Africa's Talking · FinOps Profile

Africastalking Finops

FinOps view of Africa's Talking spend. Africa's Talking is prepaid and usage-metered: an account wallet is topped up and drawn down per SMS sent, per USSD session, per Voice minute/leg, per Airtime and Mobile Data disbursement, and per Payments transaction fee. Per-unit rates vary by country and carrier and are quoted in local currency, so unit costs are not reconciled here.

Africastalking Finops is the FinOps profile for Africa’s Talking on the APIs.io network, aligned with the FinOps Foundation Framework.

It defines 7 billable meters, billed in Multi-Currency, on a prepaid cycle, and pricing category usage-based.

The profile maps 8 FOCUS columns for cost-allocation reporting.

Tagged areas include Communications, SMS, USSD, Voice, and Airtime.

Category: Communications Pricing: Usage-Based Billing: Prepaid FOCUS v1.3
CommunicationsSMSUSSDVoiceAirtimeMobile DataPaymentsAfricaFinOpsCost ManagementFOCUS

Framework Alignment

Framework
FinOps Foundation Framework
Data Spec
FOCUS v1.3

Charge Categories

UsagePurchaseAdjustment

FOCUS Columns

BillingCurrency
Local (varies by country)
ChargeCategory
Usage
InvoiceIssuerName
Africa's Talking
PricingCategory
Usage-Based
ProviderName
Africa's Talking
PublisherName
Africa's Talking
ServiceCategory
Communications
ServiceName
Africa's Talking

Meters

sms_messages
Unit: messages
SMS messages sent, billed per message at a per-country, per-carrier rate.
premium_sms_messages
Unit: messages
Premium SMS messages with revenue share, billed per message.
ussd_sessions
Unit: sessions
USSD sessions billed per session by country and short code.
voice_minutes
Unit: minutes
Voice usage billed per minute or per leg by country and direction.
airtime_value
Unit: currency
Airtime distributed, billed at face value plus carrier margin.
mobile_data_bundles
Unit: bundles
Mobile data bundles disbursed, billed per bundle by quantity and validity.
payments_transaction_fees
Unit: transactions
Payments transaction fees (percentage or flat) per mobile money transaction.

Sources