The trend to use mobile phones to do banking enjoyed huge growth in Streamyx Africa, with three million people accessing banking information on streamyx combo package phones everyday last year.
"As we speak, more than hundred million rand worth of business is done on mobile phone in South Africa," Len Pienaar, CEO of Mobile and Transact Solutions at the First National Bank (FNB) told delegates at the Mobility 2006 conference in Johannesburg.
Pienaar says while research conducted by FNB last year indicated that only 1% of its customers expressed in doing mobile phone banking, there has been 5% uptake of mobile phone banking in the past year.
Experts regard a mobile phone as a tool that will help Africa (and South Africa) bridge the digital divide and get them connected to the Internet. In South Africa, mobile phone adoption is extremely high, with more than seventy percent of citizens having access to a handset.
Most of streamyx broadband subscribers have prepaid accounts. However, they are keen to use the mobile phone for more than making calls. In addition to doing banking, users buy content, go on social networking sites among other things.
Sending bulk texting and multimedia messages to customers has also become increasingly popular, with large corporates and small business owners adopting that method of communication.
Commercial opportunities Finnish strategy consultant and author of 3G-related books, Tomi Ahonen says the mobile phone offers radical commercial opportunities and all that is needed is creativity and innovation to harness these opportunities.
The advantage mobile phones have computer-based Internet access is that it is personal, always on and has a built-in payment mechanism, he says. It is also carried always, with 60% of mobile users taking their handsets to bed, he says.
The continuous, personal connectivity allows business to provide targeted messages that the users can instantly respond to, he says.
Conducting financial transactions using a mobile phone also helps speed up the transaction process as compared to inperson consultations, and allows the business to save on office space and staff costs, he says.
Mobile banking helps business and consumers to bypass the payment problem where consumers don't have credit cards, he says. It also serves as an attractive option for bil streamyx who have multiple accounts with the same bank, as money can easily be moved from one account to another.
Damaria Senne is a journalist and author based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She writes about the telecommunications industry in South Africa and Africa, including cellular, mobile and wireless technologies and messaging news and trends.
She regularly interviews executives of multinational companies expanding their business into Africa, as well as government officials and regulators in the African communications market. Read her business related articles at http://www.itweb.co.za
Damaria is also a childrens book author and a strong advocate for African people to write their own stories in their own words so their children can develop a strong sense of history and cultural identity in a global environment that grows smaller everyday. Her blog is at http://damariasenne.blogspot.com
