Insightful Lessons From the Mobile West Africa Conference 2

This is a continuation of a previous post on the recent Mobile West Africa Conference. Click here to read it. Today, some important lessons from the event have been outlined to help put you up to speed on what’s happening in the mobile industry: The predicted future of mobile industry 1. Cheaper data plans 2. Improved capacity building 3. Increased engagement between the private sector and incubator hubs   Data mining 1. Nigeria’s data doubles in size every two years. 2. There is a rising demand for data scientists to help in sorting the large volumes of data (you can consider this as a possible career or business aspiration) 3. Foreign-owned Google sadly has more data on Nigerians than the country itself, mostly due to the stringent regulatory frameworks our federal government have put in place. 4. Interestingly, telecommunication firms may ultimately have more data on Nigerians than the country’s national electoral commission, INEC. It was even suggested by a panelist that the telecom giants should share data with the commission. 5. There are government restrictions in place on the amount of data to be publicly shared by the telecom sector. This is to protect the significant sensitivity of the information.   The role of technology in Education 1. In Nigeria, technology appears to have revolutionized commerce, hotels, etc. but its impact on education is to a limited extent – especially for those in public schools. However, some applications, information portals etc. do exist such as Rise Network’s Passnownow.com and Class Connect. 2. There’s a need for more private companies to finance such initiatives as Corporate Social Responsibility projects. 3. Samsung Nigeria highlighted its initiative to provide mobile learning solutions to 7,000 students at Covenant University, Ota.   Mobile money 1. The growth of the mobile payments space is happening at a slow but steady rate in Nigeria. 2. Mobile payment services are still relatively new, and this is why consumer adoption is low. It takes time to change a person’s mindset about exploring something different from the norm. 3. There is also a need for increased marketing of mobile money services, and the inclusion of more incentives for consumers to use mobile money. 4. The collaboration of the regulator, banks, mobile money players and financial tech companies is key to achieving desired success in this area. 5. The issue of the effectiveness of banks in helping finance tech companies was raised. On one side of the argument, it was said that banks are choosing to compete with these businesses instead of supporting them financially; hence, the launch of banks’ mobile money services. The other side of the argument points out that banks are businesses too at the end of the day, and they seek to provide profitable solutions as well.   Stay tuned for CNTV’s video footage of the event!         About the Writer: Ify Halim is a young Creative and a promoter of values through the force that is writing. Follow her on twitter @MissHalim