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WEEKLY PUBLICATION DEADLINE: 12 pm GMT Sunday.
ISSUE NO 169 CALL CENTRE SPECIAL - AFRICA FIGHTS FOR ITS SHARE OF A GLOBAL MARKETSuddenly call centres are breaking out all over Africa. Well, in some obvious and a few less likely places. Where India has led the way, Africa now follows with South Africa leading the pack. There is also a VOIP-based calling centre in Togo and two hotline response centres in Senegal. At the heart of the business model is the need for cheap international calling and although VOIP is often held up as essential, it does not really matter how this is achieved. The recently launched Kenyan ICT venture fund C4Idea identified call centres as a business area of interest and there are several Kenyan players gearing up to get into the market. But it is not the route to a quick buck as the story of South Africa’s CCN Holdings shows. It bailed out of the internet business, selling its NetActive business to Tiscali and bought Call Centre Nucleus to enter the business. Its recent year end results showed a loss of R4.9 million on its new acquisition, largely as a result of investments made to strengthen the business. In this issue Russell Southwood looks at an operation that claims to be the first call centre in Ghana and Glen Thompson summarises the results of a survey of call centre operators in Cape Town. GHANA’S FIRST CALL CENTRE WAITS THREE MONTHS FOR ITS LINES Algerian Karim Morsli did not start out wanting to run a call centre. His company Rising Data began by doing telephony software for an American company out of Ghana. The American company’s hardware vendor needed customisation on the software and Rising Data retained the rights to the software. To carry out the contract there was a need to communicate with Ghana on a daily basis so it got VOIP calling organised for itself. Through this, he got talking to the client about the possibility of running a doctors’ answering service. And out of this discussion the idea of the call centre was born and he decided to launch it with his Malian business partner Sambou Makalou. The first contract was for a telemarketing campaign. Based in Ghana’s incubator centre BusyInternet, Rising Data currently has eight call agents who work a two-shift pattern. There is current capacity for 24 call agents and the company is planning to move to larger premises shortly. Setting up a new business in Ghana has proved somewhat challenging. Two examples give some idea of the frustrations involved. Morsli wanted quick access to a reasonably priced property in Accra. Because most people in Africa hold on to property as a key asset, the market is not very fluid. Although there are many empty buildings they are mostly in Morsli’s view overpriced (USD11-15 per sq foot). The second frustration has been trying to get fixed lines from Ghana Telecom. It has taken 4 months to get them installed. As Morsli says:"Please walk the talk. If you want to play the global game, wear your global hat." He feels that there is a lack of transparency in GT’s costing of bandwidth and that it has over-priced its fibre connections. "If the Ghanaian government is serious about creating jobs, it needs to create a special department that can expedite issues like these and help us. There’s been six months of talking with them whilst other countries jump on the global bandwagon." The operation is run locally by Kwame Bonsu who used to work for IBM and previously ran Edutech. It currently claims to employ 20 Ghanaians and has its US base in Maryland. Long-term, he believes the company has the potential to grow to 2000 employees. Its Sales VP is based in Seattle and is looking for 2-3 year customer service contracts rather than telemarketing. Typical contract size varies between USD0.5-3 million. It plans to be ISO certified within a year. What about Ghana’s competitive position?:"In the US, those who are familiar with Ghanaians know that they are intelligent, educated and people of integrity. But there is also a tendency to see them as in some way linked to Nigeria. For US business delegates, their first stop in Africa is Ghana. They see it as a great gateway to Africa. It’s small, simple to understand and therefore things can easily change." Others are also setting up in Ghana and there is some talk of setting up a Business Process Outsourcing Association. CAPE TOWN’S 70 PLUS CALL CENTRES - SURVEY RESULTS REVEAL "YOUNG YET MATURING" INDUSTRY International companies are looking at either a cost-effective, professional outsourced call centre service or to set up own fully-fledged call centres operation. South Africa and India are competing for these investors. In South Africa, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town are vying as destinations that offer high service levels, similar time zones to Europe and English language capacity. Increasingly, investors are expressing interest in establishing call centres in Cape Town. In February 2003 CallingtheCape commissioned a research company to survey the Cape Town call centre industry. CallingtheCape is an industry body promoting international investment and the development of the local call centre industry cluster. The survey aimed at examining Cape Town’s investment climate for call centre operations. The two main objectives of the research were to update a database of the Cape Town call centres, and to compile an economic indicator of the Cape Town call centre industry for investment purposes. An e-mail questionnaire was circulated to the 71 call centres identified in Cape Town. The questionnaire was directed to call centre senior executives and managers and was conducted from March to May 2003. 46% of the companies responded. In consultation with CallingtheCape, this sample was seen as representative of the Cape Town call centre industry. Highlights of the research illustrate that the Cape Town call centre industry is providing opportunities to overseas companies looking for outsourced inbound and outbound services. There has recently been a shift from inbound call centre to inbound & outbound contact centre (servicing multiple channels) operations. 88% of the Cape Town call centres said they were geared to operate 24/7. The main driver for investors is to improve the profitability of their operations. Respondents felt that the local industry was young yet maturing. This is evidenced by the fact that the average age operations surveyed is 4_ years, although call centres have been in existence since the mid-1980s. The average size of call centres offices was 1,347m2, with an average of 100 seats. However, 34% of call centres surveyed had between 20 to 49 seats and 23% with 100 to 200 seats. 60% of the companies questioned occupied Grade A office space. Dependent on the size of the operation, call centres start-up costs could be up to R155 million for a large company, although most of the companies surveyed indicated that the figure was much lower. The Cape Town call centres services a broad range of geographical areas, including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Russia and the USA. Within these regions, financial services - including insurance ­ has the largest customer base followed by health-care, retail and the petrochemical industries amongst others. There are a wide range of customer contact media channels used by the industry: voice, fax, Internet, e-mail, SMS and Web-chat. Nevertheless, respondents did indicate that there is an increasing emphasis on human resource management rather than relying on technology when dealing with customers. One of key strengths of the Cape Town call centre industry identified in the survey was English language proficiency that compare well with international market needs. There is a 3:1 ratio of language use in call centres favouring English over Afrikaans, African languages (Tswana, Sotho, Xhosa, and Zulu) and foreign languages (including Dutch, French, German, Italian and Portuguese). The survey segmented the call centre workforce into managers, supervisors and agents. Most managers held a university degree. The majority of supervisors and agents had completed high school, some having gone on to technikon to complete a national diplomas. The average age of managers is 35 years as compared to 25_ years for agents. 60% of the supervisors and agents employed were women. The survey also demonstrated that there is no significant difference between permanent and part-time employee’s salaries at the agent level. A number of respondents felt that the telecommunications regulatory environment in South Africa would benefit from deregulation. Most believed that the entry of the second national operator (SNO) in South Africa would increase competition with Telkom, thereby driving down telephony and bandwidth costs and increasing the quality of infrastructure offerings in the medium term. This finding is not unlike that of other research conducted on the broader information and communication technology (ICT) sector. It is hoped that the publication of further research on the Cape Town call centre industry will enable investors ­ both foreign and local ­ to make informed decisions. Furthermore, with a better understanding of the local industry CallingtheCape can find mechanisms of facilitating the development of the call centre cluster in Cape Town. The survey findings are still to be published by CallingtheCape at a formal launch in Cape Town. For more information about CallingtheCape or this survey contact Celeste Sirin (Executive Director: CallingtheCape). She can be reached via e-mail: casirin@mweb.co.za or visit the web site: www.callingthecape.org.za. The article’s author Glen Thompson, Director, Infonomics
South Africa conducted the survey.
UTSTARCOM SIGNS FIRST CONTRACT IN AFRICA WITH SOTELMA IN MALIUTStarcom, Inc, a leading global provider of wireless and wireline access and IP switching solutions, today announced that it has signed its first contract in West Africa in the country of Mali for its IP-based PAS (Personal Access System) solution. The contract was awarded through UTStarcom’s partner, AfricaCom of London. AfricaCom, which has local operations in Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, and the Ivory Coast, will act as the prime contractor in its relationship with Sotelma. "Sotelma has long been looking for the right technology to bring advanced communications to the people of Mali," said Mohammed Nimaga, chief executive officer of Sotelma. "With UTStarcom’s iPAS system, we will be able to accomplish the goal of giving people best of breed telephony, messaging, and Internet access, while meeting their expectations of a reasonably priced service and fast activation time." Over the course of several quarters, Sotelma intends to deploy approximately 50,000 lines of UTStarcom’s iPAS system in the capital city of Bamako, with an option to expand into several other cities in the future for a total of 100,000 lines. Mali, with a population of just over 11 million citizens, has approximately 80,000 fixed and 180,000 mobile phone lines today. GATEWAY COMMUNICATIONS SIGNS NEW DEAL WITH GHANA’S WESTELBuilding on its significant presence in West Africa, Gateway Communications last week announced that it has signed an interconnection agreement with Western Telesystems (Westel), the Second National Operator in Ghana. The agreement will allow Gateway to provide its customers with high quality international calling services into Ghana by working within a licensed environment and managing quality of service via a dedicated network. The new service will allow Westel to increase it’s market share of the international telephony traffic terminated into Ghana by working with Gateway Communications to improve international connectivity and gain access to both traditional and competitive traffic sources. Gateway’s existing customers include PTT’s, GSM operators, long distance carriers and non-traditional sources of traffic such as the international calling-card market. The service will also lower the cost of outbound calls from Ghana to key international destinations, such as European mobile networks, through Gateway’s targeted Route Management Services. ZAMTEL TO OFFER ITS GSM NETWORK COUNTRY-WIDEZamtel will by next year offer its GSM network cellular service, Cell Z, to all the provincial centres of Zambia. Zamtel managing director Douglas Mutesha disclosed in an interview last Saturday that now that the line of railway from Livingstone to Chililabombwe, Chipata, Chirundu and Siavonga had been covered, Cell Z would soon go to Mongu, Mansa, Kasama and Solwezi. And Mutesha explained that Zamtel had introduced a pre-paid system for land lines because many people with land phones were not paying their bills. He said Zamtel would have a pre-paid system for land lines, GSM cellular and internet services. "This will help us get as much money as possible," Mutesha said. And speaking earlier during the launch of the Cell Z service in Lusaka at Intercontinental Hotel, Mutesha said it had always been Zamtel’s vision to provide GSM service to the Zambian community. He said from the time Cell Z was launched in Chipata in May this year, the customer base had reached more than 5,000. (source: AllAfrica) KENYA TELKOM MOLES TIP OFF ILLEGAL OPERATORS ABOUT RAIDSAfter last week’s successful raid it was revelealed that others on illegal installations by Telkom’s investigations branch have not yielded much, leading to suspicion that there are moles within the organisation who keep the fraudsters abreast of latest developments, including impending raids. On two recent high-profile swoops, Telkom’s investigators raided the premises of illegal operators but arrived only to find that the equipment had been dismantled. Indeed, it is astonishing that even after launching the high-profile investigation of illegal Very Small Aperture Satellite (Vsat) connections three months ago ­ which involved hiring helicopters to fly investigators around the city ­ Telkom was not able to discover operations of the Lonrho House-based outfit. It will be interesting to see how Managing Director John Waweru deals with senior staff in the Nairobi Central Area where the illegal connections were discovered. Last month, and on the basis of less incriminating evidence about a similar operation in the Embakasi area, he suspended several senior officials from the Nairobi South Region where Embakasi falls. (source: AllAfrica) MTN AND CREDITPIPE INTRODUCE CELLPHONE MERCHANT’S TERMINALMTN Business Solutions and Creditpipe, an e-commerce organisation, have introduced Mobile Credit, a credit card processing and cheque guarantee service that allows a merchant’s cellphone to act as a point of sale terminal. Servicemen like plumbers or electricians can now input their customers’ cheque or credit card details into their cellphones, and have the required amount transferred electronically into their accounts. The transaction will be immediately confirmed and a log will be available on the Internet. Customers will be protected from fraud by the Mail Order Telephone Order (MOTO) rule, which gives them the right to query a transaction that takes place in the absence of a credit card. Because of this, merchants will be encouraged to get users to sign a carbon paper rubbing of the credit card. "The transaction will take place either over a wireless Internet gateway, which is a completely secure method for conducting transactions, or an interactive voice system. All the transferred information is encrypted and it is not stored on public servers," says Brian Seligmann, senior marketing manager of business products and solutions at MTN South Africa. "The entire process, the flow of information, where it is stored and how it is stored and encrypted, have all been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has verified that the transactions are both valid and secure." The service will be available to MTN subscribers at a monthly fee of R160, while non-MTN subscribers will pay R200 per month. There are specific minimum requirements for merchants applying for the service, including the possession of a merchant bank account. The Mobile Credit system doesn’t, however, require a minimum turnover, as stipulated by most banks prior to the provision of a point-of-sale terminal. (source: ItWeb) IN BRIEF- MTN Nigeria Limited, one of the three mobile phone service providers in the country has extended its (GSM) service to Katsina city and environs. Effective from Tuesday July 31t, MTN signals were being accessed within a five kilometre radius each from the Katsina Polo ground to the four corners of the metropolis. - Nigeria’s second national carrier, Globacom, has signed a trade partnership with Conoil Plc that gives it the exclusive right to market Globacom’s GSM packages and services. . - Algerian incumbent Algérie Télécom has announced its new rates: one dinar a minute without tax within a wilaya; 3.50 dinars a minute without tax between wliayas and it has lowered its international tariffs to the rest of the world to 48 dinars a minute without tax. - South African mobile phone group MTN said in a statement on Wednesday total subscriber numbers were up 41.9 percent at June 30, 2003, from a year ago and showed a rise of 7.1 percent from March 31. - Nigeria’s Cell Communication Limited has said that it is expanding its facilities to boost its operations nationwide. The company said it recently completed network expansion to Abuja and Onitsha, even as it did technology and system upgrade for the Lagos network in conjunction with Telos Technology Inc of Canada, through the adoption of a new technology 3GCDMA1XRTT.
SOUTH AFRICA’S TELKOM INKS USD3 MILLION ISP DEALSouth Africa’s Telkom said on Monday it had signed a 22 million rand ($3 million) deal to handle Internet access needs for the country’s largest private Internet Service Provider @tlantic. The deal came a day after newspapers reported that fixed-line operator Telkom faces fierce criticism from other South African ISPs that say it uses its monopoly position to extract high prices from them and from Internet users. In a statement, Telkom said the deal with @tlantic "demonstrates the high regard that the IT industry has for Telkom’s internet capabilities and bodes well for the company’s efforts to be the provider of choice for end-to-end communications solutions." South Africa’s Sunday Times reported that ISPs were unhappy with Telkom’s charges. "Telkom charges consumers per second for the time they spend online as well as line rental, and charge us for bandwidth. There is no competition, which means that costs will remain high," Michelle Branco, business-to-consumer manager at Tiscali, told the newspaper. But the newspaper also said Telkom’s stance towards ISPs appeared to be softening. Edwin Thompson, legal and regulatory executive at Internet traffic carrier UUNET, said Telkom was gearing up for competition from a second operator. "The gloves will be off for the fight for the ISP business in South Africa," he told the Sunday Times. (source: Reuters via LiquidAfrica) LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT PUTS N1 BILLION INTO GOVT INTERNET LINKSLagos State Government has earmarked N1 billion to boost its internet facilities.Chairman of the state House of Assembly Committee on Information and Strategy, Mr Tunde Oyewo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos last weekend that the facilities would link the judiciary, legislative and executive arms of government. He said such interconnectivity to the information super-highway would enhance good governance. He noted that a committee, headed by Mr Akin Doherty, Special Adviser to Gov. Ahmed Tinubu, on Information Technology, had been set up to work out the modalities."Government has set aside N1b to execute the Internet project and the beautiful idea is to give the electorate, particularly those outside the country, the opportunity to access the various agencies of government", he said. Oyewo, representing Amuwo/Odofin 1, also said that the House had raised an Information Technology and System Development Committee, under Mr Taiwo Kolawole, to create a web site for lawmakers."The web site will be launched this year", he announced, adding that the equipment had been acquired."We want the public to access us and watch the proceedings of the House. It will also link us with other legislatures within and outside the country", Oyewo explained. (source: AllAfrica) SA’S TELKOM’S ADSL IS NOT MEANT TO OFFER INTENSIVE BANDWIDTHADSL has become a major discussion point in the media, driven by a few customers who are dissatisfied with the service. ADSL is an access product used to connect to internet service providers (ISPs) via the SA Internet Exchange (SAIX). According to Telkom, he ADSL access service is based on the following "value propositions": * access speed; ADSL is targeted at the small business sector and the higher end of the residential market, which has a moderate volume of internet traffic and requires an always-available service. That is what Telkom ADSL offers. The service is not designed to offer bandwidth-intensive communications such as peer-to-peer applications (for example, FASTtrack, Gnutella, Napster, Kazaa, eDonkey and so on) for downloads which, incidentally, are the applications used by most of the people who are complaining about the service. The service is designed to offer premium internet surfing (HTTP), e-mail (SMTP) and file transfer protocol applications. The roll-out of ADSL in South Africa has proceeded smoothly with the service now available in the main metropolitan areas. From the launch day, the Telkom ADSL access product has been limited to a monthly cap of 3 gigabytes. While we only implemented, or enforced, the cap much later, it was always a condition of service. The monthly 3Gb volume cap applies to all ADSL subscribers, and is enforced by all ISPs of the service. It has also created a debate in the media, but upon reflection it appears to come from those users for whom ADSL is not the ideal solution for their needs . ADSL is a shared service; the more subscribers, the slower the internet download speeds on the international link. According to Telkom:"That is why we carefully balance the number of users versus available bandwidth. It is also a key reason for capping". "The 3Gb cap protects users from a small minority of people who abuse the service and use it for purposes it was not intended for. Capping ensures that most customers will enjoy the true ADSL experience of a fast internet". "Coupled with this, the performance of international servers will also affect download speeds. The fact that we are situated in South Africa means that international bandwidth is purchased at a premium and not unlimited". "On the international pipe, Telkom’s SAIX has prioritised surfing, e-mail and file transfer protocols. Bandwidth-intensive protocols such as peer-to-peer applications are afforded a lower priority and, as such, will perform worse than a standard dial-up under high international load conditions. This has been implemented to provide the majority of ADSL customers with a fast internet experience". "The 3Gb cap is measured on total usage. Both local and international users who exceed the cap are redirected to a more limited international pipe. This will result in these users receiving a slow international throughput". Recent statistics show that very few customers reach their monthly cap. ADSL users who require more than 3Gb a month can order a second username and password from their ISPs, providing them with an additional 3Gb a month. (source: ItWeb)
NEW SA HOTHOUSE FOR SOFTWARE ENTREPRENEURS TAKES OFFAn incubation centre for software entrepreneurs has proved so popular that it has had to double in size more than a year ahead of schedule The Softstart centre has already filled 60% of its new space and now houses 10 start-up ventures, with room for two or three more. "We very quickly filled the first phase and ran out of space, so we have doubled the space and put in a more efficient network, but we are almost full again," said CEO Ben Zaaiman. "We are growing all the time as people leave and others come in."The incubation centre was launched last August on the campus of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Its aim is to help high-potential, early stage software entrepreneurs develop and grow sustainable businesses by giving them office space and business facilities including internet access, conference rooms, PCs, printers and projectors. The Softstart team also mentors the entrepreneurs and helps them to find seed capital. Tangible success has been achieved with two of its companies striking deals to be become part of established businesses. One venture, E-Box, has been bought out by the Matomo Group after it developed a PC which can retail at R2500. Another, Columbiz, has been absorbed into the Isonet Group. "I am proud to see the impact we are having on the small and medium-sized businesses because we have been able to help a lot of companies become successful," said Zaaiman. Softstart is funded by an initial R12m from the science and technology department, the trade and industry department, and the European Union. Further support is provided by the CSIR and Pretoria’s university and technikon. Peter van Eldik, an executive manager of Technikon Pretoria, said Softstart gave its staff and students support for the development of innovative concepts or products, then helped them draw up business plans, marketing strategies and find finance to take their products to market. Softstart is now looking for more sources of funding in readiness for when the initial investment runs out. That has led to a pledge from Microsoft to provide free software to every company in the incubation centre, including specialised development tools. "That is worth about R160000 for each company, and it helps a lot because one of the biggest constraints for young software companies is that they cannot afford to buy their development tools," said Zaaiman. (source: Business Day) IN BRIEF- Storage software provider, Veritas Software, has announced an expanded relationship with EDS, the global services company, that aims to enable EDS to help organisations to improve the performance and reliability of their data centre operations. - Sahara has been appointed as an Intel Premier Provider, an responsibility that is intended to provide Sahara with Intel’s roadmap, business strategies and insights, thereby enabling it to build its brand name further in the local and sub-Saharan markets. - User-friendly Linux distribution Xandros has a new distributor in Africa. Bisarts MD Anton van den Berg says with the new distribution rights the company is looking to pick up users from the many that have fallen foul of recent licensing changes and are looking for an affordable way to ‘get legal’.
MTN MULLS NEW ACQUISITIONS ACROSS AFRICA USING FREE CASHSouth African mobile phone company MTN will consider making acquisitions in the rest of the continent and would fund them using free cash, Chief Executive Phuthuma Nhleko told analysts on Wednesday. "We continue to look at opportunities and, to the extent that we do find opportunities..., then we would like to muster some of the group’s free cash to pursue those opportunities," he said on a conference call on MTN’s quarterly trading. Nhleko said there was a better chance MTN would pay a dividend compared to a year ago. "Obviously we are in a far stronger position to pay a dividend now than say a year ago," he said. "The board will be reviewing quite regularly now the issue of the dividend policy. In Nigeria, billed as one of the company’s potentially strong growth areas, MTN still aims to reach its target of 1.8 million subscribers by the end of the year, despite hold ups because of bottlenecks in getting people on to pre-paid platforms and some billing issues, Managing Director for International Operations Lazarus Zim said. (source: LiquidAfrica) PORTUGAL TELECOM ACCEPTS MASIYIWA BUYOUT OFFER FOR MASCOMPortugal Telecom has accepted a bid from TS Masiyiwa Holdings ­ a major investor in the Econet group ­ for its 50 percent stake in Mascom Wireless Botswana, writes Cynthia Mwale of the Business Daily. TS Masiyiwa Holdings is expected to pay nearly 44 million euro or US$50 million (about Z$42 billion) for the shareholding. A company spokesman told the Business Daily yesterday that an offer had been made to PT early this year and the Portuguese company had formally informed the company of its acceptance on Monday. TS Masiyiwa, along with TSM International, already owns 20 percent of Mascom, a Gaborone-based mobile phone operator. The TS Masiyiwa Holdings official said: "We approached Portugal Telecom some time earlier this year about buying them out. "In terms of our shareholders’ agreement with them, we have a pre-emptive right to buy the shares as do our other partners in the business. " If the sale is concluded successfully, PT will continue offering management services, the TS Masiyiwa Holdings spokesman said. Meanwhile, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe says it has been "overwhelmed by the market’s positive response" to its proposed acquisition of 14 percent of TS Masiyiwa Holdings’ stake in Mascom. Econet’s share price on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has climbed 500 percent in the three weeks ago since the proposed acquisition was officially announced. The share price closed at $78 yesterday. A company spokesman said for Econet Wireless Zimbabwe to generate the same revenue as Mascom Wireless, which has 300 000 subscribers, it would have to increase its subscriber base 13-fold from the present 140 000 to about 1.8 million people. This is because of the tariff differences between Botswana and Zimbabwe. "Econet Wireless tariffs are only about US5 cents, compared to US30 cents in Botswana. To build a network that size, we need nearly US$300 million," the Econet official said. On the issue of the valuation of Econet Wireless Holdings (EWH), which has been raised by some critics of the deal, the spokesman said: "EWH is a publicly listed company and its price is determined by the market based on the information in the market. "The people who want Masiyiwa to pay more are busy buying at the current market price." (source: LiquidAfrica) IN BRIEF- Regional GSM mobile and internet services operator Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) announced its consolidated results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2003. Over the three-month period, total subscribers reached 4.8 million, an increase of 12 percent increase over the previous quarter. - Ucingo, a black-led group which bought three percent of South Africa’s fixed-line operator Telkom, is handing the shares to its backers after failing to meet repayment deadlines. - Nigerian telecommunication operators in the country would by the end of year 2003 have invested the sum of US$4 billion (N560 billon) into the nation’s economy. This investment binge, according to Mr. Wale Adeyemi, Chairman, Lagos chapter of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and general manager (finance), Nigerian Telecommunications Plc, Mr. M. S. Baba will continue into 2004 and finally slow down in 2005.
AFRICA ONLINE’S FRED MURUNGA ON A TOUGH MARKETAfrica Online’s Fred Murunga talks to News Update about the tough conditions in the summer market. The company’s been through a lot of changes. Where are things at now? We’ve been restructuring the group. Three years ago expectations were different. We set up the group at a level that anticipated money coming in from investors to expand, organically and through acquisitions. Last year year was a reality check. The investors were becoming more demanding and needed a plan to know where we were going. We needed to consolidate and cut out those businesses that continued to need money. I came here in late November last year from our Egyptian operation Menanet. What did you find? We have a joint venture with UUNet in corporate market which meant we had to focus on dial-up. This puts us in a difficult situation. Our market has matured out: there are around 35,000 dial-up customers in the market. Internet access is a commodity. The consumers are very "pickie" in terms of price. This was the major challenge when I arrived. There were 30 active ISPs and 60 registered and probably seven major players. And it’s almost inevitable that there will be a degree of consolidation. It’s a price driven market that’s hot the wall. Where do you go? Here you’re talking about an average unlimited access subscription per month for USD160 compared to USD20-25 in Europe or the USA. We only have the UUNet JV in Kenya and Zambia and the corporate sector is where the real growth is at the moment. Our revenues were "on the dip". There was a huge gap between our budgeted income and our actuals. There were morale issues because the staff were uncertain about what would happen. So the company started from scratch in January this year and focused on our values. Among other things, we want to be customer-focused and look for continuous improvement. Most of our processes were inwardly focused. We had to become outwardly focused on the customer. From their perspective, we had to ask: what would you expect? And build our processes around that. It’s not about technology but what it does for you. Functionality. When I arrived people were talking about WAP. I asked how many are going to use it? We’d been though launching a service in Egypt that hadn’t scored too highly in terms of functionality. So how do you get growth back again? Firstly, defend what we have. We don’t want all the potential customers there are out there because they don’t all make commercial sense for us. We target the high-end, premium customers. We have better bandwidth and pro-active, personal service, either by phone or on-site. Secondly, we won’t fight on price. We offer unlimited for USD160 a month but you can get the same configuration from others for USD1000 a month. The difference is our bandwidth and service. On this basis, we have about a 35% share of the market. These are the most sophisticated consumers who want a continuous relationship. They want a service that’s consistent, you can get through as expected and they are looking for speed. 48 Kbps happening all the time. If not, they expect us to address the problem quickly. What macro factors might affect the business? If Kenya Telkom expands its number of fixed line customers (say to 0.5 million), more people will have access to telephone lines. We estimate that there are 100,000 computers in the country and it’s encouraging that the Government’s waived duty on computer imports. Longer term, the recent decision to provide free primary education is bound to affect literacy levels as it allows parents to save more for secondary and tertiary education. Also Government policy is now to grow jobs by 0.5 million. Realistically it’s more likely to be 80,000 jobs but that’s more people in work who might buy. Previously there was no national ICT strategy but that’s changing. If international access is liberalised, we can expect cheaper connectivity. Who’s your main competitor? Swift Global. It has a strategic investor who also has interests in Kencell, Firestone and Ever Ready. It’s a deep pocket investor and they have the subscriber base.
NEW AGOA WEBSITE REACHES OUT TO AFRICAN AND AMERICAN BUSINESSPEOPLEAGOA Africa.com, a new website linking Africans and Americans to information about the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has been launched. This website is for African businesspeople that want to break into U.S. markets and American companies interested in connecting with African producers and exporters. AGOAAfrica.com targets small and medium size African businesses that have previously been unable to do business with U.S. companies under AGOA. Conversely, small and medium U.S. companies can also benefit from linking up with new suppliers from Africa. AGOAAfrica.com is also for business people who want to learn more about the AGOA Act itself.The AGOA Section contains a basic summary of the AGOA Act, lists of products eligible for reduced tariff or duty free export to the United States, U.S. - Africa Trade statistics, and links to trade support facilities including U.S. Government export and trade agencies. AGOAAfrica.com handles inquiries within 48 hours via E-mail: info@agoaafrica.com. Established in 2002, AGOAAfrica.com strives to expand trade opportunities between the United States and Africa as a unique, web-based source of information about the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). AGOAAfrica.com is an American company based in Arlington, Virginia. IN BRIEFAfrica 2005 is a global organisation made up of dynamic business people who have a sound expertise in creating business in Africa, as well as international business leaders; those people have a common goal of demonstrating how dynamic and proactive the African continent can be by making of 2005 the worldwide year of Africa. Go to: www.africa2005.com/en - The latest issue of e-Africa - the electronic journal of innovation and governance can be found at: www.wits.ac.za/saiia - Five physical education manuals for years 10, 11 and 12 for Angolan schools edited by Professor Mauricio Barros is available at: www.manual-de-fisica.net
SOFTWARE ALLOWS BLIND PEOPLE TO WORK AS CALL CENTRE AGENTSBlind people can now pursue careers as call centre agents, thanks to a software solution developed by a blind programmer in Pretoria. Using the proprietary scripting from a screen-reading program called Job Access With Speed (JAWS), the software allows a computer to read any output to a blind call centre agent. "I used the proprietary scripting to enhance the working experience, making it more accessible so that even if you get a package that doesn’t work with speech out of the box, it does if you sit down and script it," says Deena Moodley, a computer lecturer and access technology specialist at the National Council for the Blind. He is also the sole African representative on the World Blind Union Technology Committee and the only person in Africa who knows the JAWS scripting language. "We’ve customised the dual-channel headsets, so that the agents can listen to the computer with one ear and the caller with the other," says Moodley. "The caller will never know that they are speaking to a blind person." The program is in use at Opticall, a Pretoria call centre where 15 students are working in a simulated training environment. The commercial centre will go live in the next couple of months, with its first outsourced client being the Services Sector Education and Training Authority. Individual blind employees have already been set up with the system at a number of sites, including Advanced Software Technologies, the SABC and Momentum Life. Moodley says this is the first training facility of its kind in the world, and it has already attracted international interest. "We currently have someone here from the UK who wants to take the idea back there. "With companies moving towards call centres, this has provided an ideal opportunity for blind people to move into this career, as they make very good telephonists. We hope this will open up a whole lot of new career opportunities for blind people."
PEOPLE- According to an interview with Sidwaya, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Justin Tiéba Thiombiano says that the it will be looking at offers for incumbent ONATEL. The Government will shortlist by 15 October and choose its investor by December 2004. Not exactly a fast moving process. Originally the choice was to have been made by the end of this year but the Minister has delayed the decision himself for reasons he does not make clear. There are eight bidders. On another front, Sonapost has opened a "cyber kiosque" in Ziniaré. - Datatec has appointed distribution veteran John Hurrell as chief executive of Westcon Middle East and Africa (WAME), the South African arm of its networking and convergence technology subsidiary Westcon. - Business Connexion has appointed Tim Genders its regional director for KwaZulu-Natal in aid of developing individual relationships with customers, with focused regional attention, strong team emphasis and development of the business’s team in the region. The region was previously run by CEO Matthew Blewett and marketing director Bruce Krebs.
EVENTSTHE 2003 GHANA OUTSOURCING CONFERENCE, PHILADELPHIA Ghana a country in West Africa, is fast becoming an outsourcing player. The Ghanaian government has made some initiatives to foster growth in Technology oriented industries. Ghana is the leading outsourcing player in West Africa. With one of the highest literacy rates in the developing world, Government investment in IT infrastructure, national technology initiatives, and friendly labor laws creates the right environment for Business Process Outsourcing. With these key elements in mind, this conference is designed to provide valuable lessons from industry analysts and consultants who have been involved in outsourcing for many years. You will be able to benefit from lessons they have learned from the past, they will provide details on how to incorporate an outsourcing strategy into your current business situation and they’ll discuss where the industry is heading in the future. Registration coming in August. Website: http://www.nafricom.org
JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES- The Nigerian Communication Commission ("NCC") is seeking qualified candidates for the following positions in the NCC Telecommunications Training Institute: Director; Manager, Business Development and Marketing; Manager, Education and Curriculum Development;Manager, Administration and Finance Manager, Multimedia, Technology, and Engineering. For details e-mail: E-mail: Ndukwe@ncc.gov.ng
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