Mobile Commerce could Power Africa's next Growth Cycle.

The internet commerce has not quite picked up in Africa. The legacy system of the banks, and the lack of access to credit cards are just some of the reasons why e-commerce has not quite picked up in Africa. And yet, the continent could be sitting on the cusp of a revolution. Consider that Africans own 600 million mobile phones, 100 million of which are smartphones. This means that there has never been a better time to launch mobile based applications.

The mobile money transfer market is easily the most ubiquitous mobile application. The money transfer service grew because of an unmet need. There was a need for banking services, which was not being provided by the traditional banks. In Kenya, the MPESA service has been the most widespread service. In the year 2013, $20 billion was transacted through the service. Most of all, the micro transfer service helped to launch many other related businesses. For example, musicians now use the service to enable their fans download music at a fraction of the cost of buying an album. In a country where piracy is rife, this couldn't be better, as it enables musicians to earn some income from their hard work.

There are other mobile applications that have indeed been helpful. For example, MFarm is a service which enables farmers to get timely updates of the prices of goods and services, and in the process, the farmers are able to cut out the middlemen. The service charges users a small fee for inquiring about the products of goods and services.

Going forward, we should expect more mobile applications to be rolled out. According to IBM's Africa chief scientist Uyi Stewart, what will be needed will be a need to solve problems that afflict Africans immediately. Mr. Stewart advises that African innovators should start from the end in mind, and then work backwards towards creating sustainable business solutions to solve those problems. If more African innovators follow this route, then mobile commerce could indeed power on the next wave of growth for the continent.