I’ve just written a bit of analysis for Tnooz on the idea that West Africa, despite being seen as the preserve of backpack-toting traveller travellers, is actually a tougher environment for lodge and hostel-focused OTAs than for the big boys selling swisher properties. It touches briefly on the mobile communications market:
Mark Essien, founder of Nigeria’s Hotels.com.ng, points out that the highly competitive, mobile-focused communications market can make that process even more difficult. … Cheap pay-as-you-go SIMs are the rule, and switching to an operator with a better tariff or service is commonplace – Nigeria’s Glo launched in Ghana earlier this month with about 1.5 million pre-registered users, all of whom will be on new numbers.
Too briefly, really, so let me flesh out the stuff on mobile number portability. Portability has actually been possible in Ghana since summer 2011, and is on the rise (105,678 ports in the first 12 weeks of operations). But it remains a less established feature of the market than in the US or Europe.
Mobile number portability is a work in progress in Nigeria, expected to roll out in June 2012.
The Glo figure refers to pre-launch registrations on the brand new 0233 and 0235 series, the former chosen to mirror Ghana’s international dialing code, which is possibly the only one in the world to have its own hashtag. See #233moments.
Posted on May 17, 2012
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