AIH, MTN partnership kicks-off with big Jumia ecommerce push in Ivory Coast

One of the continent’s largest tech incubators, Africa Internet Holding (AIH), announced its first partnership campaign with one of Africa’s leading telecom companies MTN. The two tech giants announced their marriage late last year and recently kicked-off the first deal aimed at boosting popular ecommerce outfit Jumia’s market in Ivory Coast.

For now, the deal between MTN and Jumia allows customers from Ivory Coast to make purchases using MTN’s Mobile Money system. Customers are encouraged to shop online using MTN’s answer to the popular MPesa.

Jumia is also setting up what’s called the Jumia Corner across the region in MTN branches that will help assist customers making purchases online. Jumia is well-known for its offline assistance and it seems it’s going even bigger. The first of 80 customer service points will launch on Tuesday in MTN’s flagship branch in the Plateau, the economic capital of Ivory Coast.

MTN President and CEO Sifiso Dabengwa said of the partnership campaigns: “We are delighted to be working with AIH on these innovative partnership campaigns. By bringing together our visions for the development of e-and mcommerce in Africa, we are able to make real change to the region whilst also enabling our customers to take advantage of even more great services and products.”

MTN isn’t shying away from the African tech startup scene. In December 2013, Millicom, the international telecommunications and media company and Rocket Internet signed an agreement to partner with MTN to develop their African online company AIH.

The telecom giant announced an investment deal with Rocket Internet of over US$400-million in startups in Africa and the Middle East.

MTN also earlier this year announced a partnership with South Africa’s popular price comparison and shopping discovery app, PriceCheck.

Jeremy Hodara, CEO of Africa Internet Holding says that this recent move “is just the beginning.” In the press release Hodara also states that “this partnership between AIH and MTN will spread to our other ventures, including Jovago, Kaymu and Easy Taxi in the next few weeks, where we will see further innovative collaborations.”