Tigo Tanzania showcases innovative services at the GSMA M360 Conference

Speaking at the just-ended Global System Mobile Association (GSMA) Mobile 360-Africa Conference held on 26th-28th July 2016 at the Julius Nyerere International Conference Centre in Dar es Salaam, Tigo General Manager, Diego Gutierrez cited the telecom’s core social priorities as digital inclusion, education and business entrepreneurship.

“At Tigo, creating positive change is part of our DNA as we bring the digital lifestyle to our customers and communities”, Gutierrez said adding

Gutierrez explained that in the current fast-changing dynamics in the mobile telecom industry, there was a need to change the goal-posts through innovation and synergy to leverage diverse models of doing business.

The Tigo boss also reiterated the company’s pioneering role in localizing digital content and offering zero-rated products and services that are meant to transform the lives of its customers.

In a keynote debate entitled, “Creating Opportunities for Local Digital Content”, the General Manager said, “Tigo was the first telecom in Tanzania to introduce free Facebook and affordable Smartphones whose interfaces are fully embedded in Kiswahili, the country’s national language so as to open the doors to our customers to access our products and services in a language they can easily understand”.

On his part, Tigo Tanzania Head of Mobile Financial Services, Ruan Swanepoel stressed on leveraging the mobile money ecosystem through a market-driven approach that incorporates all players in the telecom industry.

Giving an example of interoperability where different mobile money providers can conduct cross-network services, Swanepoel said through the new ‘NitigoPesa’ campaign, customers from across all mobile networks in the country can seamlessly send and receive money to any Tigo customer through its secure and convenient Tigo Pesa service.

“All other financial mobile money networks will be able to transact to Tigo Pesa through buying and paying from our widest network of Tigo Pesa merchants that are spread all over the country”, Swanepoel told the media on the sidelines of the GSMA event.

Shavkat Berdiev, Tigo CCO, re-affirmed the company’s commitment to continue contributing in closing the mobile gender gap to the underprivileged women in Tanzania through the provision of mobile phones and supporting income-generating micro-finance schemes that target low-income women in a program dubbed, ‘Connected Women Project’.

“Tigo has already set the pace in contributing to closing the mobile gender gap by providing 400 mobile phones and training on mobile phone use to needy women in Kilwa and Rufiji Districts in the Coastal Region in Tanzania. This is a deliberate move by our company to open up the barriers to both access and use of mobile phones such as cost, cultural issues and low levels of digital literacy”, Berdiev told the media at the conference.

According to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, women could bring in an extra $170 billion in revenue to the telecommunications industry by 2020 if their contribution to the sector is fully exploited through bridging the mobile gender gap.

Through Connected Women Commitment initiative, Tigo Tanzania is among other 75 operators that plan to tackle the many barriers that hinder women from owning mobile phones.