Mobile for Development Theatre at MWC Africa: Session recordings

The GSMA Mobile for Development team drives innovation in digital technology to reduce inequalities in our world. Singularly positioned at the intersection of the mobile ecosystem and the development sector, we stimulate digital innovation to deliver both sustainable business and large-scale socio-economic impact for the underserved. Our work has impacted 126 million lives to date – and counting.

At MWC Africa 2022, we hosted our very first dedicated ‘Development Theatre’. Watch these video recordings to catch up with our sessions on climate resilience, digital inclusion, gender, humanitarian innovation, financial inclusion and partnerships at scale.

Day 1 – Tuesday, 25 October

Building climate resilience through digital technologies in Africa

This session hosted by the GSMA ClimateTech programme, presented the latest trends in digital innovations linked to climate resilience and adaptation and addressed the key barriers and opportunities for accelerating investment and innovation to build solutions for climate resilience in Africa.

Guest speakers at the session included Max Cuvellier, Anna Colquhoun and Akanksha Sharma from The GSMA, Phil Outram from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Golala Ruhani from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Toffene Kama from Mercy Corp, Xavier Vollenweider from Flowminder, Kenneth Chepkwony from TomorrowNow, and Michael Koech from Airtel Africa.

The ClimateTech programme is supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom Government and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

Digital Humanitarian Action: Understanding User’s Perspectives & Investing in Innovation

This interactive session led by the GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation team, launched their new research into how displaced people in three humanitarian contexts use their mobile phones entitled ‘The Digital Worlds of Displacement-Affected Communities’. The session featured a panel discussion, hosted by Kimberly Brown (Head of Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation, GSMA) and panelists Hiba Osmani (CMO, Sudatel), John Warnes (Innovation Officer, UNHCR) and Sali Hafez (The Research People). The discussions reflected on the role of technology in accelerating humanitarian response, the barriers which exist in its adoption and how they can be overcome.

Unlocking opportunities through mobile money

This session explored the current mobile money climate, including trends over the past decade, and future opportunities, and dived into some of the exciting solutions being implemented across Africa. Covering sectors including agriculture, utility services and humanitarian assistance, you can hear from operators, NGOs and start-ups offering innovative mobile-money enabled solutions, highlighting the crucial role that financial inclusion plays in their activity. This work is supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom Government and the Gates Foundation.

Day 2 – Wednesday, 26 October

Mobile Money Leadership Forum: Fintech innovations driving finance for all

With the mobile money industry reaching maturity, there is an increasing need to innovate to attract and reach new customers and capture more value from existing users. New tools and products address the needs of the underrepresented consumers, including women and those making their living in the informal economy are vital for financial inclusion. These segments of society are often harder to reach, facing more barriers and can be overlooked by mainstream financial service providers.Strong partnerships and open APIs are helping facilitate diversification by creating complementary products that address gaps in the broader needs of consumers. Watch this session that examined innovative tech solutions that help generate further growth for the industry and drive financial inclusion, while protecting consumers in low tech environments.

With their panel of experts, the Mobile Money team explored exciting examples and use cases including how biometrics can help develop customer identities and improve customer journeys, and how tokenisation can protect customers, especially women’s identities when transacting with third party vendors.

Mobile Money Leadership Forum: Driving resilience and safety in mobile money

Digital finance could boost the GDP of emerging economies by $3.7 trillion by 2025. While rapidly accelerating the digitisation of payments, in 2021, mobile money processed a milestone $1 trillion in annual transactions. As mobile money diversifies into digital finance for all, new business models will evolve, creating new opportunities for providers and driving financial inclusion. This will transform the way consumers and businesses transact. Consumer trust and safety by design will become strong determinants of business sustainability, even more so where partnerships with vulnerable populations are involved. In this session, renowned global experts discussed the approaches players need to adopt to ensure safer and more resilient digital finance for the billion registered accounts owned by individuals with diversified needs

Mobile Money Leadership Forum: Mobile money diversification driving industry growth

Exceeding $1 trillion in processed transactions for the first time in 2021, the remarkable growth of the mobile money industry is increasingly attributable to third party-driven transactions. The rapid growth of transactions such as merchant payments, bill payments, and services such as digital credit, savings and insurance is a testimony to this. Accelerating this diversification process is key to unlocking access to a wide range of services to previously excluded populations, driving financial inclusion. But it is also key for the mobile money industry’s sustainability; from revenue diversification to its partners who can leverage the power of seamless payments. The conditions to make this possible are manifold, both at the level of mobile money providers and ecosystem partners: a clear understanding of market opportunities leading to sound strategic decisions, investment appetite, seamless user experience (underpinned by growing smartphone ownership), or an enabling regulatory environment. Watch this session where industry experts discussed ways to secure a more sustainable digital financial future through mobile money.

Day 3 – Thursday, 27 October

From challenge to impact: How to reach women and underserved groups at scale

Ensuring everyone has the opportunity to connect is more critical now than ever before. In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are 780 million people who are still unconnected to mobile internet. Despite substantial increases in coverage over the last decade, 53% of those living in areas covered by mobile broadband are not using it. Those who are unconnected are more likely to be women, people with low income, less educated, living in rural areas, and persons with disabilities. In fact, the mobile internet gender gap in Sub-Saharan Africa has seen little change in recent years, with women 37% less likely than men to use mobile internet. These numbers highlight that while increasing mobile broadband coverage remains an important issue, addressing the gap in usage, especially for women, is key to closing the digital divide. Targeted and informed action is required to ensure that no one is left behind in an increasingly connected world. At MWC Africa 2022, we held a session entitled, ‘From challenge to impact: How to reach women and underserved groups at scale’, on Thursday 27 October 2022. During this session, we looked at the latest data and trends on the digital divide in Africa and discussed what can be done to accelerate internet adoption, especially for women. The session brought together key partners from the private sector and government for an interactive discussion on strategies for reaching the underserved. This included the key issue of handset affordability – a critical barrier to mobile ownership and internet access.

Partnering for Improved Services: Learning from Leaders

At MWC Africa 2022, we held a session entitled, ‘Partnering for Improved Services: Learning from Leaders’, on Thursday, 27 October 2022. It brought together leaders from different sectors to discuss the drivers of successful public-private partnerships and collaboration. The discussions also reflected on why such partnerships and wider collaboration are key to enabling access to affordable, reliable, safe, and sustainable service provision across Africa. The speakers shared some of the challenges associated with multi-stakeholder collaboration and partnerships across different sectors, which barriers they faced and how they overcame them.