This year’s MobileMoneyAfrica expo and conference is shaping up to be an event as star-studded as any red carpet, with dozens of heavy hitters lining up to speak, including Jonathon Ridley – principal, Coffey International, UK  and Peter Ollikanen – SVP at Mistral Mobile, Finland.

Apart from the duo, some other industry leading lights are attending the expo and conference, which is the third in the series and holding at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Lagos from February 6 to 7.

Jonathon Ridley, with an impressive 20 years of experience as a business leader and 13 years of experience managing large-scale international donor funded programmes will share his knowledge with participants at the event.

Ridley as a principal of Coffey International Development’s Economic Growth practice in London directs and advises on projects seeking to effect market system changes, primarily through the Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach.

Also, Peter Ollikainen, co-founder and SVP of product marketing at Mistral Mobile, a mobile money technology and professional services company will share his company’s success story in providing innovative and disruptive solutions to banks, mobile operators and financial service providers to enable them to service their customers through mobile channels.

Others are Gerry Rasugu who currently leads the Agent Network Group within SBI’s global Alternative Delivery Channels Practice area; John Owens, director, East Asia, CHEMONICS with over 24 years of experience in microfinance, microenterprise development, and mobile financial services; and Simon Aderinlola , National Coordinating Consultant, WASPA-Nigeria Gte.

Also on the roll call of speakers are Mike Ogbalu, head, mobile financial services,  FirstBank Nigeria; Eugene Adogla, director, MicroEnsure, Ghana;  Ali Musa Baba, CEO, TeasyMobile, Nigeria;  Justin Floyd – RedcloudMoney and ICENI Mobile – UK; Victor Asemota,CEO & Principal Consultant, Swifta Systems, Ghana;  Santanu Sengupta – director, African center for mobile financial inclusion, UK; Osondu Nwokoro, director, regulatory Affairs and special Projects, Airtel Nigeria; Tayo Oviosu, CEO, Paga; Emmanuel Agha , founder, Innovectives LLC, Nigeria; Daniel Osei- Antwi – CEO, SplashMobileMoney, Sierra Leone; Chalapathi Rao Immidi, director Business Development, MFINO, India; Derrick Kwaku Dankyi, executive director, Glife Financial services, Ghana; Vytas Paukstys, CEO, Eskimi, Lithuania; Selorm Adadevoh; head of Mobile financial services, Tigo, Ghana; Peter Asolo – CEO, Petvini Global Concept , Nigeria; Simon Aderinlola, founding director & National Coordinating Consultant at WASP Ltd/Gte  and Emeka Okoye, CEO – Vi
kantti Software; as well as Gerald Rasugu – Lead, Agent Network, ShoreBank International,  Kenya.

The expo which is jointly promoted by MobileMoneyAfrica, Nigerian CommunicationsWeek and African center for mobile financial inclusion in United Kingdom, will be a gathering of influencers in the industry across Africa and beyond, cutting across Mobile Network operator, financial institutions, technology, regulators and  other associated players.

This year’s MobileMoneyAfrica expo and conference is adding another feature event which will enable subscriber test mobile money applications from different providers during the two day event.

Notably amongst the licensed mobile money providers that will be showcasing mobile money innovation at the subscribers interaction center are GTBank MobileMoney;  Paga; and Stanbic IBTC.

The subscriber interaction center is hosted by Nigeria’s leading social media network, Eskimi and hundreds of their subscribers will be visiting the center to test, evaluate and sign up for mobilemoney services during the two day event.

During the 2013 Edition of the MobileMoney Expo, mobile money operators will share experiences in all domain areas of mobile financial services covering regulation, technology, application, marketing, customer relationships, agency network and other innovative practices that will improve adoption of mobile financial services for shopping, remittances, micro finance, social payments and others.

Speaking further on the subscriber interaction center at the 2013 event, Emmanuel Okoegwale, principal associate at MobileMoneyAfrica said ‘The purpose of the promoting a space at the event to showcase all mobilemoney innovations in Nigeria, is to enable potential subscribers access all the applications available and  sign up  instantly during the event.

“That section of the event is open and free to delegates to promote adoption of mobile financial services.’  He added.

Commenting on the centre, Ken Nwogbo, editor-in-chief, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek said  ‘ The interaction center is a first for the industry and it is aimed at educating the customers to make the right decision to enroll for mobile financial services in Nigeria‘.

With more than 16 licensed providers in Nigeria, the event  is a must attend for industry watchers that are desirous of exploring opportunities in the mobile money space in Nigeria through agency network partnerships, technology / application  sales,  integrators and customers activation and others.

The event will also host the inaugural Kalahari awards to recognize players innovators in the industry across Africa, is dedicated to acknowledging creativity, commitment and excellence in the mobile financial services across Africa.

Delegate registrations are still open for the main conference event.