2014 was a good year for Millicom. In February this year the company posted its annual results for 2014 and these reflected positive growth in the number of customers and revenue in Africa.

According to the numbers Millicom's customer quota grew by 24% to reach 25.3million last year, while mobile money customers increased by 50% to 6.1 million. Revenue reached $1bn for the first time.

By the company's own admission, the journey to reach this point has not been plain sailing. Twelve years ago, the Company asked a few tough questions about its ability to handle challenging markets including Africa.

Against a backdrop of declining stock markets and uncertainty in investor confidence, a quote from the Annual Report 2002 read, "We are not assured of achieving or maintaining profitability in the future, nor are we sure that we will always have sufficient resources to make payments on our indebtedness."

A lot has changed. Today, Millicom, via its Tigo operations and brand, has grown and has established a solid presence in key regions in Africa including Chad, DRC, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania.

The Company has identified growth opportunity from increased usage of mobile voice services and mobile broadband using 3G mobile infrastructure, as well as opportunity stemming from Africa's low internet penetration rate.

The plan is to expand access to data services and strengthen offerings to help reinforce mobile as the established means of going online in Africa.

To this end - and in order to improve its market position, management has confirmed the company's daily investment of over $1m.

"...to take advantage of the significant economic and population growth in our markets, the relatively low mobile saturation, the strong appetite for digital services and appealing products and bundles," says Arthur Bastings, Millicom's executive vice-president for Africa.

This investment is also directed at developing the Company's networks to ensure more mobile customers are able to access data services.

Reflecting on the annual results, Bastings says the increase in new customers was specifically driven by Tanzania and the DRC, which resulted from the company's focus on expanding its network footprint, launching new offers and reducing churn.

At the same time Millicom places a premium on understanding the consumer and tailoring services for local markets Bastings continues. "The most successful digital businesses predict the trends and prepare for these. We also help new customers get started."

Another important part of the strategy is to retain focus on the development of mobile money.

Contrary to what some analysts have suggested, it has been Millicom's experience that West Africa – much like East Africa - is strong in terms of growth in mobile money.

Bastings says the Company has witnessed strong growth in DRC, Ghana, Congo and Senegal. "In Chad our active user base grew over 100% in 2014 and in the same period in Ghana our mobile money revenues grew 179%, whilst in DRC our active user base grew fourfold."

Mobile access to the Net

One of the main business drivers that the Company has been able to monetise is mobile access to the Net and the data requirements in particular. "More and more of our users are taking data packages thanks to $40 smartphones and intelligent bundling. Expanding access to data services is one of our key priorities in Africa," Bastings continues.

He believes social networks and also digital lifestyle services like news and entertainment, along with competitively-priced handsets, is driving up demand for data plans.

Services and offerings have a strong leaning towards local content.

"In Africa our customers can look forward to homegrown solutions that will encourage digital takeup with light data-efficient apps and bite-size packaged content featuring local language. Tigo Tanzania recently became the first mobile money service to offer returns on customer balances, redefining how consumers use their mobile wallets. There will be more of that to come," Bastings adds.