Simba Partners With MTN Uganda For ’23 Plans

Simba Group, a local telecommunication devices, and airtime solutions provider, on Monday 9 January 2023, confirmed plans to enhance its market presence and effectiveness by improving its retail distribution capacity.

The Simba Group operating subsidiary, which is also integrated telecommunications firm MTN’s lead distribution partner, is investing about $1,000,000 in a strategic distribution enhancement program geared at reaching wider geographical zones and ultimately improving speed to market.

While confirming the firm’s strategic plan, at Simba Head office in Kampala, to facilitate last-mile access, acquisition, and delivery of telecommunication products and services, Simba Telecom Chief Executive Officer Flora Kaheru said:

“The firm has invested in human resources to cover key markets in a bid to enhance technology penetration in Uganda. Simba Telecom,” she assured, “is focusing heavily on removing barriers affecting the acquisition of quality mobile devices and convenient access to MTN Mobile Money Services to boost customer experience.”

Ms. Kaheru added that the firm’s retail enhancement program will complement recent network expansion efforts by MTN to the far-flung South Western parts of Uganda, including Mbarara, Isingiro, Ishaka, Ntungamo, Ibanda, Rubindi, Rushere, and Kabale towns.

Alongside human capital investments, Simba Telecom, she added, has commissioned a new fleet of service vans to be deployed in the South Western Uganda region.

“The vans will provide comprehensive customer experience services, including SIM Card sales, Sim swaps, mobile handset, and MTN Mobile Money and airtime sales, among other solutions”, she added.

In addition, Ms. Kaheru said the new year heralds a new dawn for Simba Telecom in their quest to deliver quality distribution services for MTN customers.

“We are on a corporate journey to remodel our business approach by placing the customer first through enhanced retail access solutions,” Ms. Kaheru further said.

Established in 1998, Simba Telecom is the biggest mobile phone retailer in East Africa, with over 100 retail outlets, and is also the largest airtime distributor in the region. Simba Telecom was the launch distribution partner for the South African telecoms network MTN in Uganda, having built a formidable distribution network across the country.

Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) Q2 2022 market performance report, reveals that networks connected more than one million new gadgets in the three months ending June 2022.

The report covering the quarter starting April to June 2022 points out that this growth brought the total number of connected devices to 36.1 million, up from 35 million at the end of March 2022.

Considering a year-on-year comparison, connected devices have grown by 4 million between June 2021 and June 2022 – a 12 percent growth rate. Consistent with earlier device trends, 40 percent of all new terminals were smart gadgets, while feature and basic phones accounted for 60 percent of all network-connected devices.

As of June 2022, the total number of internet-enabled gadgets connected to the networks stood at 10.9 million compared to 25 million feature phones and basic phones.