GlobalConnect gives rise to Bayobab’s tree of life for digital Africa.
MTN Group’s Ambition 2025 strategy has made some significant steps. MTN GlobalConnect has been repositioned and rebranded Bayobab, which was unveiled at International Telecommunications Week (ITW) Conference in Washington DC. Bayobab is the African tree of life (pictured) and MTN’s division was renamed because the vision is that it will underpin the digital value chain across Africa.
Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita (pictured) explained Bayobab comprises two distinct businesses – Bayobab Fibre and Bayobab Communication Platforms, which are both Africa-focused but open to third parties, not just MTN.
“We are also going to bring in strategic partners into the business over time who will provide skills and capital to support and accelerate the growth of this business,” Mupita added.
Bayobab Group’s CEO, Frédéric Schepens, enlarged on this saying, “We are well-positioned to open a significant digital doorway that bridges Africa’s digital divide to connect communities. Bayobab will continue to seek strong global partnerships that connect the unconnected, deepening internet adoption to accelerate Africa’s vision for digital transformation.”
Since announcing the rebrand, Bayobab and Africa50 have signed a partnership to develop Project East2West, a terrestrial fibre optic cable network connecting the eastern shores of Africa to those on the continent’s west.
The partnership will invest up to $320 million connecting ten African countries over the years between now and 2025 and will contribute to Bayobab reaching MTN Group’s target of owning 135,000km fibre over the coming three years.
Mupita noted, “The alliance is more than cables and connections; it is about building bridges of connectivity that span nations and bring people closer together.”
Super app hits 25 million monthly users
MTN has also spun off Africa’s super app, ayoba, which has recently hit the 25 million active monthly user threshold, as it approaches its fourth anniversary, up from 20 million in December 2022.
The platform is available globally but its most loyal users are in the key markets of Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda and the Republic of Congo. Ayoba’s CEO Burak Akinci, commented, “Our journey has been transformative and the positive response from our users fuels our drive for innovation. Our users are at the heart of our progress, and we are grateful for their support.”
In 2023, ayoba’s focus has been on improving communication and content features. They have been well received, judging by a 35% surge in messages and a 16% rise in both stories and VoIP calls. Users have viewed 88 million online greetings cards across all channels, in topics such as entertainment, education, food, fashion and sport.
“The first four months of 2023 was a period of significant growth and development for ayoba. We have improved our socialisation and messaging functionalities, enhanced our microapp experience and added many more features,” Akinci says.
Local customisation
The new Explore landing page is an ayoba’s Android version, still in pilot phase and intended to simplify navigation through ayoba’s curated content and themes for users. It will be rolled out to all the key territories soon.
The evolving ecosystem for small African business now also caters for some larger African businesses – the rationale is to give service providers easy, direct access to the ayoba user, to connect businesses and customers without the ‘fuzz’ and interference of applications from US-based search engines.
The app’s verticals also progressed in Q1 at ayoba, as a direct shortcut to each vertical has been added on the bottom navigation bar. The most popular microapps are Live Scores (providing live sports scores), ayoba Gifting, Video Play apps, Sports and Shopping.
On target to hit 100m monthly users
Ayoba was born in partnership with MTN Group and now it is independent of the group, it is available on all networks. In some participating territories, users on ayoba receive complimentary daily data. Ayoba’s growth trajectory is on track to achieve 100 million monthly active users by 2025 in line with MTN’s Ambition 2025 strategy.