Despite sustained growth of the mobile industry in the Sub-Saharan Africa, the biggest impact of mobile in the region is yet come even as many rural areas are still under-served.

At the GSMA Mobile 360 Series Africa conference held in Cape Town, South Africa, MTN Group President and CEO Sifiso Dabengwa, spoke with African Technology Journalists on a number of industry issues. According to him, governments and regulators should consider merger and acquisition activity between operators in the competitive markets.

He also said that lower capacity smartphones will become much more affordable and will increase the penetration of the internet. The internet, he said is going to be an important part of the future, even as he urged African governments to push the adoption of the internet as much as possible. Excerpts of the interview:

By EMEKA AGINAM

Where we are

Clearly, there has been significant improvement across the board. And it is also an example of an industry or a sector where the policies of different governments, the regulatory implications and also the private sector have actually worked very well in order to achieve this.

ICT creates jobs

Also we have seen that across the continent, some very strong good companies have developed as a direct result of this industry. And as indicated earlier on, millions of jobs have been created directly and indirectly and it has been major contributor to government’s coffers across the continent in terms of taxes, levies and duties; So, overall it is quite clear that the mobile industry has been a major success but also a major contributor to the different economies across the continent.

Factors that enabled growth in ICT sector

If we just look at what can be considered as some of the key factors that have enabled this level of success and i would just summarizes a couple which i think are important or even more important more so as we go forward. The first one is that in nearly every country, all governments have a strong desire to ensure access to affordable communications to their general population and that we see across the board.

There have been really significant technological improvements all in terms of infrastructure and devices enhancers. Device affordability and availability have also been important as indicated earlier on.

Regulatory clarity

Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN CEO

The importance of regulatory clarity and policy direction cannot be underestimated. For anybody to invest in any environment, they have to have such level of security.

Regulators have been very engaging and there has been more developments in terms of capability across the board and that has really helped the industry quite significantly.

In the initial stages of the industry, ICT services were just voice and SMS. But today, the internet has become the basis for developing new services, innovations across the board.

Where the industry is going

Governments and regulators should consider merger and acquisition activity between operators in the competitive markets. There has to be greater clarity on spectrum availability.

Affordable 3G enabled smart phones are still needed for digital and financial inclusion in Sub-Sahara Africa. Where there has to be a significant roll-out of 3G, we still face challenges from an affordability point of view.

So we really need to look at affordability of 3G or other devices that will help improve internet penetration in our markets thereby driving digital and financial inclusion in the continent.

If we just also look at the way we are going and what the future is about, it is quite clear that the industry is at the point where we are facing challenges while there are significant opportunities as well. The fact is that across the continent, there is growing middle class with a higher spending power, more expectations with respect to technology and for technology to deliver more is a reality.

As technological advances continue, we can expect to have devices with much more capacity and capability and also the infrastructure are able to develop, deliver content at much higher speed than we could do before. Then mobility has become a way of life. It is not only for the selected few but it will be a way of life for the masses in terms of how significant the number of services that are delivered.

Affordability of Smartphone may be a problem today but I am convinced that in the next few years, maybe lower capacity smartphones will become much more affordable and will increase the penetration of the internet.

Sustainability critical

Another thing that is also important is the industry is sustainable. And industry sustainability would be critical for the ability of our market to be able to take advantage of all these technological advances and developments. More so, to ensure that there is a complete acceptance and integration into the internet world.

The industry has to be viable and that is looking at it from a customer perspective,. Government, regulators, policy makers should that the quality of service that is delivered in any part of the continent or in any market is as good as it is in any other market.

We need to invest significantly in the markets. Unfortunately, when one looks at the ecosystem as it is today, it is quite clear that unless either consolidation or there is significant changes in terms of cost, there will definitely be some company failure and therefore i believe that consolidation should be allowed to take place in order to ensure that those failures are not catastrophic but are well managed and the industry is able to be sustainable.

Spectrum availability and efficient use

Spectrum availability and the efficient use of spectrum is another important part of ensuring that the industry is sustainable. In the voice and SMS phase of our industry, the spectrum requirement is not as significant as what we will need going into the future. And if one studies the broadband policies in most markets its quite clear that the ease is the definite requirement or desire of most governments in the African cities which is experiencing LTE.

Universal service fund

I think, finally, the effective use of universal service fund to ensure that the areas which would be generally be economical for most operators are not necessarily deprived of the service. There is a significant amount of fund that have been contributed to these service agencies which i believe should be used almost immediately to make sure that we are rolling out into all these areas and that the objective of governments and policy makers is to ensure that the ease and access to broadband services to a significant part of the population is made a reality.