Mobile wallets in Sub Saharan Africa

[Cybnate]

Why can Vodafone do what we can’t. These people should be our main market. They are used to mobile banking and not depending on a bank. Instead they are now dependant on a mobile telecom operator. Can we compete with this model? What can we as shareholders do to show that we have an alternative for them? What would be the right marketing? It is hard to say that they shouldn’t be dependant on a mobile provider which provides their mobile connection in the first place.

Have a read here and share your thoughts. I’m having a hard time to think about how we compete or at least show presence with mobile telecom providers in African nations.

Mobile wallets more popular in Sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else

[willy]

Local marketing combined with a give away could be a start.

Are people anglophone around those areas or would additional translations be needed?

[creon]

I think if you want to pick one then its Kiswahili (yes, I had to google how to spell it).

[GLock]

As @willy mentioned the best way to get noticed, especially in such markets is to be on the field.
People have to be practically shown the advantages and the simplicity of using NuBits for their needs with a face to face interaction.

Another thing that has to be sorted is also a partnership with a local telecom provider or to find a way to use conventional mobile phones for transactions (no smartphones) as most of the transactions are sms based.

[willy]

find a way to use conventional mobile phones

There are existing projects that allow Bitcoin through SMS. All it needs are local providers that will accept SMS queries.
See:
https://www.37coins.com/en/

[Cybnate]

Being on the ground is indeed what is needed but also very hard to execute without partners already on the ground or building an expensive network ourselves. A partnership sounds good but what would be the beneficial terms for both parties. Would we provide a Vodafone competitor with the means to better compete with Vodafone by providing people with NuBits and Nu services? That will need a serious business case.

Sending NBT through TXT messages is something we should probably focus a bit more on in case we are looking to attract the unbanked / people without flashy smartphones.

I think I’m looking to find ways to grow from grass roots as imo it is a complex business endeavour to get in partnerships with mobile operators.

[willy]

I just skimmed github, and 37coins seems to be open source. A NuBit fork could be realized with (hopefully) low effort.

[Cybnate]

A NuBit fork sounds feasible indeed. However we would need to setup the infrastructure ourselves (the gateways). The question is here whether to try to partner or build another instance from scratch. Might see if they are interested on adding other coins like NuBit.

[willy]

I’m going to contact 37coins to see if they might be interested.

[Cybnate]

I’ve sent Johann an email yesterday, but haven’t seen a response yet. I would wait till Monday COB for an answer before following up. But feel free to send another email to them, a bit of attention wouldn’t hurt as long as it doesn’t become spammy.

[Cybnate]

Just sent another email as I didn’t hear back from them yet.

[Cybnate]

Had a reply from Johann from 37coins today that I landed in his spam and that he is now looking into it. Will keep you informed…