Mobile money brought Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to Africa, says the CEO of MTN Ghana, Ebenezer Twum Asante.

In an address to members of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, Asante said that mobile money will definitely change the way business is done in Africa. "What brought Mark Zuckerberg to Africa? One is the digital opportunity and second is mobile money, and that's why he went to Kenya. They can see the future; they can see the trends; they can see where the big money is, and I hope we in Africa can see and grab the opportunity ahead of them."

Asante urged all businesses to take advantage of the mobile money revolution - including partnership modules across industries - saying if they look at its growth, depth and spread, they will realise that "it is the power connecting the physical and the virtual."

The MTN Ghana executive doesn't believe that mobile money is a threat to the financial industry and predicts an eventual convergence of both industries.

Relatedly, there are indications that Facebook is now venturing into e-commerce which is a burgeoning sector in Africa and may hurt a section of the market, if and when introduced to the continent.

The social network recently announced new features that allow users to get advice from friends on what to do in their cities, upcoming events and, more importantly, to book movie tickets, make appointments and order food directly from their Facebook pages cutting off any form of intermediaries.

Though not a serious concern yet, as the latter feature is only available to US businesses for now, African e-commerce players may have to prepare for further disruption.