Africa’s top five tech trends for 2015

Johannesburg - African countries boosting their internet access levels and greater telecommunications competition on the continent.

These are among predictions forecast in research firm Frost & Sullivan’s report on the Top 10 ICT Trends for Africa in 2015.

Frost & Sullivan has supplied Fin24 with five of these top trends from its report which draws on the research organisation’s local and global experts to provide analysis. Below are five of the top predicted trends that Frost & Sullivan highlights.

1. Governments providing internet access

The positive correlation between social development and access to the internet has been broadly accepted with telecommunications now seen as a key medium for the delivery of key social services. Several countries have already invested heavily in the promotion of ICT services, whether through the direct provision of infrastructure (such as in Ethiopia) or the establishment of partnerships with key providers like Google.  

The ability to support the provision of financial services, healthcare, education, and utility services (water and electricity) is driving many of these initiatives as it is more cost-effective to overlay these services on the Internet than to use traditional channels. We are already seeing governments investing in free public Wi-Fi services and zero-rated data for particular applications is becoming more widespread.

In 2015 we will see more African governments driving the roll-out of telecommunications infrastructure, particularly in the form of public Wi-Fi.

2. New business models customised to Africa

Globally, the proliferation of internet access via broadband, wireless and mobile connectivity has created the foundation for new business ecosystems. 2015 will witness particular application of this trend in Africa as companies seek to tackle key challenges including power shortages, access to education, and the limited availability of data.

The key feature in Africa is the rise of mobile phone access - albeit feature phones - that enables easier interaction between companies and their customers. We can expect to see new trends such as peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, on-demand services, and infrastructure sharing driving business models unique to the African context – as evidenced in the companies listed below.

M-KOPA: “Pay-as-you-go” energy services for off-grid customers in Kenya and Uganda. Currently expanding to Tanzania.

Esoko: Communications platform in Ghana that allows farmers access to market prices and allows them to place buy or sell orders. Other mobile agriculture service providers include iCow in Kenya and mFisheries.

Payment Pebble: Technology device developed to enable SMEs and large enterprises to make and receive payments via a smartphone or tablet.

Weza Tele: Mobility solutions in commerce, supply chain and distribution and mobile payment integration.

3. Over-the-top (OTT) providers versus operators: The battle heats up

With the rise of connectivity and internet penetration, competition in the telecommunications market is no longer confined to geographic boundaries. At a global level, over-the-top (OTT) players, such as Google, Facebook, and Apple have disrupted the telecommunications landscape and 2015 will see them expand their influence across Africa.

What is rapidly playing out in the market is a battle to control how consumers access communications services. Beyond the continued eroding away of messaging and, increasingly, voice revenues, expect the battle for customers to intensify as the major OTT providers seek to position themselves as the primary portal through which people communicate, make payments, and use the internet to access other services.

Operators have tried to discourage OTT content through predatory pricing or disallowing particular services on their platforms, and even trying to develop their own ecosystems. However, operators’ efforts with respect to OTT services in Africa have been mixed and they will need to find ways to survive, whether through the protection of existing revenue streams or the creation of innovative partnerships. We expect that the OTT market will grow to challenge the traditional telecommunications players not only for revenues, but also for customers, in both the consumer and enterprise markets.

4.  Forget BYOD – it’s time for BYOS

For enterprises, one of the more challenging trends in recent years has been the notion of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and its impact on data security and privacy. The complexity of supporting a range of personal devices – and their contents – has proven difficult, but most companies have come to accept BYOD’s place in their organisations. However, no sooner have IT departments achieved this than BYOS (Bring Your Own Software – or potentially Service) has emerged as a fresh challenge.

As organisations become more global they are seeking to increase employees’ productivity and drive efficiencies by reducing IT costs. As an added benefit, allowing employees to select their own tools increases satisfaction.

In seeking to reduce costs, large organisations will look to emulate small and medium enterprises who have achieved major cost savings in areas such as remote enterprise communications (for example by using of Skype) and office applications such as Open Office, while still maintaining secure and collaborative work environments.

BYOD is now an accepted part of most mainstream organisations with internal IT capabilities, but the emergence of (BYOS) is set to challenge these organisations even further.

5. Big data becomes priceless data

While ‘Big data’ is often seen as a buzzword, it has quickly become standard and embedded into organisational processes.

However, where previously the concern was about data collection such as with retail loyalty programmes and operational improvements (for example reducing data storage costs), we will see the emphasis shift to the application of insights and resulting revenue generation or cost reduction. One of the keys to adding value from these new processes will be increased machine learning capabilities so that analytics becomes ‘smarter’ – both self-adjusting and self-implementing.

African companies have typically struggled to obtain reliable market data, but effective big data applications will soon change this. Mobile operators occupy an enviable position in the market with their access to usage and location data, as well as billing information. Given their influence on the continent, we can expect them to soon lead the way in utilising big data analytics to enhance customer insights and the personalisation of services.