With the recent receipt of Electronic Money Establishment licenses (EME) in four countries (Senegal, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea), Orange has further strengthened its position as a major player in the mobile financial services segment in Africa. This change of status is accompanied by the creation of a new organisation, CECOM, which provides mutualized risk and compliance management for its mobile money activities in these countries.

A Favourable Environment
In 2015, noting the significant growth of mobile money services within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) published an update of the regulatory framework related to such services.

This change, initiated in similar fashion by the Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea (BCRG), encourages telecommunications operators to obtain an EME license in order to conduct their mobile money operations within a broader framework of responsibility.

It was in this context that Orange filed license requests with both Central Banks and received EME status in early 2016 in four countries: Senegal, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea.

Each EME, licensed by the Central Bank of its territory, is an autonomous subsidiary controlled by the local telecom operator. The EME:

ensures the issuance, management and distribution of electronic money for Orange Money;

manages the compliance policy. (The EME is effectively taking over this role from Orange’s partner banks who previously carried this responsibility);

co-ordinates requests to the Central Bank for the launch of new functionalities and monitors overall activity.

This status gives Orange more autonomy and agility, enabling it to offer customers increasingly innovative services in a shorter amount of time.

CECOM, a fundamental role in risk management and compliance
The Group has set up a dedicated organisation, CECOM, to provide risk management for the business scope of the EMEs.
Based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, CECOM reports to the Orange Group and provides second-level control for the Orange Money business. It serves Orange’s EME subsidiaries, which provide first-level control. CECOM is staffed by a multidisciplinary team of experts with advanced skills in banking, telecommunications and information technology.

Orange strengthens its position as a major player in mobile finance
The compliance challenges of Orange Money as regards financial and banking regulations are still recent to Orange.

The creation of the CECOM to deploy a mutualized policy for managing risk and conformity issues is an important milestone which demonstrates Orange’s maturity in this segment. Orange Money’s global operations now represent major stakes in a growing number of countries. In Côte d’Ivoire, Orange Money amounts to as much as 10% of the operator’s revenues.
Marc Rennard, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Customer Experience and Mobile Financial Services, announced:

“With this new milestone, mobile financial services become an integral part of Orange’s DNA. The licenses received from the Central Banks together with our investment in the CECOM are testimony to our commitment to this diversification, which will benefit our customers who use Orange Money services several million times each day.”
Bruno Mettling, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Orange Group and CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, said:

“By securing EME status, we are able to further develop the Orange Money business, which lies at the heart of our mission of being the strategic partner for the digital transformation in Africa and the Middle East, with the objective of generating more than 200 million euros by 2018. Today, the Orange Money customer base represents 5% of all customers in this market worldwide. Acceleration is already in progress, in particular with the opening of new corridors to expand our international money transfer services.”

Over 500 participants from government, business, academia, non-governmental organisations and the United Nations family are meeting in Nairobi this week to formulate and optimise human capacity building strategies for the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, to improve’ digital skills and empower countries to take full advantage of strong continued growth in ICT-related jobs.

Organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN specialised agency for ICTs, and hosted by the Communications Authority of Kenya, the global ICT Capacity Building Symposium (CBS-2016) provides an opportunity for stakeholders from across the world to discuss trends and developments in the sector and their implications for human and institutional capacity building, and to develop strategies to accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a time of major digital technology transformation.

“We live in a knowledge economy where new opportunities are emerging every day. ICTs are now at the centre of almost everything we do, and those who are empowered with digital skills and have the ability and opportunity to learn and adapt will gain a significant competitive advantage,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.

“This symposium brings together key ICT and education stakeholders to discuss how emerging technologies are changing the human capacity building environment: ITU is committed to helping all its members effectively and rapidly build human ICT capacity and improve ICT skills.”

“ICTs occupy a very special place in the hearts and minds of Kenyans. Indeed, ICTs not only drive the Kenyan society today but also are intricately embedded in our national development plan, which Kenya calls ‘Vision 2030’,” said William Ruto, Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya.

“Innovation is fuel of today’s development. It is the foundation for the transformative and visionary societies of today and tomorrow. We are living in the most dynamic time in history. Today’s innovation makes last week’s innovation obsolete. We need to feed this monster; we need to let it devour the challenges of our time and usher us into a new inter-connected age of prosperity.”

The Nigerian Communications Commission [NCC] says Nigeria has achieved Broadband penetration of 14 percent at present and is convinced that the anticipated 30 percent penetration by 2018 is also achievable.

Professor Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC said at a Stakeholders Forum for ITU Telecom World 2016 in Lagos yesterday that Nigeria has also crossed the 100 percent threshold thirst for Internet services. The ITU Telecom World is set for November 14-17, 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand.

He said the Commission has made spirited efforts to raise the level of Broadband penetration in the country since the National Broadband Plan [NBP] was launched by the Federal Government. He added that part of Nigeria’s tech at the Telecom World event is the revolution brewing in the area of Broadband in Nigeria.

“Nigeria is a Broadband developing nation. We belong to that part of the world where Broadband penetration is very low. We must embrace the new digital divide or lag behind. This new digital divide is between developed Broadband nations and those like Nigeria. There is need for more investments and partnerships as no government can do it alone. We need Public-Private Partnership to woo investors.”

The NCC EVC said the ICT sector has attracted over $35 billion in Foreign Direct Investment [FDI] and local investments to underline the success story of the sector over the years.

“The ICT sector has recorded very significant growth in the last 15 years, when we moved from a little below 500, 000 active lines to the current 157 million and surpassed the 100 percent threshold for teledensity [107%]; Internet connectivity climbed up from 50, 000 in 2001 to its current 97 million. Our success story is very long but we as regulators are not resting on our oars believing that we are already there.”

He said the forum is to re strategise on how to attract more meaningful investments into the country.

“We are here to fine-tune our story about the growth and attraction of our sector. We are here to think of ways to convince would-be investors on the potential and capacity of our country. We are here to agree on the future growth of the telecom industry.”

The theme of Nigeria’s participation at the Telecom World 2016 is: ‘Smart Communities: The Key to a Digital Nigeria.’

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 344 million units in the second quarter of 2016, a 4.3 percent increase over the same period in 2015, according to Gartner.

Overall sales of mobile phones contracted by 0.5 percent with only five vendors from the top 10 showing growth. Among them were four Chinese manufacturers (Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and BBK Communication Equipment) and South Korea’s Samsung.

“Demand for premium smartphones slowed in the second quarter of 2016 as consumers wait for new hardware launches in the second half of the year,” said Anshul Gupta, Research Director at Gartner. In addition, the decline in sales of “feature phones” (down 14 per cent) bolstered the decline in overall sales of mobile phones in the second quarter of 2016.

All mature markets except Japan saw slowing demand for smartphones leading to a decline in sales of 4.9 percent. In contrast, all emerging regions except Latin America saw growth, which led to smartphone sales growing by 9.9 percent.

In the second quarter of 2016, Samsung had nearly 10 percent more market share than Apple. Samsung saw sales of its Galaxy A and Galaxy J series smartphones compete strongly with Chinese manufacturers. Its new smartphone portfolio also helped Samsung win back share it recently lost in emerging markets.

Apple continued its downward trend with a decline of 7.7 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Apple sales declined in North America (its biggest market) as well as in Western Europe.

However, it witnessed its worst sales decline in Greater China and mature Asia/Pacific regions, where sales declined 26 percent. Apple had its best performance in Eurasia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe regions in the second quarter of 2016, where iPhone sales grew more than 95 percent year on year.

Among the top five smartphone vendors, Oppo exhibited the highest growth in the second quarter of 2016 at 129 percent. This is due to strong sales of its R9 handset in China and overseas.

“Features such as an anti-shake camera optimized for selfies, and rapid charge technology, helped Oppo carve a niche market for itself and boost sales in a highly competitive and commoditized smartphone market,” said Gupta.

In terms of the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android regained share over iOSto achieve an 86 percent share in the second quarter of 2016. Android’s performance continued to come from demand for mid- to lower-end smartphones from emerging markets, but also from premium smartphones, which recorded a 6.5 percent increase in the second quarter of 2016.

A number of key Android players, such as Samsung with the Galaxy S7, introduced their new high-end devices, but Chinese brands like Huawei and Oppo are also pushing their premium smartphone ranges with more affordable devices.

“Google is evolving the Android platform fast, which allows Android players to remain at the cutting edge of smartphone technology,” said Roberta Cozza, Research Director at Gartner.

“Facing a highly commoditized smartphone market, Google’s focus is to further expand and diversify the Android platform with additional functionalities, like virtual reality, enabling more-intelligent experiences and reach into wearables, connected home devices, in-car entertainment and TV.”

French start-up, Afrimarket raised €10 million to deploy its e-commerce platform in six new African nations, French daily Les Echos reported on September 5.

“Funds mobilized will help us develop our e-commerce platform,” said Rania Belkahia, co-founder of Afrimarket. Launched about a year ago in Cote d’Ivoire, the platform will be deployed in four other countries (Senegal in October, followed by Cameroon, Benin and Togo), where Afrimarket already operates in the remittance transfer domain, and in 2017 in Mali and Burkina Faso. “We want to become the reference in terms of e-commerce in French-speaking West Africa,” Belkahia declared.

Through the new fundraising which brings to €13 million the total amount raised by the start-up since its creation, multiple investors entered its capital. These include British investment fund Global Innovation Fund and Proparco, the private sector arm of the French Development Agency (AFD).

Many individual investors also participated to the process, like the co-founder of PriceMinister, Olivier Mathiot, who thus joins the administration board.

Previous investors like Orange, Xavier Niel of Free, or Jacques-Antoine Granjon of Vente-privee.com are the other board members. “From a mere wish, we were able to constitute a diversified group of shareholders comprised of global actors, industrials, and entrepreneurs with experience in e-commerce and telecom,” said Rania Belkhia pleased.

Though operational in one country only, Afrimarket’s e-commerce platform generates 30% of the start-up’s turnover.