Innovation is one of those words that everyone has to say. It’s always a good thing when it’s disrupting others but not if it upsets your own carefully prepared apple cart. Russell Southwood looks at how innovation in Africa’s banking industry compares to the continent’s mobile industry and what the MNOs might do.

We have provided a steady stream of coverage looking at how Africa’s mobile operators have involved themselves in innovation and start-ups, most recently: Africa’s three major mobile operators now have a digital playbook – highlighting the continent’s digital services sector:

The interesting thing is that almost all of this innovation is not in their core business streams. You can argue that for those who have more developed m-money revenues that there is potential innovation impact through Fintech start-ups. But almost without exception there are no start-ups seeking to explore how the traditional core mobile business model might be recast for a digital future.