Leading mobile payments company WorldRemit saw a 43% growth in remittances to Africa from higher income nations in 2019.

The top five countries receiving remittances from the diaspora in 2019 included, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, with Nigeria receiving the most remittances.

The top sending countries to the region included the United States, Australia, Canada, and Sweden, with the UK sending the most remittances.

The diaspora plays a key role in Africa’s development story, today the value of remittances is three times larger than official development assistance (ODA), and forecasted to become higher than foreign direct investment for a handful of African countries in 2019.

The growth of digital and mobile penetration across the continent has contributed to the growth in remittances. WorldRemit has and continues to partner with both mobile money and bricks and mortar agents to increase accessibility to all our customers regardless of whether they are in a city or a remote village on the continent.

In addition to digital growth within the continent, the diaspora is also changing its pattern of frequency, value, and reason for sending money back home. Apart from the traditional reasons for sending money to their native countries, members of the diaspora are increasingly looking at ways to be part of what is happening “back home”.

A great example is Ghana, In 2019 after the launch of the Year of Return, Ghana extended citizenship to over 100 African-American’s as well as enacting the Immigration Act which provides for a “Right of Abode” for any “Person of African descent in the Diaspora” to travel to and from the country “without hindrance.” After a successful 2019, President Akuffo-Addo launched a new initiative “Beyond the Return” which is a drive to see people from the diaspora invest in Ghana via business start-ups, property acquisition, relocating or investment vehicles which the government is setting up.

At WorldRemit, it is important to continue to remain affordable, fast, simple, secure and accessible for the growing market and ever-changing dynamic continent.

(L-R) Emeka Awagu, Head, Digital Commerce, Quickteller; Adedeji Layade, Product Marketing Manager, Quickteller Services; Olawande Oyewole, Assistant Brand Director, DDB and Afeye Momoh, Digital Marketing Officer, Interswitch at the reveal of the new Quickteller TVC at the Interswitch Head Office in Lagos.

Quickteller, a leading consumer payment platform from the Pan-African integrated digital payments company -Interswitch – known for providing seamless payment solutions, has launched a new campaign themed “Everything is Possible.” The campaign demonstrates the ubiquitous nature of the Quickteller platform.

The commercials, which have just been released, are in two versions: ‘The Big Idea’and ‘Possibility.’ Both versions are in furtherance of the previous Quickteller campaign-“One less thing to worry about”– and reiterate the ease and universality of the Quickteller platform.

The commercials deploy the use of humour and creativity to subtly drive in the point that on Quickteller, a user can pay for almost anything they can imagine.

Both commercials are a body of great creative thinking and drive home the overarching message that everything is possible on the Quickteller Platform.The commercials bothdepict the importance of a platform that makes payment possible irrespective of person, locationand needs. Quicktellerenables everyoneto make transactions on the go, with a few clicks.

Speaking on the launch of the campaign, Olawale Akanbi, Group Head, Quickteller Marketing, highlighted the importance of transacting on a platform that provides a vast number of services in the digital payment space.He said: “It’s amazing to know that you can pay for almost anything on Quickteller. At Quickteller, we are committed to making all payments possible on our platform.  This is why we are continuously expanding the services available on Quickteller. From just a platform where you couldtransfer money, customers can now perform more transactions that speak to their lifestyle, businesses, passion and even their careers.”

According to Akanbi, “This campaign illustrates the compelling point that Quickteller makes almost anything possible. Both versions of the campaign are a natural flow from the previous campaign and consistent with our messaging that payments are easier and most convenient on the Quickteller platform. It is simply a visual metaphor for everyday payments made easy by Quickteller.”

The commercials feature well-known celebrities like Bovi (a leading Comedian), Ini Dima Okojie (Nollywood actress) and Eric Omondi (a Comedian based in Kenya, who is one of the best comedians in Africa).

Services available on the platform include: payment of toll fees, state government payments, purchase of airtime, flight tickets, funds transfer, payment of cable bills (TV), quick loans, event tickets, online shopping from over 100 global stores, JAMB ePins and every other thing you can think of.

About Quickteller

Quickteller is Interswitch’s online payments platform for consumers and businesses. It enables payments to be made across various channels (ATMs, Web, POS’s now) with the use of debit or prepaid cards issued by any member bank on the Interswitch network. Quickteller services include airtime recharge, bill payments, (utility & non-utility), funds transfer and remittances.

The access is enabled through multiple channels such as bank Branch, ATM, Web, POS, Kiosk, Voice, is limitless and users can enjoy the full benefits of these services. Quickteller enables users to simplify everyday life by enabling individual customers and businesses to make payments easily, on the go.

Today, everyone is talking broadband. Everyone is talking about the advantages, the benefits and the need to make it more available and accessible.

The importance is becoming more evident each passing day. Indeed, it is becoming general knowledge that access to broadband internet grows quality of live, productivity increases and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expands. The significance is immense.

Reports indicate that a 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration yields 0.8 per cent increase in GDP per capita. That is, increasing broadband penetration by 10 per cent will automatically almost double GDP per capita. GDP per capita is a measure of a country’s economic output that accounts for its number of people. It is a good measurement of a country’s standard of living.

So clearly, broadband access is no more a luxury. Without a doubt, it has become a basic necessity for economic and human development. It should become a full-blown human right.

If you think of one indispensable tool for the delivery of essential services such as education, healthcare and financial services today, broadband comes to mind every time. It offers, as experts say, previously unimagined opportunities for citizen empowerment, community engagement and nation-building. The deployment of broadband in government (think e-governance) promotes transparency, accountability and efficiency.

Those who should know reveal that broadband has become a foundation for the digital infrastructure precipitating the digital economy. It is also helping to create jobs, jump-starting job skills development and boosting rapid socio-economic development.

In Nigeria, there is growing awareness of the humongous promises of the digital economy. For instance, the federal government recently converted the Ministry of Communication to the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy.

And only in December, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami inaugurated a 25- member National Broadband Penetration Committee. The objective is to chart a path to achieve 70 per cent broadband target in the next five years.

The committee has its work cut out for it, as the current broadband penetration stands at a measly 37.8 per cent.

Then in a separate but related development, Bloomberg recently reported that “Nigeria plans to invest 265 billion naira ($732 million) in broadband infrastructure over the next four years as the government sets its sights on nationwide coverage and to boost an economy recovering from a 2016 contraction.”

According to the report quoting Professor Umar Danbatta, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), “the government will provide 65 billion naira for the project and six private infrastructure companies will provide the balance under a public-private partnership scheme.”

The funds would enable the country to roll out an additional 30,000 kilometres (19,000 miles) of fibre across its 774 local governments, taking the total to 71,000 kilometres by 2024.

Why is it beginning to look like the NCC is running its own race? The Minister is filled with passion but is struggling to assert his authority. He needs to know that he cannot do it alone. Synergy is required. The Minister, its agencies and commissions must find a way to work together for the common good. Broadband is too important to be handled haphazardly.

According to Benton Fellow, Denise Linn Riedl, “Broadband’s fundamental value doesn’t come from connecting computers to networks; its value comes from connecting people to opportunity, and society to new solutions. When a broadband network is available but a person who wants to use it can’t do so, then the network is less valuable to everyone else who does use it.”

Broadband adoption, he explained, benefits people in concrete and practical ways. Children can do homework at home. Parents can become more involved in their child’s school. Families can stream educational content. Adults can obtain digital skills training, including improving workforce skills and connecting with potential employers. The benefits are endless.

Since broadband is so important, the objective must be to constantly explore ways to ensure availability. Indeed, everyone using broadband makes broadband better for everyone else.

Again, it bears repeating that broadband is important. Its importance stems from how it enables connections, strengthens networks and expands opportunities. This is why when broadband internet is available but not accessible; it is almost as bad as been unavailable.

Access to available broadband is a function of cost – the cost of device and cost of data to connect the service. While there are cheap smartphones today to connect to broadband, they are still beyond the reach of a lot of people. Imagine 90 million people living below the poverty line.

This is the sad reality. So, there should be conversations around credit facilities, lease arrangements and payment by instalments for devices to grow access to broadband devices.

Additionally, we cannot run away from the need to have more affordable data. Yes, it has to be more affordable but it shouldn’t have to happen by fiat. For this to happen, the regulator, NCC, must offer financial breaks to service providers and actively work with other relevant regulatory agencies to reduce the burden of multiple taxations.

The Minister must continue to push issues around reasonable right of ways (ROW) approvals, preferential access to foreign exchange for infrastructure equipment, the designation of telecommunication infrastructure as critical national infrastructure with relevant protection, and tax exemption for extending services to under-served areas among others. He should involve the President directly where needed. This is how to ensure genuine process is made not just motion.

Broadband should not just be available but equally affordable. Broadband is too important to leave to chance. The government must be involved and yes even lead the charge. It should, however, be private-sector driven.

This is the only way to truly create widespread availability of affordable broadband. This is the best preparation for Nigeria to be ready to play in the Fourth Industrial Revolution – the digital and information society.

Let there be BROADBAND!

The face-off between man and technology has lasted through-out history. From the first striking of stones to produce fire to the making of metal works, man has struggled to tame technology or machine, if you please.

The invention of the computer only served to bring the battle closer home. There has always been the fear that one day the computer (machines) would among other things, take jobs, change the world and maybe even take over the world and rule man.

This fear has persisted.

A deep and often unspoken fear is that the end is near when machines begin to think. And thinking machines is precisely what artificial intelligence (AI) is all about. The emergence of thinking computers therefore only served to heighten that fear.

Consider when the world chess champion, Gary Kasparov, faced the first thinking machine, an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue. The first match was played in Philadelphia in 1996 and won by Kasparov. The rematch was played in New York City in 1997 and won by Deep Blue. The 1997 match was the first defeat of a reigning world chess champion by a computer under tournament conditions. When Deep Blue took the match by winning the final game, Kasparov refused to believe it.

It was an epic moment. It sent shock waves around the world. Naturally, there were controversies. Some argued that everything was done to make the battleground comfortable for the machine; it was chilled to, like we say in Nigeria, mortuary temperature.

The truth be told, computer scientists had for decades viewed chess as a meter stick for artificial intelligence. Gary’s defeat, in many circles, meant that humans were entering the age of the machines.

Since that time, so much has happened. Computers have since grown so much more powerful. Infact, today, we have apps on our mobile phones that are far more powerful than Deep Blue. Thinking computers are everywhere. Welcome to the age of Artificial Intelligence!

To understand what AI is and how it works, let’s hear the experts:

“AI is the use of intricate logic or advanced analytical methods to perform simple tasks at greater scale in ways that mean we can do more at large scale with the workers we have, allowing them to focus on what humans are best at, like handling complex exceptions or demonstrating sympathy.” –Whit Andrews, vice president and distinguished analyst with Gartner Research

“AI is a mathematical and algorithmic model that allows computers to learn to do tasks without being explicitly programmed to do those tasks.” –Timothy Havens, the William and Gloria Jackson Associate Professor of Computer Systems in the College of Computing at Michigan Technological University and director of the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems.

Today, AI is becoming more pervasive. It is already in use in several sectors, particularly the financial service and marketing spheres. Reports indicate that the demand for AI-enabled initiatives would continue to increase in the coming days.

It is interesting to note that AI is rapidly making its way into the workplace. Today, it touches customer care, staff recruitment and consumer insights and marketing. Tomorrow, it would reach and cover more business segments.

Inspite of this, mentioning AI in the workplace still produces fear – particularly for job security. Until recently, people predicted that the automation brought by AI would render many job functions redundant. Currently, thankfully, the fear that AI will lead to redundancy has reduced with experts re-evaluating their perspective.

The truth is that AI is not replacing jobs. On the contrary, reports show that it is targeting specific tasks, improving and making them easier and faster. According to PWC, “72% of business decision-makers consider AI as a key tool for allowing humans to focus on more meaningful work.” Precisely!

So, while AI will eliminate certain types of job, it would create others. It will limit some functions, expand others and definitely restructure some industries and realign others. Overall, there would be net job gain.

AI will bring good and bad. Individuals and businesses must explore how they can use it for good. Take advantage of its potential to improve productivity, boost capacity and increase revenue.

As Red Hat technologist, Gordon Haff wrote, “AI projects in the past have often tried to boil the ocean – to solve multi-faceted problems like self-driving cars. Today’s enterprise AI projects are more practical, often focusing on customer experience pain points. “What’s happening with AI today is exciting in part because it involves practical solutions that address complexity, the need to handle more and more data, and demanding customers,” Haff noted.

Evidently, the use of AI in business will continue to grow. In its current iteration, AI is significantly more practical, more useful, and more impactful. Its definition as the technology that allows computers to do things that were once only the domain of humans is proving truer each day. For example, computers have always been able to calculate, today, with AI, they can learn and draw conclusions.

AI is essentially a thinking machine. It thinks by learning and making deductions from the data available to it

To work, AI needs data. It consumes data in order to learn. Big data refers to the massive sets of data that are now available and to all intents and purposes suited for this purpose. These sets of data can be analyzed by machines. This can reveal patterns and trends, and facilitate making future predictions. With big data, AI is in its element.

It is no surprise therefore that AI and Big Data are already driving the provision of new, innovative and efficient services, particularly in the financial sector.

In Nigeria, some fintechs are already adopting AI and Big Data. Take Renmoney. With AI and big data, it has unprecedented customer insight so that it is able to assess and disburse loans much faster, deliver incredible and efficient customer experience and indeed broaden the scope of its operations.

In adopting AI, firms demonstrate their commitment to executing what is truly a data-driven strategy. AI will enable organisations to make optimal use of data. In the age of social media, data is everywhere. To be able to gather and harness it would be tremendous. AI is helping to create the business of the future.

Elvis Eromosele, a Corporate Communication professional and public affairs analyst lives in Lagos.

Isa Pantami
Minister of Communications & Digital Economy

In a new year, everyone expects everything to be different. This may not always be the case. One thing is clear, however- while 2019 may have passed, it would cast a shadow over 2020.

The Information & Communications Technology (ICT) sector in Nigeria remains perhaps, the most vibrant sector in the economy. Information from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals that the contribution of ICT to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) surpassed that of oil and gas in the second quarter of 2019. The sector contributed 13.85 per cent to total nominal GDP which is much higher than the 11.22 per cent contributed in the same period in 2018.

Available information indicates that it would again do better in 2020.

I do not have a crystal ball but here are five things that, I like to think, would shape the Nigerian ICT space in 2020:

• Ministerial Interventions

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has on the resumption of office shown that it would not be business as usual in the ICT space. He quickly demonstrated an unprecedented interest in the welfare of the Nigerian telecoms consumer.

He singlehandedly cancelled the proposed USSD charge, kicked against the rising data cost, pushed for the elimination of illegal deductions and abolition of automatic activation of voicemail services. These earned him plenty of accolades from a wide segment of stakeholders and some knocks from interest groups. If history is anything to go by, he will continue on this tangent.

In 2020, he would continue to push for a massive reduction in data cost, demand lower call charges and insist that the telecom operators quashed compulsory voicemail services.

The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) is likely to struggle to remain neutral in the light of the minister’s action. Its efforts to remain neutral will likely backfire. The Minister would put the Commission on the spot time and again this year.

This sort of ministerial intervention is not peculiar to Nigeria. In South Africa, there are calls for lower data cost. Two of Africa’s largest two mobile operators, Vodacom and MTN, have been ordered by the Competition Commission in South Africa to cut their data prices in their home country by a third to half or face prosecution.

The commission called the current data pricing ‘biased against the poor’. Also, the European Union has opened preliminary investigations into Google and Facebook’s data practices, assessing whether the two U.S. tech firms are complying with its rules in the region.

• Lower Data Cost

The call for lower data cost is getting louder. I doubt if the telecoms firms can hide from this much longer. The pressure from the consumers and now the Minister would not only remain but would likely escalate in 2020. The question is not if but when the operators will reduce the cost of data significantly.

When a key player in the telecoms sector made the assertion that ‘data is life’, it was spot on. Although, one wonders if it realised how right it is. That statement is potent – Data is indeed life. The range of things that data enables the average person to do are humongous: think – Google services including search, maps and courses, free training programmes, connection on social media and business possibilities.

The calls for lower Data Cost will persist, how the operators will react is anyone’s guess.

Let the price come down.

• 5G et Al

News reports indicate that with the trial launch in 2019 by MTN Nigeria, Nigeria has emerged as only one of the few African countries that have committed to the new mobile technology – 5G. This is the fifth-generation networks.

Nigeria hopes to start rolling out 5G in select cities in 2020. It is almost natural, therefore, to expect other operators to begin to scramble to get their names on the 5G scene – never mind that 4G is still largely under-utilised.

According to Evan Kirstel, Social Media Business Strategist (Advisor) at NameUCStrategies.com, “5G networks will be vital for supporting the growing demand for mobile. But 5G’s unparalleled data capacity, speed and low latency will also help to enable a new breed of smart cities applications. The 5G-based infrastructure is set to offer a wide range of opportunities…”

Undoubtedly, 5G will demand and indeed attract new investments, create jobs and jump-start innovation in several industries. Long live 5G!

• Cloud Computing, Big Data and AI

Cloud computing is a term used with increasing frequency in the past few years. Essentially, it is a technology that allows a business to store its servers and data off-site in secure data centres which can then be accessed by users through the Internet. This adaptation has spread across most industries and accountancy is no exception.

Demand for anytime and anywhere access to information is the biggest driver of cloud computing. Today in Nigeria, thankfully, cloud computing is now more than a buzzword. It is perhaps the fastest growing technology services today.

Among other factors, it is considered cost-effective.

According to Bart McDonough, CEO, Agio, “rapid adoption of cloud computing will continue to be fueled by the understanding of “ease of use and scalability.”

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data are following closely. Artificial intelligence is described as the technology that allows computers to do things that were once only the domain of humans. For example, computers have always been able to calculate. With AI, they can learn and draw conclusions.

To work, AI needs data. It consumes data in order to learn. Big data refers to the massive sets of data that are now available for this purpose. These sets of data can be analyzed by machines. This can reveal patterns and trends, and facilitate making future predictions.

AI and Big Data are already driving the provision of new and innovative services, particularly in the financial sector.

• Business on Social Media

Social media will fully emerge as the go-to platform for interaction, connection and transaction with customers. This year, plenty of small businesses will begin to explore and exploit opportunities in the social media space. Expectedly, the volume of transactions will hit new highs.

Selling on social media is not just a fad. It is here to stay.

It would continue to thrive because it offers convenience and prospective buyers have the opportunity to read feedback from others who may have bought.

The business of social media and on social media is a true win-win.

The best part is that efforts to regulate social media will continue to fail

Extra: Capacity building and training in ICT would remain big, sales of smartphone accessories would continue to rise and new businesses (StartUps) would spring up across the county in 2020.

Elvis Eromosele, a Corporate Communication professional and public affairs analyst lives in Lagos.