Category: Spotlight stories
Millions of people on the continent have been excluded from financial services. However, with technology and innovative business models, we have simplified access to financial services.
Consider an ambitious woman who lives in a remote part of Zambia. She runs a small business, and starts using mobile money to accept payments from customers. With that same mobile money platform, she starts to send funds to family members in other parts of the country, paying for emergencies, health care and everything else her family may need. She may be hundreds of kilometres away, but her family still needs her, and she is able to meet their needs because of the technology in her pocket. Using mobile money to pay for her daughter’s school fees saves the woman from queuing to pay bills, buying her more time to increase her business revenue. When the sun sets, she uses mobile money to access solar power solutions so she can turn the lights on and keep going. And when she is ready to take her business to new heights, it is through mobile money that she can access a micro loan because mobile money has given her a financial history. This financial stability leads to stability in her business and in her home.
MTN now has 30 million active mobile money subscribers in 14 countries on the continent.
The range of solutions to close the financial services gap in the markets in which we operate requires partnerships with financial services providers, regulatory authorities, other mobile network operators, merchants, distributors, innovators and business associations. It is through working with our partners that MTN now has 30 million active mobile money subscribers in 14 countries on the continent – this has significantly improved the economic and social well-being of millions of Africans.
How Mobile Money Affects Social and Financial Inclusion
The World Bank defines social inclusion as the process of improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society. Participation in society comes in three forms; markets, services and spaces. Markets, specifically, refer to labour, housing and credit. Mobile money is giving unbanked people in Africa the opportunity to participate in local and global markets. When wages are paid digitally to a mobile wallet, people with no traditional ‘paper trail’ suddenly have a digital trail and proof that they are able to earn and spend, and most importantly, save. Creating or growing a business becomes a reality, because money can safely be put aside for future investments. Eventually, that growing business requires staff to operate and continue growing. So jobs are created, and the community benefits.
This is not the story of one woman who wanted to grow a business. It is the story of millions of people in Africa on a journey to financial transformation. We estimate that MTN Mobile Money has contributed to the creation of 400 000 jobs across the company’s footprint. If you’d like to read about the ripple effect of this phenomenon, click here.
References:
OECD Library – Africa’s Development Dynamics 2018
The World Bank – Social Inclusion in Africa
If you want to see what the digital divide looks like, look at the children.
There are children who seem to be born with an iPad in their hands, and there are those who will not have access to a computer until they reach a certain grade at school. Both groups will grow up in a digital world, and both groups have a great chance of thriving in the digital world if they are provided with the skills, tools and mentoring required to become great at anything.
By investing in the digital education of children in Africa and the Middle East, we are levelling the playing field and preparing our youth to become innovators in the digital world.
How is a student meant to excel in a digital world when they have limited or zero access to computers and connectivity?
This is why part of MTN’s CSI funds are used to equip educational institutions with the digital tools needed to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of advancing the quality of education (UN SDG 4).
In Benin, where access to textbooks is limited, the MTN Benin Foundation created 50 digital classes for 50 schools. Digital literacy training was provided to the facilitators managing the classes, along with a donation of 1000 laptops and the necessary connectivity. Now, more than 15 000 students and 100 teachers have access to the learning materials required for a good education.
E-libraries, online journals and other digital learning and research materials not only fill the gap where physical books are lacking, they also give learners the opportunity to make technology the foundation of their education. Other initiatives include the donation of a digital library to an orphanage in Afghanistan, where 200 children now have access to 3000 e-books. In Ghana, MTN donated an ICT centre for university students who required online research materials. The centre benefits 10 000 learners and the lecturers at the university. Over the years, we have established more than 925 computer labs and ICT facilities, because we believe that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life.
MTN Ghana constructed a 24 unit classroom block which benefits 10 000 learners every year.
There is no point in introducing a school to computers when the school’s classrooms are dilapidated, so MTN first ensures that those without the basics get the help they need. Through a programme MTN established called Y’ello Schools, the MTN Cameroon Foundation has constructed 31 classrooms, and installed 16 potable water points, to improve the learning conditions of at least 16 400 students and 154 teachers. In Uganda, partnering with an initiative called Promoting Equality in African Schools, the Foundation has played a major role in constructing 10 schools.
By donating and installing smart boards in schools and computers in media centres, children in Africa get the chance to innovate just like those in developed countries. By working together, we are levelling the playing field, so that learners in Africa have the foundation required to innovate and bring real transformation to the continent.
In Africa, we want to be part of the creation of a digital world, where technology underpins everything we do.
To get there, we start by finding ways to overcome our own unique challenges. Where stumbling blocks are too high, we weave a path around them. We get there, but our route is different to the route the rest of the world takes. The African approach to going digital can be seen in the way we handle healthcare.
The African approach to going digital can be seen in the way we handle healthcare.
It is no secret that medical care in Africa is not as accessible as it is on neighbouring continents. It is also no secret that Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Our approach to going digital is mobile, because mobile works for us. According to the GSMA’s 2019 report on the Mobile Economy of Sub-Saharan Africa, half of the population will subscribe to mobile services by 2025. For this reason, we implement and support digitally-driven healthcare initiatives as part of our contribution towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of achieving good health and well-being. Part of the R1 Billion MTN has invested in various CSI initiatives since 2001 goes toward making mobile healthcare in Africa possible.
In Cameroon, for example, a solution was required to reduce the time it takes to diagnose HIV in new-born babies. Early infant diagnosis is crucial to the success of treatment for babies born with HIV. The MTN Cameroon Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative worked together to create the SMS Printer for Life project. The solution ensures that results are delivered on the same day as the test, by transmitting information between laboratories and health facilities instantly. MTN’s coverage in Cameroon enables the connectivity for results to be sent via text message to a printer at a clinic, and to the phones of the infants’ caregivers. HIV positive babies can therefore be enrolled in a treatment program as soon as possible. Since the initiative was launched, more than 11 800 lab results have been delivered and 700 healthcare facilities in the country currently use the solution.
Approximately 10,000 nursing students have benefited from 10 multimedia centres in South Africa.
As technology continues to make a positive impact on the medical field, it becomes essential for those working in healthcare to be digitally savvy. In South Africa, MTN piloted a programme at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital to provide digital tools to nurses in training. Since the programme began in 2014, 10 multimedia centres have been installed at nurse training institutions. These multimedia centres feature computers and printers, smart boards and internet connections, and has benefited approximately 10 000 nursing students. The students now have access to online learning materials which would otherwise have been difficult, and sometimes impossible, to come by.
Lecturers and students are also provided with computer literacy training, so that everyone at the institution can benefit. Lecturers are now taking a digital approach to updating curricula and teaching resources, as well as conducting research and grading student assessments. The digitization of the work has made a great impact on the student nurses, so much so that the institution’s pass rate has gone from below 65% to 94% in the years that MTN has become involved in their digital needs.
By taking a digital approach to healthcare challenges in Africa, we are working toward making the continent’s population healthier, so that they can become unstoppable!