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

Monday, August 10, 2015

Information communication technologists are optimistic that mass mobile phone usage launched in Africa, will drive the continent’s economy and make the millennial generation to become the leading tellers of the emerging app economy.

“The mobile economy has finally arrived in Africa and anyone who doubts should simply take a look around them,” Rui Serra, IBM Territory Manager for Central Africa, said in a press statement.

He said the millennial generation had become the leading purveyors of the emerging “App Economy,” noting that they were driving the boom in mobile services, and reinventing the way businesses engaged with their internal and external audiences and stakeholders.

Market watchers say to compete in the new “app economy,” telcos will need to invest in gaining market share” through mobile applications, services, advertising and the customer data that powers them.

Mobile point of sale is also set to take off in the enterprise as by the end of 2015, nearly 50 per cent of enterprises with 2,500 or more employees will have some variation of a mobile point of sale (mPoS) deployment, Mr Serra said.

More than 80 per cent of market-leading organisations globally already recognise that mobile is fundamentally changing the way they do business.