What are the challenges and opportunities in South Africa?

There is a common passion at Mobile Data, taking what we learn in South Africa and delivering it to the rest of the continent, as well as to other developing countries. We believe that we can add value to the African economy by bringing technology into play.
South Africa is an economic hub in Africa, with the dual qualities of a first and third world economy. We have the luxury of testing on our doorstep to see what works, but we have also learnt that just because your idea works in Pretoria doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in Lagos.
South Africa owes its place in the world to the birth of telecommunications: it was this which first connected Africa to the world. I think that now the world is seeing the value of prepaid, and prepaid is taking the shackles off Africa and other developing countries. In nations lacking infrastructure such as credit cards or payment machines, prepaid vouchers serve in contributing to modernisation and growth. Not only in South Africa, but continent-wide, prepaid will enable the delivery of services, making products available and more affordable.
Prepaid is about collecting cash, delivering services, and keeping that cycle going, which really helps in driving costs down and is a useful enabler of commerce. Through TradeSwitch, we have built on a platform and become the enabler for companies that wish to enter the digital ecosystem.

What is Mobile Data’s presence in Africa?

We see an opportunity in many African markets where other overseas companies don’t. Our aim with TradeSwitch, is to receive payments not only from company to person but from person to person, as well as transferring money for prepaid product distribution. We are leaders in the field of prepaid distribution. This entails enabling companies to make their products available through prepaid, and opens up a whole customer base who might not have the credit backing to buy high-end goods.

“…There is a common passion at Mobile Data, We believe that we can add value to the African economy by bringing technology into play…”

The payment industry is booming, and competition is stiff. What has been the reaction to TradeSwitch?

I would be surprised if you heard our name on the street, as we are really in the B2B space. Currently, big telecoms players like Vodacom, Neotel and Telkom, as well as the banks, are using our product. It’s a white-label product, which means we supply the technology to the company to be rebranded.

How do you find the appropriate partner to work with?

From a commercial perspective, we look at the prominent players in every country; usually banks, telecoms and retailers. What we see in Africa is an underdeveloped retail community. Many of the successful retailers in Africa are extensions of South African operations, which is both good and bad.
We focus mainly on the telecoms and banking sectors. To that extent, we would be an ideal partner to look after the digital products of a bank, being a facilitator for a foreign bank offering services to African banks.
In that instance, we can help banks to find more customers. Our approach is to look at things like mobile money and what’s called “stored value”, like a voucher that you load onto your phone. We want to make mobile banking almost the middle ground.

Where do you see Mobile Data in 3-5 years? Will you have a presence in the rest of the continent?

Five years from now, we hope to be in thirty African countries. We’d like to have TradeSwitch in every African country in the next seven to ten years, being used by local communities and for money transfers across borders.

For readers in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, what would you tell them about the situation right now?

Africa has been left behind, but technology is going to set us free and help us attract attention. Everybody has something to add.
Something we value at Mobile Data is diversity. There’s so much value locked up in Africa that the world hasn’t seen and the key is being connected to the rest of the world and be given an equal opportunity to compete.
I believe it is our time. It’s always darkest before dawn – things are tough I think because our time is so close.