Dario Bianchi - Digital Transfomation Lead - MTN Ghana
MTN in partnership with ayoba, Africa's Super App, has reached an exciting
milestone of over 10 million monthly active users. 2021 has been a fast-paced
the year so far for ayoba, which celebrated its second year in operation in May 2021.
The ayoba platform aims to harness growth in the African digital economy by
breaking down barriers such as limited access to the internet and digital
services, low smartphone penetration, lack of locally relevant content, and
affordability.
“We celebrate this milestone and are pleased that through ayoba we can
provide access to affordable communications, so that millions of people across
our markets can enjoy the benefits of modern connected life”, says MTN
Group Digital and Fintech Officer, Serigne Dioum.
“MTN’s Ambition 2025 strategy is to drive digital and financial inclusion across
Africa, via ayoba we intend to reach 100 million monthly active users by 2025,
ensuring more people reap the social, economic, and developmental dividends
of being online,” concludes Serigne.
In its two years of existence, ayoba has grown significantly and continues to be
recognized by various bodies. In 2021, ayoba received the Best OTT Brand of the
Year accolade at the Marketing World Awards and recently was awarded the
Best Mobile App from Bonteh Digital Awards. Ayoba has also hosted two
hackathons this year, with the aim of guiding young developers on micro-app
development.
Commenting on the achievement, ayoba Chief Executive Officer, Burak Akinci
said: “Our progress in 2021 has been considerable, growing in excess of 4 million users. This is a clear sign that the African market really enjoys ayoba, and we are here to stay. This growth is also due to the hard work of our team, and of course, the loyalty and enthusiasm of our users, who are always our first priority. We look forward to even bigger growth in 2022, as we see progress from the new features, content, and general improvement that will be launching throughout the year.”
ayoba offers users access to digital and rich media services through channels,
micro-apps, and payment solutions, embedded within a single African Super
App. With over 180 content channels ranging from Sports, News, Music & Artists,
Health & Wellness, Careers, Fashion & Beauty, Education, and Travel - a huge
increase from the 128 at the start of the year.
In addition, users now have access to a range of 35 micro-apps, including MTN
Online School (SA) and MTN MoMo (Ghana), adding even more content to a deep
and hyper-localized offering.
We have also identified the gaps in our markets heightened by the pandemic,
particularly in terms of the literacy of subscribers and through our education
micro-app available in ayoba we have launched numerous channels with key
strategic partners focused on specific areas of education ranging from
entrepreneurial education to country-specific curriculum content for students,
which include educational explainer videos on topics ranging from math,
science, and the art of storytelling.
Ayoba users can send and receive encrypted messages in 22 diverse
languages, share photos, videos, files, voice notes, and even their location, and can also subscribe to live channels. Localized content is available through
these channels that aim to entertain, educate, and empower communities.
Ayoba is available to MTN and non-MTN customers.
MTN customers are automatically allocated free data to use the ayoba features1including messaging, browsing, gaming, and listening to music.
Customers can download the free app data at www.ayoba.me. In addition, ayoba lite is now also available for web access at web.ayoba.me which is proving to be popular with users who are short on space on their devices. Voice and video calls are excluded from the free data provisions.