Airtel Africa drives ARPU by launching mobile credit loans with Ezra

Snapshot

Airtel Africa wanted to solve the problem of subscriber access to mobile credit
The company partnered with Ezra for its low-risk, intelligent and fast-to-deploy solution
Airtel Africa increased ARPU in target markets, achieving industry-leading monthly uptake rates

95%

Subscriber eligibility rate for mobile credit loans

< 12 weeks

Full roll-out of Ezra solution across Airtel markets

5

Markets where Airtel Africa launched mobile credit loans

Introduction

Airtel Africa worked with Ezra in 5 different markets to launch new mobile top-up services, and increase the distribution of telcos and VAS services to subscribers.

The company is a pan-African telecommunications company with operations in 14 countries, offering mobile, voice and data services to over 128 million customers.

The inability of subscribers to conveniently top-up when out of credit was identified as a problem that could impact long-term growth.

Airtel saw an opportunity to monetise out-of-credit subscribers and drive customer loyalty thanks to Ezra’s credit profiling and mobile loan solutions.

The difficulty with mobile top up for out-of-credit users, before Airtel Africa launched airtime advance.

Before Airtel Africa launched Airtel Advance, providing airtime and data credit loans to subscribers, topping up was a challenge for users who had run out of credit.

Across all markets in Africa, around 99% of subscribers are prepaid which means they need to top up before using any telco services. What’s more, on a daily basis up to 30% of subscribers are out of credit and do not have access to online payment methods.

This results in a loss of income, lower distribution and utilisation of existing services, and possible customer churn to competitor networks. This is compounded by a significant portion of the customer base having more than one network operator SIM card, which leads to the dilution of subscriber spend on their network.

Airtel therefore needed to improve access to online top up and credit and grow service penetration in its markets.

"Airtel Africa improved its competitive position in more challenging markets, with a distinctive experience-led proposition for mobile credit loans"

Case Study Highlight

Why Airtel Africa chose Ezra

Airtel Africa explored credit and loan solutions that could increase subscriber access to online top up. They needed a platform that was scalable, low-risk, and could serve millions of users across multiple countries.

The company selected Ezra as the leading airtime credit provider in the industry, with proven expertise in over 20 live deployments serving over 100 million subscribers. The Ezra platform had also distributed over USD1.4 billion in airtime and data loans worldwide in 2021 alone.

Ezra stood out for its intelligent credit scoring and profiling technology, algorithmic campaign management and customer experience design capabilities, having achieved industry-leading KPIs for high service penetration and low levels of bad debt.
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Ezra’s non-invasive integration enables millions of small ticket loans to be processed without complication, helping you to simplify your go-to-market plan and accelerate user adoption.

How Ezra helped Airtel Africa

Ezra first worked with Airtel Africa to determine its risk appetite for digital lending. The proposition was low-risk thanks to no upfront capital requirement and its risk-free warranty offer.

Ezra integrated its experienced scoring algorithm and intelligent customer profiling engine with Airtel Africa’s existing channels, to ensure subscribers are offered instant access to mobile credit advances at scale.

Ezra designed a customer experience with world-class UI and UX approaches that leveraged campaign management tools to boost adoption of Airtel Africa’s credit advance product. The platform also ensures repayment reminders are sent at the right time, on the right channel to relevant users.

Because the Ezra platform is configurable with a standardised set of service options, the entire solution was scoped, designed, implemented, tested and launched to all of Airtel Africa’s identified markets in under 12 weeks.

Average 93% collection rate

Customer Use and Success

350 million
profiles scored

Intelligent customer scoring and profiling

24 lending
operations

Fast deployment
to market

The results

Airtel Africa significantly increased ARPU thanks to high user uptake of its new mobile credit loan service. With a subscriber eligibility rate of up to 95%, the company achieved the highest monthly uptake rates in the industry without exposing itself to financial risk.

The launch of their ‘Airtel Advance’ service helped the company to boost market penetration and increase the distribution of telco and VAS services across their markets. Airtel Africa improved its competitive position in more challenging markets, with a distinctive experience-led proposition for mobile credit loans.