By Francis Nwoboshi, COO, Sochitel
According to the UN, Africa is the 2nd biggest continent consisting of nearly 1.5 billion people, which equates to around 17% of the world’s population.
The fastest growing continent, the median age in Africa is under 20 years old and this young population is moving online at a faster rate than any other part of the globe, with high mobile phone penetration, mobile banking and mobile money utilisation meaning that digital products and services are in huge demand. Consumer spending in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to nearly double in the next six years, reaching $2.1 trillion by 2025 (McKinsey) and by 2050, more than half of the world’s population growth will be in Africa (United Nations, 2017).
Digital vouchers also offer consumers an easy way to transfer low-value items to another mobile user even across borders. The precursor to all digital vouchers, the airtime top-up voucher has created a consumer behaviour and bilateral demand for Vouchers into and out of Africa.
With this, the e-voucher market is growing at an unparalleled rate, with African consumers demanding global products as their spending power grows and net incomes increase. Consumer spending on mobile apps across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play is predicted to grow 325% from $200M in 2018 to $850M in 2022 (Sensor Tower 2020). Both Netflix and Amazon Prime are present in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania, which is indicative of the region’s potential, while international music streaming services like Apple Music, Audiomack and Deezer compete with local music services in Nigeria (PwC). The emergence of online retailing in Africa, e.g. Jumia, also provides an opportunity for the African export of e-tail vouchers.
Many global brands are now expanding to Africa, notably with Amazon marketplace announcing its arrival on the continent and strategic plan for growth from 2023. This is further supported by the incredible success of many African brands on the continent, such as MTN, DSTV and Jumia, fuelling global demand for African brands. At such an early stage in its journey, the digital African opportunity simply cannot be ignored.
At Sochitel, we are witnessing continually growing demand for African digital products and services, both from African diaspora living intra Africa as well as in Western markets, such as the US, Asia and Europe. The popularity of African products and services is on the rise and we are seeing more and more customers wanting to purchase African-produced digital products.
With an already well-established footprint across Africa and many strategic brand partnerships, Sochitel’s unique positioning as one of the leading digital product and service providers puts us in the top spot to be your digital partner for Africa. Our world-leading platform hosts a global catalogue of over 15,000 digital products, such as mobile airtime and data top-ups, e-vouchers and prepaid utility services all available via our single-point API connection and white labelled reseller and corporate distribution portals.
Connecting to Sochitel not only means that you can increase your product portfolio and grow revenues if you are a Reseller or for your Corporate incentive programs, but it also gives your business a unique value proposition – you can push your brand to over 60m unique customers that Sochitel already connects to in Africa, bringing Africa to your business at a point in time where awareness and demand is gaining incredible momentum.
Sochitel’s exclusive partnerships with many African brands mean that we are the only place where you can benefit from a catalogue of core African brands across a range of countries and sectors. Our product catalogue continues to grow across the continent, with new products and services being onboarded on a monthly basis. You can sell the products that your customers want, on the platforms that they use, and let us do the rest!
Contact us today for more information and we’d be delighted to explore a partnership opportunity with you in further detail. Our mission is to bring digital access to Africa and take Africa to the world, and you don’t want to miss out!
