NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

In some parts of Africa, mobile money has moved from a niche product for making peer-to-peer transfers and topping up mobile airtime to being the backbone of a growing digital payments and mobile commerce ecosystem. As varied use cases develop and expand, this second generation of Mobile Finance and Commerce (MFC) propositions looks set to transform Africa’s economies, both in terms of the breadth of service availability and the inclusion of even broader sections of the previously-excluded consumer classes.

But while the outlines of Africa’s digital future may be faintly discernible, the substance is far from clear. Mondato Summit Africa, which will take place on June 2–3 in Johannesburg, South Africa, will seek clarity amid a chaotic and rapidly developing industry by identifying the key issues that will shape the evolution of African mobile commerce and finance (MFC) in the years ahead. Combining a unique mix of information sharing, solution seeking and networking, the Mondato Summits series aims to help stakeholders navigate the fast-growing, but highly fluid and complex, MFC space. (Note: NextBillion is serving as a media partner for the conference.)

The theme of this year’s Mondato Summit Africa is “Mobile Money Amplified,” pointing as it does both towards the opportunities for a variety of new use cases that leverage mobile money, and the mobile channel’s potential for enhanced financial inclusion. Consequently, Mondato Summit Africa will bring together innovators and C-level industry leaders from right across the MFC ecosystem, encompassing not only banks and MNOs, but also retail, insurance and tech firms, as well as think tanks and government, to expand upon and expound a content-rich agenda. Speakers at Mondato Summit Africa will come from across the MFC ecosystem, and include representatives from FNB, Diamond Bank, Zando, Twitter, CGAP, Facebook, GSMA, IFC/World Bank, the African Development Bank Group, Ingenico, Vodacom, Africa 2.0 and many more.

By bringing together this caliber of experts and peers in an intimate setting, the Summit will hash out some of the details of the route to more inclusive and widespread mobile finance and commerce in Africa. To what extent will the second generation of MFC products allow Africa to catch up with, or perhaps in some areas surpass, the digital finance ecosystem of more developed economies? How will the transformation of the mobile phone into a small personal computer commoditize vast amounts of data about African consumers, making viable new products and services aimed at previously un- and under-served market segments? What are the stumbling blocks that may hold back the development of the market? These are just some of the questions that will be brought to the fore, the answers to which will be sought at the conference.

For more information on Mondato Summit Africa 2015, please contact me at ajaffe@mondato.com.

Arielle Jaffe manages and coordinates the marketing and communication at Mondato and the Mondato Summit series.