Nokia Brings Ovi Life Tools to Africa's Largest Mobile Market, Nigeria

Today, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced the launch of its Ovi Life Tools service on the market in Nigeria, the largest mobile market in Africa, and also one of Africa's fastest growing economies.

According to Nokia, the Ovi Life Tools services already proved successful in markets like Indonesia, India and China. The service counts a number of over 6.3 million users globally, Nokia announced.

With Ovi Life Tools, users receive information on various domains that interests them, including healthcare, agriculture, education and entertainment.

According to Nokia, the service is expected to help people “improve their economic prosperity and quality of life.”

At the same time, the company notes that promoting this type of services is a key part of its strategy to connect the next billion people through providing them with access to the services that are relevant to them.

“This is another important milestone for Nokia as we continue to expand our services in emerging markets,” Nokia's head of Mobile Phone Services, Dieter May, said.

“Farmers will be able to check market prices without travelling long distances, people will be able to find important information to stay healthy and students will be able to learn English and improve their general knowledge at their own pace. All of this on easy-to-use and affordable mobile phones.”

Starting today, people in Nigeria will benefit from access to various services and info straight from their mobile phones.

The list of available services includes:

Healthcare services: Mother and childcare, health & fitness and disease information.
Agriculture services: Market prices, news & advice and weather.
Education services: Learn English, acquire general knowledge and access exam results.
Entertainment services: Football results, music, news alerts, horoscopes and jokes.

Nokia's Ovi Life Tools arrives in Nigeria on handsets like the Nokia 2690 and on the Nokia C1-01, and should be made available via two wireless carriers in the country, Zain/Airtel and Glo Mobile.

According to Nokia, the service will be made available “at the affordable price of NGN 250 (EUR 1.25) for the agriculture service and NGN 200 (EUR 1) per month for all other subscriptions.”

More devices to support it will be announced in the future. The service will be available in three languages, namely English, Hausa and Pidgin English.