By Emmanuel Elebeke

In furtherance of its reach in African emerging markets, Nokia has announced that Ovi Life Tools, its leading emerging market information service, is now available in Nigeria.

The African launch is sequel to a previous  launches over the last year in Indonesia, India and China. The Ovi Life Tools according to Nokia has over 6.3 million users globally, and the introduction of this service in Africa is expected to further extends Nokia’s reach not just in Nigeria, one of Africa’s fastest growing economies and the continent’s largest mobile market but also  in other Africa’s  emerging markets.

Ovi Life Tools offers a wide range of information services covering healthcare, agriculture, education and entertainment which address the needs of consumers and helps improve their economic prosperity and quality of life.

Nokia’s head of Mobile Phone Services, Dieter May, said ‘it is a key part of Nokia’s overall strategy to connect the next billion people by providing access to locally relevant services on affordable mobile devices.”

He described the product as another important milestone for Nokia,  as it aims to continue the expansion of its  services in emerging markets.

“With this development, farmers will be able to check market prices without travelling long distances, people will be able to find important information to stay healthy and students will be able to learn English and improve their general knowledge at their own pace. All of this on easy-to-use and affordable mobile phones.

From today, people in Nigeria will have access to a wide range of services and information on their mobile phones through Nokia’s Ovi Life Tools,” said May.

Services available include: Healthcare services, mother and childcare, health and fitness and disease information, agriculture services, market prices, news and advice as well as  weather.

On education services: users can learn english, acquire general knowledge and access exam results, while the entertainment services will offer users football results, music, news alerts, horoscopes and jokes.