East Africa’s affordable Internet and impressive economic growth make investing in the region’s booming mobile sector a no-brainer.
This is according to Shaun Rosen, CEO of Mobiclicks, speaking at the launch of the first Mobiclicks representation outside of Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Based in Kenya’s commercial capital of Nairobi, Allen Kambuni will serve as the Mobiclicks regional lead for East Africa.
Rosen comments: “These are exciting times. When a South African mobile marketing leader believes the next step after Johannesburg and Cape Town is Nairobi, that says the African Renaissance is real and the vision of Africa as the Bright Continent can be achieved. We are thrilled to have Allen onboard as he represents our first on-the-ground presence in another African country.”
According to Kambuni, East Africa’s much-vaunted ICT sector provides enormous opportunities for foreign investors who approach the market in partnership with local talent.
“East Africa is a multilayered region, not a single homogenous country and there are complexities involved in successfully navigating the market for mobile advertising products and services. That being said, the business conditions are promising indeed and continental mobile marketing leaders would be missing an enormous opportunity by not being here,” he says.
On his approach to growing the Mobiclicks presence in East Africa, Kambuni says clients are especially interested in finding ways to seamlessly reach consumers using a mix of traditional and mobile advertising platforms.
“Clients are interested in using mobile to seal the deal, so to speak, while still laying much of the brand-building groundwork with traditional media and this collaborative approach suits us just fine.”
While South Africa has an impressive 80% smartphone penetration rate, latest figures show that consumer spending in the country declined in the first quarter of 2019. Annual GDP growth in the East Africa region is currently at well over 5%.
Mobiclicks brings East African consumers mobile and digital advertising like shoppable video.