By Emma Okonji
9mobile has partnered Africa’s Talking, a Pan-African company, to empower software solutions developers and small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) with access to telecommunication infrastructure through mobile communication Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
The 9mobile’s partnership with Africa’s Talking, a Pan-African company focused on providing developers with easy and reliable way to access telecommunication infrastructure, aims at boosting the activities of Nigerian software developers and enabling SMEs to effectively engage customers across multiple channels.The Director, Digital Business, 9mobile, Adia Sowho, who made the disclosure recently, said through the direct connection to 9mobile’s infrastructure and the unified API platform that Africa’s Talking provides, developers would be able to access and build innovative applications while SMEs can use the platform to improve their marketing capabilities.According to her, “We at 9mobile are delighted to partner Africa’s Talking in our bid to support Nigerian software developers and small businesses as they build viable and scalable businesses.
This partnership will provide businesses with quality and affordable mobile communication tools like 2-way SMS and USSD APIs that they can then embed into their day to day business activities. With these tools, SMEs can improve their marketing capabilities and interact easily with their customers.â€â€œIn the past decade, mobile communication has proven beneficial for businesses seeking to create and maintain meaningful relationships with their existing and future customers. It is through this that businesses are able to offer effective customer support, real time communication solutions, collect data as well as optimise their operations. With this solution, SMEs will also be able to tap into the local developer community to build systems that enhance business efficiency, leading to job creation and overall support of local talent.â€
She added.Sowho noted that with the partnership, individual developers do not need to interface directly with telco-grade protocols which prove to be difficult and time consuming.“With an estimated 250,000 developers in the country, having easy access to this infrastructure will encourage more developers to build innovative solutions that can directly impact the lives of the Nigerian populace. At 9mobile, we are always passionate about providing technology based support to innovative thinkers,†Sowho said.She added that 9mobile and Africa’s Talking were dedicated to working closely with the developer community across the country through supporting training workshops, hackathons and other developer activities, with the aim of educating and encouraging developers to take advantage of the tools that are now available to them locally.
Africa’s Talking has also provided a sandbox environment for developers to use while learning how to work with the APIs as well as testing out their applications before taking them to production.
