Tag: Company News

Ghana’s only online payment service, MPower Payments, has recorded over 4,000 active users and is currently processing thousands of transactions to the tune of about GHC 120,000 every month.

MPower also has more than 400 corporate customers and merchants. Its green bar SSL certificate has been verified by DigiCert on the advice of Dun and Bradstreet.

MPower was established by  SMSGH to aggregate all cedi-based electronic payment systems in a way that enables users to make payments for goods and services online without exposing their details to cyber criminals.

The service allows the user electronically to deposit money via a Speed Banking voucher, Visa card, Mastercard, Mobile Money (MTN, Tigo, Airtel) or direct bank deposit into their MPower account, and to use this balance to transact business online anytime, anywhere.

Currently users can purchase airtime on MTN, Airtel, Vodafone and Expresso, pay their DSTV and ECG bills and pay for goods and services from a number of merchants such as yougora.com, ahonya.com, tisu.com.gh and dtechghana.com.

Source: www.telecompaper.com

Ghana’s leading players in the mobile applications sector of the telecommunications industry have joined forces under an umbrella body to ensure quality of service and sanity in the mobile value-added services sector.

The group, calling itself the Wireless Applications Service Providers Association of Ghana (WASPAG) currently consists of some of the top players in the industry such as Mobile Content.com, SMSGH, Rancard Solutions, MTech Communications, Nosmay, TXT Ghana and MediaEdge-gsm.

They have all signed on to a very comprehensive Code of Ethics published on the WASPAG website – www.waspag.com with a determination to protect end users against bad practices and abuse in the system.

These are organizations that develop, deploy, market, and manage various wireless and mobile applications that serve subscribers across all Ghana networks.

The services they provide include bulk sms, group messaging, banking and commerce, lifestyle and entertainment, social media, micro-billing for digital goods like music downloads, mobile application downloads, and others, plus mobility solutions and several others; and their services are deployed over SMS, MMS, Voice, USSD, WAP, and GPRS/Internet.

In effect, members of WASPAG constitute the main back office engine for the wireless/mobile-based VAS for all the telecom operators in Ghana, for banks, insurance companies, event organizers, even some handset makers, media houses, and practically anybody or entity which has any digital product or service to provide within the WASP environment.

Members of WASPAG have over the years worked separately and successfully without any common set of code of ethics, but they now feel the need to join forces and self-regulate to consolidate the gains made, and more importantly, to prevent abuse of clients and also secure the interest of genuine industry players against the bad nuts.

Director of Regulatory Affairs for WASPAG, who is also General Manager of Mobile Content.com Conrad Nyuur said WASPAG members are becoming concerned about the influx of individuals who sit in Ghana or abroad and use overseas gateways to send bulk mobile/wireless content to people in Ghana at midnight and charge them without end-users permission and therefore create a bad name for genuine industry players.

These nefarious quarks are for instance responsible for phone users receiving SMS or some mobile content from shortcodes they did not subscribe to and getting charged for it.

There have also been instances where phone users subscribe to short code service and get charged regularly but never get the service, while others also subscribe to SMS banking service but never get service even though they get charged for it, and some of them are down to pure fraud where some fake WASPs pretend to be organizations they are not and send messages on behalf of that organization.

“Most of these fake players are not registered locally and yet they operate WASP services here and some of them send unsavory and deceptive messages/content on behalf of unidentifiable clients to unsuspecting Ghanaians. We are concerned that such activities will make the National Communication Authority (NCA) jump on all of us one of these days and that will not be good for our industry,” Nyuur said.

He noted that the WASP industry in Ghana is only about 10 years old and still an emerging one but the challenges it is facing from infiltrators are a threat to its survival.

Nyuur said the rationale for forming WASPAG, therefore, is to bring all genuine locally registered players within the WASP ecosystem together for effective self-regulation through the Code of Ethics and to assist the NCA to apply the rules more effectively to weed out the bad nuts.

He said WASPAG would also establish an infrastructure for collecting feedback from the public and that would assist members to deal with public complaints long before it even gets to the telecom network or the regulator, adding that phone users can also report abuses on the WASPAG website www.waspag.com.

“Our Code of Ethics for instance empowers our members to filter the ID of anyone using members’ networks to distribute mobile content and when we find that consumer’s rights are being violated we are required to either report or block that person’s access,” he said.

He said WASPAG would also provide economies of scale for the local industry players because it would eventually ensure that only locally registered players are allowed to operate in Ghana and that would mean overseas players would need local partners to operate in Ghana.

“This can create business for the genuine locally registered WASPs,” he said.

Nyuur said WASPAG is therefore lobbying all the players in the local WASP industry to get onboard the WASPAG train to ensure a wider and broader application of the Code of Ethics to ensure sanity and quality of service in the industry.

WASPAG is an independent, non-profit self-regulatory body established in December 2012 with a remit of representing and self-regulating mobile-based value-added services providers, otherwise known as WASPs.

WASPAG is recognized by The Ghana Telecoms Chamber, all mobile network providers in Ghana, the National Communications Authority (NCA), and the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Communications.

Source: Joy News

Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana – SMSGH, the leading mobile messaging and content aggregation in Ghana, today announced the official release of the SMSGH Unity USSD APIs as the newest addition to its messaging platform. This unveils a new capability that dramatically makes mobile messaging even very interactive.

In its continuous quest to deliver a world-class messaging platform with offerings for unbeatable data processing synergy, service innovation, scalability, and ultimately, channel convergence, SMSGH has taken a significant leap forward with the introduction and availability of USSD API and USSD Service Codes on its messaging platform.

USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a GSM based communication technology used to transact session-based messages between mobile phones and application servers aggregating on a mobile network. It is very interactive and normally faster than the conventional means of messaging as mobile phone subscribers simply dial a service code to access and interact with a menu of services. (eg. *714#).

Services ideal with USSD as the bearer include mobile chat, m-commerce, mobile banking, call-related services and any other service that requires interaction between the user and application servers such as below;

• Menu Browsing
• Callback Service
• “Pull” based Services like informational services
• News
• Weather
• Movies and Theatre Listings
• Sports Update
• Currency Update
• Stock Market
• Telephone Directory
• Voting / Polling
• Flash Emergency Information
• Travel Reservations (Airline / Hotel)
• Sponsored Menu Item / Advertisement
• Companies / Shops / Theaters can get listed on the Menu and promote their services
• Contests and Tele-voting
• Virtual Money Transaction
• Interactive Interface to Corporate ERP
• Mobile Marketing, etc.

USSD is most often used in conjunction with SMS especially for subscription based content services where mobile users subscribe to content services via USSD and receive such contents via SMS. In such cases, SMS is used to “push” a reply or updates to the handset and USSD is used for command-and-control only.

The SMSGH Unity USSD API enables service providers to deploy applications on multiple networks in one seamless integration — no need to implement different APIs for different networks.

SMSGH, named in the February 2012 edition of the prestigious Forbes Africa Magazine’s list of the ‘TOP 20 TECH START UP COMPANIES IN AFRICA’ aims at blending communication, content and commerce to create Africa’s most useful technology aggregation company.

Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana – SMSGH, a leading brand in mobile communications and content aggregation, has once again taken a giant step towards becoming the most useful technology aggregation company in Africa as it today announced the finalization of agreements with MTN Ghana to provide call center support for the latter’s innovative Directory Assistance Service.

This engagement will see SMSGH host, manage, operate, and aggregate the MTN 1188 directory service from its newly-opened call center at 302 Olympics Road in Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana.

The call center currently has the capacity to process more than 680 calls per hour with additional scalable capacity for more than 2,700 calls per hour.

The MTN 1188 Directory Assistance Service is available for subscribers on the MTN Ghana network. Through this dial-in service, MTN subscribers have the on-the-go convenience of accessing phone numbers and general contact details of over 85,000 listed organizations, institutions, and companies by simply dialing 1188.

Calls are processed by live operators who are available from 6am to 9pm (GMT). In addition to automated voice readout of a desired contact number, subscribers also receive an SMS with the name and number of a listing within seconds; enabling storage for future use.

The directory represents a rich repository of local businesses categorized by industry, location and other specifications.

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MTN Ghana is operated by Scancom Limited and is the leading mobile network operator in Ghana with over 11 million subscribers.

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SMSGH remains Ghana’s leading mobile value-added-services company with services and applications in use by more than 5 million mobile subscribers. The company aims at blending communication, content, and commerce to create Africa’s most useful technology aggregation company.

Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana — SMSGH, one of Africa’s fastest-growing technology companies today announced the availability of the SMSGH Unity Portal to enable all customers and resellers to seamlessly manage their products, services, and accounts with SMSGH.

SMSGH Unity Portal hosted at unity.smsgh.com, comes in handy for the direct customer base of more than 40,000 users aggregating various mobile services via SMSGH.

The new portal offers all customers, among many other features, the ability to send SMS text messages in a far shorter time and more intuitively than available in other applications.

Other features include:

• Manage assigned short codes; set up new keywords, integrate to third-party applications (polls, games, text-to-win, betting, etc.), self-administer message processing parameters, and view payout revenues in real-time.
• Manage contact databases; set up contact groups and subscriber lists
• Manage developer APIs; both for one-way and two-way messaging to SMS-enable any application.
• Manage sub-accounts and products; create and manage other user accounts and accounts on MYtxtBOX and MYtxtBOX Pro. 1-click to impersonate sub-accounts and share SMS Credits with them.
• Manage your invoices and receipts; generate invoices and pay online instantly via Electronic Debit Card or Mobile Money and more.
• Generate detailed traffic reports; get advanced reports of all messages on your account or download to MS Excel
• Set account notification preferences

Before the introduction of the SMSGH Unity Portal, many customer processes were managed by specific products, and customers had to rely on manual procedures to administer one or more services.

As Ghana’s largest provider of SMS messaging and aggregation services, SMSGH continues to leverage customer behavior and experiences in using the SMSGH Unity Portal to develop a solid business model for expansion into other markets around the world.

Announcing the release, the Chief Solutions Architect, Mr. Kwadwo Seinti said, “The more customers we are able to seamlessly assist with very little person-to-person interaction, the more solid our expansion becomes.”

An event to launch and present the key features of the SMSGH Unity Portal will take place sometime in the 3rd quarter of 2012.

Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana — SMSGH, Ghana’s leading mobile aggregation and bulk messaging company today celebrated seven (7) years of successful business operations.

SMSGH was founded by three (3) Ghanaian technology entrepreneurs and started operations on the 12th of May 2005.

A private cake-cutting ceremony was held at the company’s Kokomlemle offices to commemorate the occasion. In attendance were all staff, management, the board of directors, and shareholders of the company. In a speech, the Chief Solutions Architect of SMSGH, Kwadwo Seinti, thanked everyone who has played any part in the company’s success, saying ‘Our success must inspire us to do more‘.

In an email sent to all staff, management congratulated all past and present SMSGH team members and reminded all that ‘From the very start this has been an experiment in how far we can go with our ideas. And we are locked in deep currently. Today, we have proved to ourselves that it’s all possible. But we’ve also learned that what lies ahead of us is ever more challenging than anything we have encountered or anticipated.‘

The email above all thanked God for bringing the company thus far, stating ‘As we celebrate our 7th anniversary, we can never ignore the ever-present, reliable hand of God in our journey — ever guiding, ever protecting; granting us strength of body, mind and wisdom each day. Do make time today to say a Thank You Prayer.‘

A representative of staff, Mr. Gideon Hayford, thanked management for maintaining strong corporate values, and for providing a conducive environment to encourage staff performance.

SMSGH aims to become an international brand for business messaging and content aggregation developing and deploying mobile solutions to enrich lives and lifestyles.

SMSGH In The News: www.myjoyonline.com, Published by JoyFM, Accra, Ghana — After weeks of intense judging activities, the shortlisted nominees for the 2nd MobileWorld Ghana Telecom Awards are out. A statement from award organizers, MobileWorld Magazine indicates there are 17 competitive awards, and four special awards dubbed the Publisher’s Choice awards.

The categories are phone of the year, telecom operator of the year, telecom vendor of the year, wholesale provider of the year, best innovative mobile product of the year, best mobile content, best mobile money, best telecom brand, infrastructure company of the year, and best Internet Service Provider (ISP) of the year.

The rest are marketing campaign, best CSR telecom company, best use of IT in banking, best ICT company of the year, best business service of the year, best customer care of the year, and CEO of the year.

The four special non-competitive awards are special recognition for commitment to the telecom industry, women in ICT award, Young ICT Entrepreneur award, and the prestigious MobileWorld Lifetime Achievement Award.

But of all the awards, the most enviable are the telecom brand of the year, which Vodafone won last year; customer service of the year, which Airtel won last year; CEO of the year, which Airtel won last year; and of course the telecom operator of the year which was most deservingly grabbed by market leader MTN.

This year’s event is also slated for April 20, 2012, at the plush Holiday Inn Hotel in Accra, and it would recognize and reward individuals and organizations at the forefront of the telecoms industry in Ghana. It promises to be a memorable gala night, poised to be the biggest gathering of senior telecom executives in the country.

Event organizer and Group Publisher of MobileWorld Magazine, Akin Naphtal said “The prestigious awards will be announced to an audience of Ghana’s most influential telecom and business decision-makers at a fantastic evening of fine dining and entertainment.” “I can assure you that this event will not only recognize organizations and personalities, it will also be a platform for networking with stakeholders in the industry,” he said. Mr. Naphtal said the awards will also help build healthy relationships among competitors and provide an opportunity to reward deserving staff, as well as provide a unique social environment to network with peers. He said the awards are essential because they recognize the efforts of those who are investing in the ICT/Telecom industry in Ghana.

The awards are open to Telecom Mobile operators, ICT Organizations, MVNOs, and Banks operating in Ghana.

The other nominees for Best Mobile Content Provider for 2012 are Dreamoval, Mobile Content.Com and Rancard Solutions.

SMSGH In The News: Forbes Africa Magazine, Published in South Africa — SMSGH, a leading mobile aggregation and bulk SMS messaging company based in Ghana has been named in the February 2012 edition of the prestigious Forbes Africa Magazine’s list of the ‘TOP 20 TECH START UP COMPANIES IN AFRICA’.

The Criteria for the selection included the following;

1. Each company had to be less than 10 years old
2. Each company had to show relevance in helping to overcome Africa’s problems in areas like communications and skills shortage
3. Each company had to have an online presence and demonstrate social media activity
4. Each company had to have a Pan-African presence and/or ownership.

SMSGH is listed in the 17th position in a ranking that includes companies such as MXit, Ushahidi, FloCash, PesaPal, and another Ghanaian start-up company, Dropifi. The full list is as follows;

1. MXit – Founded in 2003, MXit was one of the first Mobile Instant messaging services in the world and in Africa, and has a userbase of about 45m. (South Africa)
2. Yola – Founded in 2007, Yola is a simple website builder and hosting service, that allows anyone without any HTML skills to easily create websites. (South Africa)
3. Dropifi – Founded in 2011, Dropifi assists businesses in better responding to incoming messages via their website and also includes analytics for website owners. (Ghana)
4. Cobi Interactive – Founded in 2009, Cobi Interactive is a mobile software development company with clients. (South Africa)
5. FloCash – Founded in 2010, FloCash allows anyone with an email address and mobile number to send and receive money across Africa simply and easily. (UK)
6. Obami – Founded in 2009, Obami is a social network and learning management system for schools, teachers, and students. (South Africa)
7. Bandeka – Founded in 2011, Bandeka is an exclusive social network, for building relationships/dating. (Ghana and Nigeria)
8. Jobberman – Founded in 2009, Jobberman is West Africa’s most popular job and placement website. (Nigeria)
9. Motribe – Founded in 2011, Motribe is a mobile platform enabling users, brands, agencies, and publishers across the world to build and manage their own mobile social communities. (South Africa)
10. PesaPal – Founded in 2009, PesaPal is a payment platform that enables Kenyans to buy and sell on the Internet using M-Pesa, Zap and Credit Cards. (Kenya)
11. Synaq – Founded in 2004, Synaq provides messaging and security products built around open-source solutions. (South Africa)
12. Rupu – Founded in 2010, Rupu is a daily deals website modeled on group on. (Kenya)
13. BongoLive – Founded in 2010, BongoLive is a mobile and SMS services company. (Tanzania)
14. Skyrove – Founded in 2006, Skyrove is South Africa’s largest independent Wi-Fi hotspot network with over 600 Wi-Fi hotspots in South Africa. (South Africa)
15. Njorku – Founded in 2011, Njorku is a career and recruitment services platform focused on Africa. (Cameroon)
16. Ushahidi – Founded in 2007, Ushahidi is the only non-profit on this list, ushahidi develops software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. (Kenya)
17. SMSGH – Founded in 2005, SMSGH offers bulk SMS solutions, SMS Gateway solutions and mobile web solutions. (Ghana)
18. Hummba – Founded in 2011, Hummba is a social and travel networking website that lets you download free audio travel guides and share travel experiences directly from your mobile phone.
19. 10Layer – Founded in 2011, 10Layer is CMS system targeted specifically at newsrooms. (South Africa)
20. Sembuse – Founded in 2009, Sembuse is a mobile social network & instant messaging platform similar to Mxit. (South Africa)

About Forbes Africa Magazine: Forbes Africa Magazine was launched in September 2011 and is published by ABN Publishing of South Africa. Forbes is a leading international brand for news and rankings, and has built a strong reputation as a respected and informative source of business news around the world. Forbes Africa Magazine hopes to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit across the length and breadth of the continent with rigorously researched content that will be heeded and debated around the globe.

Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana — TeamWork Media, a leading mobile content provider in Ghana marketing exciting and compelling entertainment and information content to mobile subscribers has outdoored its latest online content distribution service as JumpFon (www.jumpfon.com).

JumpFon is designed to deliver value to all mobile subscribers with such services as;

• lifestyle SMS
• religious SMS
• educational SMS
• breaking news alerts
• ringtones
• true tones
• music
• wallpaper
• animated pictures
• games and more.

JumpFon’s technical and operational infrastructure was designed and developed by SMSGH. SMSGH is a leading mobility applications development company based in Ghana.

TeamWork Media also manages Huk-Up mobile dating, MegaPlay SMS game, Mobi-Mall mobile trading and many other mobile services in Ghana.

Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana — SMSGH, a leading mobility applications development company based in Ghana today announced the completion of work towards the deployment of its flagship mobility appliance, MPower for the Electricity Company of Ghana.

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is a national distributor of electricity with a direct customer base in excess of 2 million. ECG provides quality, reliable, and safe electricity services to support the economic growth and development of Ghana. Being a utility service provider ECG staff and customers constantly require accurate and convenient access to information.

SMSGH MPower Mobility Appliance consisting of a suite of mobile & web-based software applications, and handheld Point-Of-Sale devices will help improve the operational efficiency of ECG in the areas of;

1. revenue collection
2. live sales tracking
3. on-the-spot customer bill checking
4. sales receipting and mini bill/statement printing
5. real-time customer complaint reporting and
6. general field data capture.

The success of this project was a direct result of close and dedicated collaboration between the SMSGH development team and the ECG IT Projects team.

The MPower appliance devices are currently in use in many towns, villages, and other remote locations in the Western Region. It is expected that the rollout plan will soon cover many other locations all over Ghana.

Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana — SMSGH, a leading mobile aggregation company based in Ghana today announced an agreement with global mobile phone manufacturing giant, Tecno Telecom.

The agreement will enable the distribution of Tecno’s world-class embedded mobile applications to users via SMSGH’s mobile content aggregation platform, the SMSGH Unity Gateway. By this agreement, users of Tecno mobile handsets will now be able to use and download all applications available in the Tecno app store or embedded on their handset. Users will be billed for these applications via SMSGH’s Unity Gateway, a best-class mobile content distribution and monetization platform developed, managed, and maintained by SMSGH.

In an interview, the General Manager of SMSGH, Alex Adjei Bram said, ”We are excited and challenged to have been chosen by Tecno Telecom. Being one of the fastest selling mobile handset brands in Ghana, we feel Tecno made the right choice with SMSGH as we know too well how to manage mobile services with high growth potentials.” He further said, ”SMSGH continues to focus on expanding our service offering to increase our footprint, as we gain momentum on our efforts to lead mobile messaging innovation in Ghana and beyond.”

Kokomlemle, Accra, Ghana — SMSGH, a leading mobile content aggregation company based in Ghana today announced the finalization of agreements with Scancom Limited, operators of the MTN Ghana network to supply and distribute multimedia content via the MTNPlay mobile commerce portal; www.mtnplay.com.gh

The agreement will see SMSGH distribute its vast array of multimedia content such as;

• screensavers
• wallpapers
• polyphonic ring tones
• true ring tones
• videos clips
• games
• music tracks and
• mobile applications.

These content materials will be available for subscribers of the MTN Ghana network to download and own on their mobile phones. Content suppliers, musicians, mobile game developers, and graphical designers with the appropriate copyrights can now monetize the sale of these electronic materials as SMSGH boasts of the industry’s highest payout on revenue received from mobile networks.

To find out more about this, contact Afi Senya Ghamli (Mobile Campaigns Executive at SMSGH) via [email protected].