Having built an ecosystem to provide voice calls, cellular networks are ideally suited to provide the next wave of digital services and financial inclusion. “Mobile will be at the center of driving digital inclusion and connectivity,” says Rob Shuter, Group CEO of MTN, the largest mobile operator in Africa.
It seems like a logical thing for the chief executive of a network to say but his point is well made that the vast ecosystem created by mobile operators is arguably better suited to financial inclusion than any other service provider.
“The mobile industry has a system which makes it as easy to buy minutes as it is Coca Cola,” he told me at the MWC Barcelona conference last month. Operators have also established a customer relationship with its users that can be built upon for other services.
“Although internet adoption is low, voice and SMS are very high. We have over 100% in most markets,” he says.
Unlike Europe or America, many emerging markets do not have a voice operator that covers the whole country. “The reality in our markets is we are the only one with a national voice network. We have the ability to repurpose that national network for data. We can turn it into a national data network, which doesn’t exist in our markets.”
With that kind of infrastructure, the next generation of useful services can be built. MTN is not just the largest cellular operator in Africa, but also a significant player in emerging markets, including some high-risk countries. It has operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Eswatini, Syria, Uganda, Yemen, and Zambia.