MTN unveils African API marketplace to unlock the continent’s fast-growing API industry

MTN is extending its digital strategy with the launch of a new pan-African API marketplace called Chenosis that will enable developers and businesses to discover and subscribe to what will become the largest library of open APIs published on the continent.

Chenosis will enable developers to tap into a broad spectrum of API products and services from across the continent, ranging from telecommunications, e-health, e-government, IoT, fintech, e-commerce, identity and authentication, payments and collections, location and more, from a single marketplace.

“Chenosis is a separate brand and entity, and will have an arms-length relationship with MTN so that it remains open to all mobile network operators, fintech start-ups, payment service providers, mobile wallet operators, financial service providers, and more,” says Charles Molapisi, MTN Group Chief Technology and Information Officer.

The Chenosis Marketplace allows businesses and developers to publish their APIs so that other developers can discover and consume them. The marketplace also provides the tools for publishers to monetise and promote their APIs, by creating subscription plans and product bundles that developers and businesses can purchase. The Chenosis Marketplace portal has dashboards for publishers and consumers to track revenue and credit balances, view consumption analytics and API performance and lots more.

The power of the platform will be in the creation of mashup APIs which will connect cross-industry APIs and facilitate innovation and the ability to build new services and new business models. Mashups are new product and service orchestrations created by developers from two or more existing APIs.

“We have exciting pan-African and international partnerships lined up to publish and monetize their APIs in the marketplace over the coming months,” says Molapisi. “These partnerships will enable Chenosis to become the largest and most diverse developer ecosystem on the African continent.”

“This is one of the ways in which MTN is investing in the emergence of an open African API ecosystem that is powered by African ingenuity and innovation,” he adds.