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Truecaller, a global caller-ID service provider, said today that it has signed up Cars45 – Nigeria's largest online car buying service – as its first advertising partner in West Africa, as the popular caller ID app launches mobile advertising in Africa.

The caller-ID service provider, which launched contextual advertising for brands last year using its call intent-based advertising, said brands will now be able to utilise the Truecaller app to reach more than 40 million users in Africa.

Truecaller, which has more than 250 million users worldwide, was launched by True Software Scandinavia AB in 2009. The app helps identify unknown incoming calls, and also warns against spam calls.

"We are very excited to start rolling out our highly anticipated mobile ad platform in Africa,” said Ted Nelson, Chief Commercial Officer at Truecaller. “In today's digital era where consumers spend a considerable amount of their time on their mobile devices, it's time to engage with consumers in the most concerted manner for the mobile-first community.”

Previously focused in India, the daily impression on Truecaller's ad platform has grown by over 200% during the last six months, according to the Stockholm, Sweden-headquartered company. Truecaller said its key growth markets in Africa are Nigeria – where it has seen more than five million impressions per day; and Egypt – 15 million impressions per day. Other growth markets on the continent include Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and Morocco.

“We are confident that our unique and innovative ad solutions will deliver excellent results and awareness for Brands in Africa as it already successfully has in other areas," said Nelson.

The company also said advertisers that have extended their marketing campaign on Truecaller's ad platform include Huawei, Sony, Motorola, and Lipton. Cars45 is the tech start-up’s first advertising partner in Nigeria.

"It's a great opportunity for us to roll out with Truecaller as its first advertising partners in West Africa,” said Etop Ikpe, CEO of Cars45 Nigeria. “As a young and dynamic company, we pride ourselves on being disruptors for the automotive industry. We believe it's time to change the car selling behaviour in Nigeria and West Africa at Large to compete with the international scene and we believe that Truecaller will give us the ample opportunity to target our niche market.''