CASE STUDY

Leapfrogging the banking system

Mobile Internet technologies play a very important role in

The roads are notorious, the infrastructure under-developed and the continent has more than its fair share of conflicts and crises but as darkness falls, and villagers huddle around paraffin lamps, neon lights come to life as they illuminate the mobile phone masts proliferating across the African landscape. Africa is in the grip of a mobile phone revolution. In the past 10 years, subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa have risen from 72 000 (excluding South Africa) to 25.5 million.

making Internet services available to many in Africa. According to Mobile Africa the number of mobile phone subscriptions far exceeds fixed-line subscriptions. The International Telecommunication Union reckon that more Africans have begun using phones since 2000 than in the whole of the previous century! Use of mobile phones has been increasing at an annual rate of 65 per cent, more than twice the global aver- age. However, Africans are now using them for more than call- ing their friends and family: many are using them to do their

CHAPTER 3 SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETING 101

banking. For these new banking customers both the mobile

lular finance. A simplified kind of account called Mzansi has phone and the whole system of banking are new to them.

been launched to reach the non-banking customers, and About half a million South Africans now use their mobile

portable banks and ATMs have been rolled out in townships phones as a bank. Besides sending money to relatives and

and in the countryside. paying for goods, they check balances, buy mobile airtime and

In most of Africa, only a fraction of people have bank settle utility bills. Traditional banks offer mobile banking as an

accounts - but there is huge demand for cheap and conven- added service to existing customers, most of whom are quite

ient ways to send money and buy prepaid services such as well off. Wizzit, and to some extent First National Bank (FNB)

airtime. In Kenya, a pilot scheme called M-Pesa is being used and MTN Banking, are chasing another market: the 16 million

to disburse and pay micro-loans by phone. Meanwhile Celpay South Africans, over half of the adult population, with no bank

is offering platforms for banks and phone companies in account. Significantly, 30 per cent of these people do have

Zambia and Congo. In countries like Somalia, with chaotic mobile phones. Previously ignored as the bottom of the

conditions, cash transfers by phone could be a boon. pyramid and of little commercial importance to the large cor-

However, there are many difficulties on the way. Not all porations, such customers are now being courted. Wizzit

potential consumers are ready to make the leap. Many think hired and trained over 2000 unemployed people, known as

banking too expensive and complicated, and helping new Wizzkids, to drum up business. It worked: eight out of ten

customers become financially literate takes time. The technol- Wizzit customers previously had no bank account and had

ogy remains a problem in some cases, with downloads never used an ATM.

requiring dozens of text messages. Several rival platforms are People using advanced technology to manage their

still in the fight, but so far those that emphasise simplicity and finances had until now depended on the archaic system of

ease- of- use over state-of-the-art technology and security barter. They have leapfrogged telephony technology and

have made the greatest strides. A lot also hangs on putting jumped from dealing only in cash or barter to the world of cel-

the right laws and regulations in place. They need to be tight enough to protect vulnerable users and discourage money laundering, but open enough to allow innovative mobile banking to grow.

QUESTIONS

1 From a cross-cultural perspective, do you think the values and motivations of mobile phone consumers in Africa differ from those of their counterparts in other parts of the world?

2 From a cultural perspective, how might you develop a promotional campaign in Africa to further develop the cellular banking market?

3 What other cultural and behavioural considerations might

you take into consideration when designing a strategy for the cellular banking market in Africa? What implications

PHOTO CREDIT: J MARSHALL - TRIBALEYE IMAGES/ALAMY

might these have for a firms' global marketing strategy?