Thanks, I would like to elaborate and add a bit on the discussion from an online business perspective. With most of the business using the internet as a base for their business operations, choosing the right customer service channel for their apps and web-apps has become vital.

While deciding upon the right channel to use, studying the process of interaction between the client and company is essential. In the following parts of this post, we will discuss the major customer service channels that can be integrated with a business website and app

Voice

The biggest advantages of voice are the attention to detail and the large volume of information the executive can process while attending to a client. Executive’s access to the user data and ability to interact with users on various voice channels is vital.One doesn’t need to set up a dedicated phone number and call center infrastructure. If you’re a small/medium business, a Skype Call Button widget on your website can get things started in no time.



E-mail Forms

E-mails work really well in both B2B/B2C customer service operations. A website integrated with an HTML form where the user can key in their concerns/issues related to any of the product/services is a convenient and clean way of serving customers. For instance, look at the following screenshot from Amazon’s customer service page:



Web-Chat

Web-chat provides businesses the ability to directly interact with website visitors. Furthermore, businesses can interact with multiple users at the same time. As a result, wait time is reduced and users get a better experience.



Messaging Apps and SMS

We have iterated this countless times, the no. of mobile devices have surpassed the no. of Desktops. Hence, it makes perfect sense to integrate mobile messaging apps as a customer service channel in the mobile version of your website.



Following are some benefits of using messaging apps as customer service channels:-
-Handle multiple users at the same time
-Personalized and clean experience for the user
-Chat history is readily available. Easy identification of returning users.
-No spam and unwanted subscriptions

In a nutshell, whether you’re a startup in initial stages or an established organization with customer service agents, a study of user experience and interactions is essential to determine the right customer service channel.

References
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/customer-service-channels-business-website/

Don't forget this. I appreciate using the internet for ADVERTISEMENTS, but it won't work in all product scenarios. If you are selling less of a luxury product/service, you need to understand not everybody has access to smart devices. Hence a combination of offline marketing and online marketing is the way to go! Throw in some CTAs or call to actions in your advertising message and see the magic.

Also, one may consider the following points:-

-Use optimized web pages compatible with low bandwidth browsers like Opera Mini.
-In absence of data coverage, businesses may use missed call marketing. (Saving consumers’ airtime)
-Commerce organizations can use printed catalogs and manuals
-Consumers may then order & pay via SMS &USSD

Use Messaging Apps and Chat Bots for Consumer Service
Messaging apps connect with the consumer at a personal level. Furthermore, no waiting time and long queues. Unlike e-mails, there are no unwanted subscriptions and spam content. In fact, consumer chat history is also readily available. In addition, they are not as expensive as bulk SMS/MMS packs.

References:
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/africa-rules-of-user-engagement/

Thanks for the delightful update. Your post has been an eye-opener. To add further to where you have left off, I believe the following tech trends will rule the technical landscape for SMMEs in Africa:-

Artificial Intelligence

chatbots and digital assistants will dominate customer service in 2017. For example, the Google Digital assistant featured in Google Allo. It can fetch e-mails, make a note, check calendars, pop a joke, and much more. All in a simple IM window. There are 2 ways of deploying a bot:-
-Third Party Service (takes care of the AI)
-Write your own Machine Learning Code

Data Analytics

With BI becoming more common among SMEs, data analytics will be the norm this year. More businesses are moving towards data-based decision making. Be it any management function, data analysis tools like Tableau, R, Minitab etc. can integrate well with any database.For example, Google Analytics. An eCommerce store can measure the various sources of incoming traffic to their website, monitor hits across various product categories, check SKUs, and more. In a nutshell, a running overview of the enterprise available at a click.

Enterprise Mobility

With the growing usage of mobile devices among enterprises, the tasks performed on desktop and laptop computers have reduced. This means the concept of mobility can be used to perform business operations, hence empowering the employees to work from anywhere and anytime. The following examples portray scenarios of enterprise mobility at work:-

-Enabling CEO with a tablet to get real-time statistics and KPIs of the projects
-Empowering a retail sales person with an android device to perform checkouts and payments
-Encouraging the sales team on the field to collaborate through a mobile web app

Virtual and Augmented Reality
We have already seen how AR has opened new avenues for Game developers. The recent success of Pokemon GO is an example. Moreover, the other ways in which AR can help businesses are:

-Retail: Virtual fitting rooms
-Check if furniture matches the surroundings (Ikea already did it)
-Manufacturing: Monitor work progress using AR markers
-GPS: Mobile apps which work with street signs
-Digital walkthroughs
-Augmented outdoor/print Advertising
-AR interactive story books

References:
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/tech-trends-for-entrepreneurs-2017/

One would have to ask himself/herself, the following two questions before starting an e-commerce business in Nigeria or any other African country.

What will be the mode of payment?

There can be many options to consider, depending on the geography you are in:-

1. Instant EFT
2. Mobile Money
3. Cash on Delivery
4. Cryptocurrency (if allowed by the country)

What will be the logistics? (especially, delivery logistics)

In the west, it is quite easy to move a shipment from point A to point B. With big logistics corporations like DHL failing in Nigeria, watch out for new innovative companies in form of start-ups. For example, KOBO in Nigeria follows an Uber-like model for deliveries. Additionally it also provides holistic logistics services.

Other valid considerations

1. Reaching out to consumers with low bandwidth
2. Flexible payment support

References
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/africa-basics-starting-an-ecommerce-business/

Eventually, they will have to embrace mobile learning! Initiatives like Roducate have existed since 2009 with a strong user-base in other African nations such as Malawi, Ghana, and South Africa.



World Reader Mobile
An initiative which brings access to a library of over 28,000 titles across 43 languages, even on a simple feature phone. WRM is a mobile e-reader and library application optimized for inexpensive mobile phones to reach children, families, and adults on devices they already own. WRM is designed to work with browsers using extreme compression technology such as Opera Mini to offer a fast and data-light reading experience.

Web usage instead of fragmented mobile OSs made WRM accessible to any internet-enabled device. Users could save the books offline for later reading. This eliminated the need of constantly being online. Data compression made the books very small in size, hence, easy to download even on a GPRS connection. The concept was to deliver a fast and data-light user experience.Other than Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, WRM also includes topic such as history, art, language, literature, finance and business studies.

To sum up, the proliferation of mobile phones brings unique challenges and opportunities for the learning sector. An effective user experience, keeping in mind the limited bandwidth and expensive data is the key to success.

References:
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/mobile-learning-africa-facts-trends-lessons/

We are an offshore software consulting company operating in the mobile, application and design space. We can help you with your mobile-learning concept.

Here's a link to our portfolio of mobile apps:-

http://www.zealousys.com/work/

We request you to write to us about your requirement at [url]info@zealousys.com[/url] or key in your requirement at http://www.zealousys.com/enquiry/

Also, here is a blog post we recently did on mobile learning and its trends in Africa:-

http://www.zealousys.com/blog/mobile-learning-africa-facts-trends-lessons/

They are 2 different electronic funds transfer methods

1. NEFT stands for national electronics funds transfer
2. Instant EFT stands for instant electronic funds transfer

while both of them are used for transferring funds, the difference lies in the nature of a transaction:-

NEFT is best suited for bulk transfers eg salary uploads, corporate payments, online payment for premium goods and takes a minimum of 24hrs for clearance

Instant EFT on the other hand, is for transactions within a certain limit determined by the central bank of a nation. The transfer is immediate without any clearance procedure (the account transfer takes place in real time). The average duration of a transaction is 2 mins. It is the most suited e-payment option for online purchases.

Benefits of Instant EFT in Online Retail

Merchants
-Immediate payment clearance: no waiting
-No proof of payment required
-Easy Checkout
-Compatible with all browsers and platforms
-Lower transaction fee (less than 2 to 4 percent of transaction fee)
-Easy to setup (web developers can make the merchant go online in no time)

Consumers
-Hassle free instant checkout
-Instant EFTs have higher trust among consumers
-Instant feedback in case of insufficient funds

References:-
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/instant-eft-boon-sa-online-retail/

Thanks for the insightful post! This looks really encouraging for the continent. The mobile platform has given birth to various unique and creative initiatives aimed at improving/addressing some major challenges. I came across the following initiatives undertaken as start-ups, which caught my attention:-

M-Farm

It's a collaborative platform for farmers which works at 3 levels:-

-Informing farmers about price of their produce
-Connecting farmers and buyers
-Provide farming insights and assistance towards optimum production

The App has a presence over mobile (SMS) as well as web interfaces.

SnapScan

SnapScan is a startup based in South Africa. It offers a mobile payment service aimed at simplifying payments.

The application allows the users to:-


-Make quick and convenient payments using only your phone
-Buy at shops and markets without handing over your card
-Pay with your debit or credit card (no extra wallet)
-See a list of previous transactions

Locate great merchants close to you (across South Africa)

Gifted Mom


An initiative born in Cameroon, Africa. It is a knowledge sharing platform targeted at women for pre and Antenatal care. The initiative offers:-

-Notifications/Guidelines for antenatal care (SMS/App)
-Vaccination tracker program for children (SMS/App)
-Teen health/sex education (SMS/App)
-Mobilizing community and health workers (SMS/App)
-App based personalized journal
-Quick tips from doctors


References

https://www./unique-mobile-based-initiatives-africa-pranay-panday
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/m-commerce-africa-beyond-selling/

Thank you for the wonderful insight. So we can eventually break down this update to the following:-

IF Responsive website + Same Content and Markup (Mobile Version +Desktop Version)

-No need to change anything

IF Separate websites + Different Content and Markup (Mobile Version +Desktop Version)

-Make sure structured markup across both websites
-Ensure that the robots.txt for the mobile website is available to Google bot (Robots.txt tester tool)
-Make no changes to the canonical links

IF Separate websites + Same Content and Markup (Mobile Version + Desktop Versio)

-Check if both the versions have been added and verified in Google Search Console

IF Only a single desktop website

-Google will still index your website just fine
-However, for accessibility and UX reasons, it is recommended to have a mobile version ==> More hits

All this because Google search algorithms are being updated to give preference to the mobile version of a page to evaluate its position in the search results.

Thanks,

References:
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/mobile-first-indexing-relevant-practices/

M-Commerce provides the platform for moving businesses beyond selling. Following is a listicle about some organizations in Africa who are using mobile to facilitate commerce in unique and creative ways:-

1. WeFarm



We farm is a peer to peer knowledge sharing platform to help farmers find vital information related to agriculture. It operates by accepting queries from the farmers via SMS.

2. SnapScan



It is a mobile payment service in SA, which aspires to simplify payments through the use of smartphones.

3. DabaDoc



A medical appointment booking platform which is free for the consumers.

References:
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/m-commerce-africa-beyond-selling/

Not just agriculture, Gamification has been applied to many areas across Africa.

Take the case of Absa Bank, a subsidiary of Barclay's in South Africa.

The bank faced a repeated weekend and month-end crunch when the low-income customers used to flood their banking halls. Reasons:-

-Low-income customers perceived it expensive to manage their bank account
-Frequent travel for even simple account inquiries
-Only 50% low-income customers had registered for mobile banking
-The usage among the registered ones was 20%



How Gamification helped Absa?

Absa conceptualized a mobile quiz game using the Simple Messaging Service (SMS).
The game had 2 parts:-
-Part 1 =>Q&As about checking account balances with an airtime prize
-Part 2 =>Participants were asked to put the knowledge received in action e.g. Call to action for mobile bankingIncentive => Entry into a draw with large cash prize

Result Increased awareness about mobile banking among low-income customers

References: http://www.zealousys.com/blog/curious-cases-gamification/

Some of the interesting Google Allo features which caught my attention are:-

1. Smart Reply

It uses machine learning algorithms enabling the users to respond to incoming IMs with a single tap. As per Google, ‘Smart Reply’ learns over time and suggests responses to text and photos in the user’s style.

2. Ink

It allows the user to doodle over new as well as existing images making image-sharing joyful and interactive. One can draw stuff on freshly clicked images before sending them.

3. Stickers

Google Allo offers a complete range of quirky, weird and yet wonderful stickers, designed by independent artists and studios from around the world!

4. SHOUT or whisper

This is a unique feature. It enables users to scale the size of the text higher and lower depending on what they want to emphasize.

5. Virtual Assistant

It is Google's answer to Siri and Cortana. The Google Assitant supports voice as well as text input and comes with a range of utilities.

6. Incognito Chat

Just like the incognito mode in browsers Google Allo offers the facility of end-to-end encrypted, self-destructive chat sessions. There are also private notifications to keep your incognito chats more discrete.

Dunno, what the future holds for Allo, but it is definitely an innovative step by Google.


References:
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/peek-world-allo/

Google announced a new program called Accelerated mobile pages that allows users to search for news and pull up a host of articles from publishers instantly

The feature will allow publishers articles to show up on Google without any payment, unlike Facebook's instant articles, or Apple inc's Apple News.

Presently, the usage of AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is going to benefit mostly publishers and e-commerce websites, but there is a very good chance that it might be a game changer for the mobile web.

To supplement your post further, AMP is not just a program it is an HTML framework to create super-fast and lighter web pages for the mobile. In fact, the load time of an AMP page is 1/5th of a typical mobile friendly page (Responsive web Page).

References:
http://www.zealousys.com/blog/amp-future-mobile-browsing/