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Mayank Sharma, Vice President, Africa Region, Comviva Technologies Limited speaks with IT Edge News.Com, MARTIN EKPEKE, about Nigeria’s rapid growing mobile market and Comviva’s intentions to create multiple job opportunities in the telecom sector across Africa.
Tell us about Comviva technologies Limited?
Comviva is the global leader in providing mobile solutions beyond VAS. With an extensive portfolio of solutions spanning VAS infrastructure, applications delivery platforms and customer-facing applications, Comviva enables mobile service providers to enrich mobile users’ lives, whilst rationalizing costs, accelerating revenue growth and enhancing customer lifetime value. Comviva’s solutions are deployed by service providers in over 85 countries and power services to more than 650 million mobile subscribers globally. Present in Africa region for over 8 years, Comviva has grown rapidly to achieve stature and scale across the continent and consolidated its position as one of the market leaders in the value added solution space, with its solutions deployed in 34 African countries.
Which of your product or services is mostly targeted to the Nigerian market?
Nigeria is a key market for Comviva. We are targeting our Mobile Data Platform, Usage & Retention solution and mobiquity mobile financial solution for the Nigerian market.
• Mobile Data Platform (MDP) enables all mobile users to exploit the true power of the Internet and other data services, such as VoIP, video and VPN, whilst empowering the operator with a range of data charging and management capabilities.
• Usage and Retention solution enables operators to improve overall share of wallet from their subscriber base by delivering highly targeted campaigns that stimulate usage and enhance revenues.
• mobiquity™ mobile financial services platform embraces the mobile phone as a convenient, cash-free and card-free financial transaction medium, delivering a range of financial and payment services.
Comviva has been doing business in Nigeria for some time especially with telecom operators, also you have operation in over 85 countries, what are the challenges you face doing business in Nigeria?
Challenges in deploying services in Nigeria are similar to most of the emerging markets. These could be regulatory issues and legal environment and underdeveloped telecom infrastructure.
What is Comviva’s strong point and who are your clients in Africa especially Nigeria?
Africa is a key market for Comviva and contributes strongly to our revenues. We were one of the first entrants into the African market in the mobile VAS solutions space, early in 2003. Our vision is to enrich the lives of over a billion people with mobile solutions beyond VAS – and Africa will play a critical role in enabling Comviva to achieve this vision. Comviva currently has deployments in 34 African countries and has recently struck deals with operators in new markets. Comviva has grown rapidly to achieve stature and scale across the continent. By building on our existing presence in Nigeria, we are looking forward to serving our customers and responding faster to market opportunities. We aim to be the leading provider of mobile VAS solutions in Africa and will continue to support service provider goals by providing solutions that deliver cost efficiencies, enable revenue acceleration and speed time to market. Comviva works closely with all leading operator groups and is strengthening its relationships to be well positioned for future growth opportunities.
What makes Comviva technologies limited better than other companies that provide same services that you provide, why should Nigerians use your solutions?
Comviva has been developing value added solutions for mobile operators for over 10 years, with a specific focus on serving the needs of people in emerging markets. Comviva is the global leader in providing mobile solutions beyond VAS. With an extensive portfolio of products and solutions, Comviva enables operators to offer services that enrich mobile users’ lives. Comviva enhances operator efficiencies and revenue performance by adding value at every stage of the customer lifecycle – from prepaid subscription and etop-up to customer care, and from real-time promotions and loyalty management to billing solutions. Comviva has extensive expertise in delivering and managing mobile solutions that extend beyond VAS, powering solutions to mobile operators in more than 85 countries worldwide and reaching over 650 million subscribers globally.
Comviva technologies limited has won some prestigious awards including the best VAS provider company, what could have been responsible?
We would like give this credit to our innovative, standards-based technologies that scale easily, our global experience of deploying solutions over 100+ customers, our flexible platforms that enable delivery of a range of solutions and complete suite of offerings, powering all aspects of the service provider’s value proposition.
Will Comviva technologies Limited be adding any product to its portfolio any moment from now?
Comviva has always added innovative platform based solutions to its portfolio, which enable operators to differentiate their brand, create and sustain new revenue streams and drive ARPU. We will continue to help operators achieve bottom-line benefits with solutions that drive operational efficiencies and optimize existing investment. Comviva’s pioneering managed services approach enhances service performance whilst improving operational efficiencies and rationalizing costs. Our customer lifecycle management solutions drive efficiencies, whilst enabling superior service delivery.
The Nigerian mobile market is growing at a very rapid rate, what is Comviva’s next big plan for the market?
Today Comviva is the largest Indian VAS player in Africa, with over 30% of our revenue coming from the African continent. We are in the process of expanding our pan-Africa operations significantly and as part of this further expansion, we plan to hire close to 200 people in the first phase of hiring in Africa, thereby helping to create multiple job opportunities in the telecom sector across the continent.
Also with mobile data usage proliferating across Nigeria, Comviva plans to focus on mobile data management as operators are experiencing three major challenges in the region. They need to handle explosive data traffic growth cost-effectively, monetize the mobile data opportunity and ensure a positive user experience. Comviva’s Mobile Data Platform (MDP) enables operators to focus on optimizing bandwidth and capex investment; enhancing the user’s service experience with personalization, policy and advanced analytics’ engines, whilst enhancing monetization opportunities with improved opportunities to price on a differential basis.
