Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) in collaboration with the Ghanaian government has launched a campaign dubbed, Mobile Money Month Campaign on its second edition, to educate the public about Mobile money offerings in the country.

This year’s theme is: “MTN Mobile Money: It’s fast, it’s easy, every time everywhere”.

According to an Erricson survey on the country’s mobile money sector, only 9 per cent of mobile owners use mobile service in the country and this has led to some worries that the mobile money platforms are being underused in the country.

The report acknowledges that in Ghana, particularly, mobile money services―mainly a collaboration between the banks and mobile operators―are widespread but not necessarily widely patronized, the organizers said.

This is a different case in Kenya where the service has been embraced by all major companies. Most companies in Kenya have a paybill number, banks have opted to adopt the major mobile transfer services into their offerings.

Safaricom also recently launched a programme for small businesses to accept payment through their mobile money transfer platform, MPesa.

Even though the service has been a big success in Kenya, many regions around the world are looking for the right model that will end up replicating the MPesa success.

Manchester United followers will be rewarded through their use of afb cards in a new partnership that will bring smiles to the over 5 million club enthusiasts in the country.

The afb company will be aiming to leverage on this huge following to help increase more users for their cards. The promotion targets Manchester United fans from the ages of 18 to 65, with income of at least Kshs 10,000.

“Under the partnership, afb customers will be able to take advantage of many exclusive Manchester United benefits and incentives, such as ticket giveaways, signed merchandise and much more throughout the duration of partnership,” the company said.

The card company began its operations in Kenya this April, entering the already sky rocketing market of debit and credit cards. It now has affiliation to 100 outlets in the country where card holders can buy goods and services.

“We are proud to be partnering with afb as this will give our fans in Kenya another platform to engage with the best club in the world. The Club has always had fantastic support from our fans in Kenya and we are pleased to be able to offer them such a fantastic product.” Manchester United’s Group Managing Director, Richard Arnold said.

“We want to give Manchester United supporters the opportunity of getting closer to their club, and we hope that the millions of fans come and enjoy this unique offering. In the first 6 months, we will be limiting the number of cards to 5000 Limited Edition Cards,” said afb Group Chief Executive Officer, Karl Westvig.

Other club loyalty programmes have been launched in the country and marketers have found a way to turn the English Premier League following to their advantage.

In May this year Imperial Bank partnered with the English Premier League club Arsenal to offer benefits to their clients.

The recently introduced internet tax will hinder internet penetration in the country, experts say as operators raise concerns about the newly introduced tax.

“Implementation of the imposed duty will automatically slow down our members’ ability to roll out internet services in rural areas… internet development especially in the rural areas would be adversely impacted,” Tanzania Internet Service Providers Association (TIPSA) said.

“It is our belief that this new imposed excise duty will widen the digital divide, defeating the purpose of nationwide reach, to champion and create initiatives for internet access expansion in the uneconomic areas by TISPA. We urge the government to heed to our plea so that we can achieve our ICT4Development goals,” the association added.

This tax adds on to the increasing duties that IT companies are facing in East Africa. Just last week, the Kenyan government instituted a new law that would see bank transactions including mobile money and ATM transaction surcharged with a 10 per cent increase.

This follows months before when the government also imposed a 10 percent tax on mobile money transactions in the country.

It brings in the question of if African countries have the will and power to reduce the internet costs to make it accessible to the poor.

This year the internet penetration for the country has stood at 6 million people. These are the people that might feel the pressure of cost on the new tax.

The Jomo Kenyatta International Aiport, Kenya’s main airport has been shut down after a morning fire gutted down the international arrivals and immigration sections.

Emergency Medicals Services and Kenya Red Cross Disaster Response teams have been dispaged. No casualities reported yet. All incoming flights have been cancelled apart from emergency landings.

8:07 AM:Brian K. ‏@Yenyewe , “The fire was at Immigration initially. Now both Arrivals & Departure are burning? That sounds like it’s out of control.“

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