very leading Banks are taking about Mobile Banking in Nigeria, The mobile remains the Only and most available feasible means to provide mass market alternative to Branch Banking in Nigeria. The internet has only a penetration rate of 6 percent in a population of 140 million but mobile technology is close to 50 percent penetration with prospects for growth.
Mobile devices are the most promising way to reach the masses and to create a tie-in among current customers, due to their ability to provide services anytime, anywhere, high rate of penetration and potential to grow. Deployment of 3G in coming months will also enable Banks to offer more robust Mobile Banking technologies.
Key challenges in developing a sophisticated mobile banking application are Interoperability. The single reason for is the manner in which mobile phone applications evolved over time, device manufacturers focused on particular standard and and this led to a proliferation of applications .The Financial Regulator CBN should look in this issue at this early stage so that Mobile Banking ecosystem can be robust with National standard that cuts across all Banks. Bank specific Mobile Banking platforms is akin to having each bank deploying its own ATM Technology which other bank customers cannot access.
Interoperability can also help to evolve a standard that will enable low end phones which are currently excluded, to do Mobile Banking. Some countries like India and South Africa are already using some standards like R-World and USSD.
Application distribution for Mobile Banking is another area where some Banks are facing Challenges. While some forward looking Banks are overhauling their gateways and reducing their reliance on Mobile Operators settings to enable customer’s phones, Some Banks are actually asking that Customers come with regular Operator settings which in many instances might not be correct configurations settings..
Operator settings are not really meant for critical operations since most of the settings are used for entertainment based activities. Nigerian Banks that are looking at competing at this sector must look beyond operators settings which might not be correct, delayed in arrival,may not come at all and not regularly updated. Some Mobile operators do update like every three months while some do not at all. For wap and Gprs based Mobile Banking applications, mobile network coverage will also be an issue.
As part of their marketing strategies, I will expect that by now, customers do not need to visit local Branches to download Banking applications. Over-the-Air (OTA) Settings should be readily available online and some innovations can even come to play by Banks deploying Bluetooth application machines in Shopping malls and some strategic places where customers can visit and download Mobile Banking applications for free or for a fee..This will increase the addressable market of the Banks offering Mobile Banking exponentially in Nigeria.

Emmanuel Okoegwale
emmanuel@gomobileng.com
Mobile marketing specialist

Farmed out License Holder, Etisalat Nigeria sure understand how to engage the subscribers in the 3G Era. During the launch of the Network last week in Lagos, the company spokesperson mentioned something significant. He Etisalat will deploy innovative Mobile Services like the mobile cam.Mobile cam allows 3G subscribers to dial into a gadget at home or office and be able to take a quick look around the location and even record voices.

The significance of this is that while other operators in Nigeria are trying to sell 3G Services based on Television services, the late entrant is looking at it from a strong compelling side, security. I am quite disappointed that the operators do not clearly understand what the technology can do. They keep stressing on TV while not offering a strong reason why subscribers will want to switch from their non paying terrestrial tv or satellite pay Tv to yet another Mobile pay Tv. Mobile operators are not even making a pretence about building contents around the ever popular and money spinning Nollywood. Two to five minutes mobisodes of Nigeria Drama, musicals and comedy will be a huge hit in the 140 million fun loving Nigerian market but the operators are rather focused on full length sports and news channles.This does not come cheap for an average Nigeria whose ARPU is hovering around 10 dollars.

Without a perfect understanding of the 3G Marketing, the Nigerian 3G Project might be heading for doom.

The advantages of 3G is that it has a higher bit rate and operators can therefore deploy more data intensive applications. It allows for increased call volumes and support multimedia data applications, such as video and photography.

The operators need to start thinking along the three spheres of 3G applications.
First is the Business Sphere which allows for Mobile videophone, video conferencing, database management and informational services.

Second area is the private sphere which allows karaoke on demand, music on demand, portable Television, interactive games and video on demand while third area is Business sphere. This allows traffic informational service, personal security, remote monitoring systems, Electronic newspapers, Home schooling systems and remote monitoring systems.


Etisalat’s understanding of 3G marketing gives some hope and something to look forward to. At least in the Nigerian telecommunications market, there is clear differentiator. All the operators need to do is to see an operator launch a service and all others will follow suit.

Emmanuel Okoegwale
emmanuel@gomobileng.com

The Nigerian e-Govt initiative despite its moribund nature is still being held on to by international bodies as a road map for achieving the right citizens-government interactions across Africa. The core ingredient and factor for success in e-Govt is missing, the internet. Africa has the lowest internet penetration in the world and Nigeria’s statistics is not encouraging. It is still at a miserable 6 percent with 15 years of private and government corruption-infested investments. While mobile technology with private sector investment alone had achieved 48 percent penetration cutting across all geo political areas landmass of the Nation.

e-Govt is defined as “the use by public bodies of information and communication technologies to deliver information/services to citizens ,external organizations, elected representatives and other stakeholders in such a way to complement, replace or improve existing delivery systems (O’Donnell,2003) while Mobile Government is extending the concept of government further with delivery of information and services to the doorsteps of the citizens in a personalized way via what they already have, the mobile phone.

Mobile Government is the next inevitable direction of evolution of e-Government. It is about modernizing the public sector organizations - hence the business processes,the work and the workers - using mobile technologies, applications and services. M-government is not only about technology but rather how technology revolutionize the public sector activities and how the society adopts these technologies.

While Nigeria is still trying to implement e-Govt, they should rather be proactive to quickly see the limitations of e-govt as expensive and largely external infrastructure driven which can only be assessable with citizens with fair knowledge of ICT technologies in a country that is grappling with huge and unbelievable illiteracy statistics. E-Govt has been dragging on for 8 years now and who knows when it will start yielding dividends. Mobile government is more targeted, personalized and cheaper to deploy with high ROI in countries where its in use.

Sweden, stocklom city launched the M-City project in 2001 and was intended to run till 2004 but was extended for unlimited period because of its success. The primary goal of the M-city project was to seek out new areas to use the mobile phones in the citizen – government relationship and how to improve the living standard of the citizens via the mobile phone. It is such a success now with most of the government information and service readily available via the mobile phone. Sweden remains till date, one of the best countries to live in Europe according to the UN Statistics.

One of the major success factor for the stocklom M-City project was that the organizers first identified the needs of the users, interests and wishes of residents, consumers and Business, then develop services to suit their needs.

In Singapore, government initiated mobile government as part of its iGov2010 master plan launched in May 2006,to extend the reach of government e-services to citizens .More than 300 government services are provisioned via the SMS from road Tax notification, crime notification to passport renewals.

Judging from M-govt readiness of index, Nigeria is more than ready. With over 50 million carrier grades SMS sent daily across all the networks in Nigeria, maturity of networks with basic SMS services, subscribers interest to consume service with strong compelling contents and in case of government services, those that significantly reduces services bottlenecks and sources of bribe payments and abilities of developers to locally churn out services that meets the demands of the subscribers.

m-Govt is easier to deploy. In fact some mobile applications can be developed from the scratch and deployed within 72 hours .It has the advantages of major access component, coming cheap. Mobiles are going for as low as N2,000 ($16) in Nigeria which is fifty times cheaper than a computer which is over N100,000 ($833) without internet subscription cost, if it is available in that locality. Basic sms usage can be learnt in a day but computer lessons will take average three months with some basic literacy.

M-government services can be moved to the mobile platform and even the private sector can provide the necessary push to launch out this new thinking at a substantial profit. I will expect that Banks by now should actually have an M-Govt desk where information,concepts, ideas and subscriber needs that they can leverage on can be incubated and developed.

Mobile government can usher in an approach to government service delivery to the citizens in a cost-effective and personalized way.



Emmanuel Okoegwale

Mobile Marketing Specialist

emmanuel@gomobileng.com

Mobile telephony is changing the lifestyle of people and business communications worldwide with billions of SMS sent worldwide annually and over 50 million carrier grade SMS sent in Nigeria daily, SMS is positioned to be the most used communications medium of all time.

Despite the widespread illiteracy in Nigeria and many other countries in Africa , SMS is still widely used even in tribal languages which do not need special alphabets. Early adopters like in the Philippines, the SMS Capital of the world where about 500 million sms was sent on New year day 2008,is an example of country where emerging economics should learn from in areas of SMS services deployment.

SMS does not require any special application download like other mobile medium like mms, wap and Gprs and this is one unique advantage it has and hence is spread and popularity.

While many European and Asian countries use sms extensively to further their lifestyle and businesses, Nigerians are not exploring much of this cheap technology apart from “text-2-win” promos.

SMS can be very useful in many spheres of the economy. In the Public sphere for example in Philippines , low income taxes are already being administered via sms and it is a huge success. It is very fast , efficient and easy to administer. In many Asian countries, emergency numbers alerts systems are deployed for emergency notifications during natural disasters like earthquake , Tsunami and Hurricanes while Nigerians are free from these natural catastrophes, theirs are man made disasters like Armed banditry, militancy, corruption, HIV, poor governance and police harassment. Simple sms feed back systems can help in all these areas. The Niger Delta villager can be empowered to send a simple sms to report an oil spillage before it gets out of hand, citizens can send sms to a short code to report criminal activities, sms can be used as a whistle blower for the corrupt officials, police feed back systems with live sms updates will go a long way in tackling criminal elements in our society.Traffic offenders are now tracked via SMS is some countries and all the enforcement officer needs to do is send sms with plate numbers to do a back ground check on any motorist, anytime and anywhere!!! It is cheap and efficient.

Already some European nations are already toying with the idea of having sms elections in future elections .All the voter is required to do is to check for their eligibility by texting their social security numbers to a short code and if eligible, they get a response and they cast their vote via sms.

In Business Sphere, SMS is doing well in Nigeria as Banking services notification system which helps to check mate fraudulent activities but it is yet to be deployed for more robust services like check verification systems and third party payment systems. Sms feedback systems is also changing customer facing technology in the FMCG sector. SMS feedback systems allows product owners and service providers to quickly get customers complaints via sms. This was not possible before as customers are either required to call an unmanned call centre number or send it through email.

Now SMS Brochure requesting is possible in Most part of Europe and people just make request through sms to get product brochure and even account opening forms.

SMS is not about “text-2-win” promotions. It is more than that. It is a powerful tool that can be used in all areas only if private entrepreneurs will see the opportunities.

Emmanuel Okoegwale

Emmanuel@gomobileng.com

Wap is the de facto standard for internet access on mobile terminals like PDA, Cell phones and mobiles. It is license free and scalable across bearers such as GPRS,WCDMA and others. It significantly addresses the characteristics of the present wireless devices such as smaller screens, limited RAM and limited key board. Wap which stands for wireless application protocol, allows people to access basic information on the internet, like news summaries, through their mobile phone handset.

Millions in Nigeria are accessing the internet via the WAP platform alone in a country with an internet penetration of 6% and Mobile penetration of 40%.Wap offers the easiest and most affordable for millions in the fastest growing Mobile market in Africa with over 48Million subscribers with an addressable market of 140 million and low penetration of wired lines and internet services. The mobile phone comes to the rescue for a quick access, anytime and anywhere.

Statistics from BBC News indicated that Wap is the one platform where African countries continue to appear in the top five in their statistics and Nigeria accounts for 61 percent of International wap usage, distantly followed by South Africa with 19 percent, Uganda 7 percent and the rest of the world,13 percent.

Great opportunities await Brands, News agencies and stakeholders to explore these Digital opportunities in Nigeria but the local realities of wap local usage is not encouraging. At the last count, local wap sites in Nigeria are less than 10 and only one is relatively well known.

The main challenge facing wap in Nigeria is the quality and value of the services of the local wap sites. They are so far has been less than great. Wap users are not been offered services that meet their requirements. Most WAP services to date have been broadly based around Web based content models and have been hampered by a belief that people will want to browse - they don't. They want to be entertained and they want to access specific information that is useful where they happen to be at that moment. The usage patterns are fundamentally different to the way that people use PC internet.

The Brands are also not exploiting this avenue for permission based and targeted marketing that is measurable with clear ROI statement.

The Nigerian WAP opportunities opens up the frontiers of m-advertising which is significantly cheaper than all other types of media.All factors necessary for success are already on ground. WAP-enabled phones are already available for the critical mass at affordable prices, Gprs Networks is available in most capital states and commercial cities and towns.
Wap marketing opportunities bridges the gap of communications and entertainment channel between a brand and an end-user through the use of the mobile. It is a new addition to the media mix, with great opportunities for direct interaction with customers and cost-effective data collection.

With almost 50 million mobile phone subscribers in Nigeria, mobile channel should now become an integral part of marketing and communication strategy. Wap offers significant opportunities for direct interaction with customers. It has several applications for leads generation, promotions, brand building, and gaining consumer insights. It is the only personal channel enabling spontaneous, direct, interactive and/or targeted communications, any time, any place.
Media planners need to understand the Nigerian wap market is mature for mass market and hitting of 12M pages monthly by Nigerians on the BBC site is a clear testimony that the reward is great and the early adopters will win this race.

Emmanuel Okoegwale
Mobile marketing specialist.
emmanuel@gomobileng.com