Apps developers in Nigeria have funding challenges – Fangkai

Kelvin Fangkai is the Manager, Data Hosting Services for Huawei Technologies. In this interview with STANLEY OPARA, he examines the growth of mobile contents and Value Added Services in Nigeria; and their benefits to subscribers

For Nigeria, how would you assess the current level of local mobile applications development?

Indigenous apps are not doing badly at all. Take the mobile karaoke app, Songstar, for example. We have seen a huge number of people embrace this app and they are loving it. Interestingly in China, we have a similar app. It allows people to sing from anywhere- restaurant, bus; it’s a lovely idea. The social media and communication apps like BBM are big. In China, we have WeChat, which I found out has also been launched in Nigeria already. This is a good development.

Sadly, Nigeria hasn’t latched on to the gaming segment of the app industry. There are lots of gaming applications in the market but no local content from Nigeria. The business model is also interesting – you can have free games that allow people to use the game for free; and then after a while they pay to continue to use the game or to purchase something in the game. Mobile app developers in Nigeria can tap into the potentials available in the gaming segment.

In my short time here, I have found out that Nigerian app developers are very creative. They have shown me very interesting demos – quiz games for children, language learning apps. The user interface is also easy for customers to understand. In China, they have the technological edge. They know how to maximise the smartphones, hence you find developers there building solutions that help people get the best out of their devices. We have an application that helps you to call a Taxi and make the payment to the driver. All you do is to send a request and the nearest driver to your location is there to take you out and you pay into the driver’s account without paying physical cash. This is a very convenient app that can also be deployed in this market. We have a service, Infosearch, currently running on the MTN network – you dial a code on your phone, you can get a taxi driver’s information with which you can contact a cab driver. In the future, all you would need is to just send a text message, the driver would contact you and the payment is done via mobile money.

What has been your experience operating in Nigeria’s mobile content and VAS segment?

In Nigeria, for instance, we have seen the MTN callertunez make a very big impact. This is a ring back tune service that provides major content in this market.  The other content carried by Short Message Service, Multimedia Messaging Service, Wireless Application Protocol, WAP or the smartphone apps provides more channels for people to access information and this is the weak part of the market right now which explains why we availed MTN of our service delivery platforms. MTN is the first telco to enter the market and provide new services for subscribers and we have found the experience very useful to us. We can see services like the mobile newspaper gaining traction which is MMS based as opposed to the WAP based which was in the market before.  The experience has been interesting and worthwhile with greater potential of growth.

Would you say Nigeria has the local capacity to effectively support the growth and development of mobile content and apps?

Yes, of course. In fact, Nigerian content is being sold to a lot of countries in the West African sub-region. There is a Service Provider, SP, who just sold its content to Ivory Coast. Our customers in Ghana, Cameroon, Benin, Togo have urged us to introduce Nigerian content providers to their markets. The capability to create content is here – to create the information that people need.  Nigeria also has the capability to develop services. I have no doubt that the market would expand via the efforts of these local service providers.

How did your relationship with MTN begin?

This Service Delivery Platform relationship between MTN and Huawei started in 2012. It’s a group-signed contract- MTN Group signed the contract while we implement the platform across its sub-networks with the biggest one being MTN Nigeria. Interestingly, MTN Nigeria is the first sub-network to launch the SDP across the 14 sub-networks that we cater to.

How does the SDP work?

The acronym, SDP means Service Delivery Platform. You have the service which all mobile users enjoy. There is also the platform that helps to deliver service to end-users. In the early days, operators used short message gateways to help the service providers deliver their value added services to the subscribers. All the SMS gateway did was to deliver the message but right now the service providers have more requirements that the SMS gateway can’t handle. For example, what if as a service provider, I want a discounted service, or bundle a group of services as a package or, in need of a Service Level control? The question then is can your platform deliver these? The SDP is a unified platform that meets all of these requirements with unparalleled convenience.  In terms of the relationship, here is how it works: you have the telco in the centre, Huawei provides the platform to the telco while it cooperates with its partners, the service providers. The telco provides everything while we smoothen the relationship between all stakeholders by providing managed services to it.

What must be done to keep up with the trends in the industry?

Right now, we can hear the sounds. The smartphone has become very popular.  Also in the next two to three years, the feature phone would also remain popular. Based on this, we are developing smartphone-based platforms but then we won’t abandon the feature phone market. We need to continue to innovate, that is how we stay in the game. For example, there are applications based on Interactive Voice Response, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, which can also deliver content and information to the end user.

For Nigeria, how do you think we can build more capacity in this area of specialisation?

Nigeria, no doubt, has got wonderful talents. For us, we help to hone their skills so that they gain the required expertise needed in their core areas. As you might have noticed, the government is hosting a lot of innovation conferences. These are useful platforms for these developers to pull together and share experiences and knowledge. We would also like to provide our capabilities to help local companies grow their competencies and develop the industry. The SDP platform also has features to help them in this regard.

In the quest to strengthen the local mobile applications industry, what would you recommend to governments and corporate bodies in Nigeria?

The telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission is doing a great job here. The policy and regulatory environment is mature. For example, in China there was a mess in the industry.  We had service providers in China collecting money from subscribers and yet the end users don’t get to experience quality service. But in Nigeria, the NCC has controlled the sector and the customers are protected. I think that the Nigerian government needs to encourage the innovative ideas of the service providers. Also, government could provide soft loans to developers and techie start-ups because we have found that lack of money and resources have been the major impediment for many of them. Also, these start-ups can cooperate with service providers; but government must build the environment that will encourage innovation.