Africa 'Silicon Valley for mobile money services'

Speaking at the VAS (Value Added Service) Africa conference in Sandton, Johannesburg, Sharma said: "Africa is the most relevant market (for mobile money). Africa is the Silicon Valley for (mobile) money."

The flagship product for mobile money was Safaricom's text-based money transfer system M-Pesa (M for mobile, Pesa for money in Swahili) in Kenya. The service was used by 80% of Safaricom's 17 million customers, and had transferred US$10 billion since its launch.

And despite a slower adoption in many other African countries, Sharma pointed to continued growth on the continent for M-Pesa-like services.

Thecla Mbongue, senior analyst at market research group Informa Telecoms & Media, described money transfer as a "vital" service in Africa, but she highlighted regulatory barriers as hindering the adoption of such services in many other African countries.

In SA, Mbongue said that many local banks already offered mobile banking solutions, while the word M-Pesa in a South African context didn't have as good a marketing appeal as a local word signalling money might have.

Amid waning voice revenues, operators had to look at different platforms to increase revenue streams. Sharma said that value-added services had emerged to a large "money moving sector".

In the context of the African landscape, he noted that 63% of the continent's population was under the age of 24. "Things beyond voice are going to be consumed by this market. This is a very healthy place to be for value-added services. The youth segment is staggering," he said.

Sharma also pinpointed urbanisation as a catalyst for growth. He said that urbanisation growth in Africa of 41% between 2000 and 2009 was the highest in the world. "Eight of the top 25 fastest-growing economies in the world are in Africa," he added.

Mbongue said, however, that non-voice services still represented less than 10% of mobile revenues in Africa, and in 2010 SA represented 36% of the continent's data revenues, with Nigeria 11% and Egypt at 7% also prominent.

Sharma urged operators to be more relevant to stave off declining voice revenue. "The applications market continues to grow rapidly," he said. "Continue to give value to core telecom activities while developing new sources of growth," he said.