[caption id="attachment_5674" align="alignnone" width="300"] Mr. Eli Hini, General manager for mobile money financial services at MTN Ghana[/caption]

The Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) would be establishing a standard forensic laboratory for the Ghana Police Service to enhance investigations, evidence collection and authentication as the country dream of controlling crime and other related social vices.

The Company would also train 100 physically challenged in the MoMo Business and set them up to economically empower them.

Mr. Eli Hini, the General Manager for Mobile Money Transactions of the MTN said building the laboratory "Is our way of saying thank you to the Service for their massive support in curbing crimes and fraudulence that has become a major challenge in the Momo sector".
Though fraudsters continued to scheme to outwit, dupe and make the Momo industry unattractive to some members of society, arrest of these miscreant, continuous education on safe keeping of pin numbers by subscribers and the support of the Ghana Police have largely contributed to its successes over the last ten years.

Mr. Hini at the launch of the 10th anniversary in Takoradi, under the theme: "MoMo @10, Making life Simple" said it was to celebrate a decade of innovation and most transformational technological innovations that had been introduced in country.

"Mobile Money, MoMo, as we all call now, has come to make life simple and comfortable for most people. It is not an exaggeration when I say that MoMo has impacted the lives of millions of Ghanaians across the country", he added.

He expressed gratitude to key stakeholders, customers and regulators especially, the Bank of Ghana for working with the company to grow the Mobile Money service into a buoyant financial sector.

Mr Hini noted that MoMo service begun with MTN’s desire to get the Mobile phone to go beyond the ordinary, "we officially launched the service on July 21st 2009 with the Governor. The beginning was very slow and extremely difficult because what we had introduced was not just a breakthrough in technology – it was also going to break the sociology of how money is used and exchanged."

He mentioned that decade down the line; MoMo had become the foremost payment system in the country with 14 million subscribers and 18 partner banks.

Currently, MoMo run transactions from international partners and have forged partnerships with Visa, Google, Western Union, and Mastercard.

Beyond financial inclusion, the introduction of Mobile Money into the Ghanaian payment system had created employment for thousands of people.

The Manager said as of the end of May this year, the number of active Mobile Money agents in the Western Region stood at 24,500.

MTN MoMo set a world record – during the launch of MTN’s Initial Public Offer, which allowed people to buy shares using MoMo.

"While we celebrate the achievements made over the past decade, we do not lose sight of the challenges that face us in the Mobile Money sector...there are still concerns about fraud activities. We continue to call on everyone to constantly educate friends and families to be extra vigilant in protecting their Mobile Money wallets.” he added.

DSP Olivia Adiku, Regional Police PRO advised the market women to endeavour to memorize their pin code and never to make it public to any third party as it had become the only means for fraudsters to thrive.

Source: GNA

MTN Ghana, as part of its “Y’ello Care” Staff Volunteering programme, on Thursday trained young entrepreneurs on how to use digitisation and social networks to grow their businesses.

The training programme aimed at enlightening start-ups to know the advantages of using social networks such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, and LinkedIn to communicate and serve customers.

Mr Dario Bianchi, a Digital Consultant with MTN Ghana, who made a presentation on Digital Marketing, said digitisation helped businessmen and women to talk to their customers whenever necessary.

Utilising digital tools in businesses, he said, helped business actors to know exactly how much was the return on market investment, test an idea, and get feedback from hundreds of customers in less than 48 hours.

He noted that it could also help businesses to measure any step of the customer’s journey such as his or her loyalty, awareness and consideration of a product, and how much he or she was willing to advocate for a brand.

“All companies’ goal is to make their customers advocate or recommend their products to others and it doesn’t matter what you do or how much your budget is, you need to know who your customer is,” he said.

“If you know your customers, it is easier to find sustainable ways to drive growth.”

Currently the country has 10.32 million active internet users making 35 per cent of the entire population, he said.

The total number of active mobile internet users in the country is 9.37 million, which constituted a percentage of 31 per cent of the total population, and that explained why businesses needed to reach many of their customers through the internet to drive growth, Mr Bianchi said.

He advised companies to conduct simple surveys to know how customers felt about their products as well as the uniqueness of their services, which other companies lacked.

The Digital Consultant advised businesses to always satisfy the customer, welcome change, deliver frequently, work together, trust and support each other in the organisation to drive growth.

Usually businesses focused on introducing new products, thereby, ignoring the quality of existing products, which was a threat to the growth of the organization, he said.

He, therefore, called on the entrepreneurs to pay attention to improving their existing products in order not to lose their loyal customers.

“You can’t ignore complaints from your customers. You need to manage negative comments well to get positive feedback.”

Source: GNA

Nokia and the Finnish National Committee for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and UNICEF Kenya have launched a shared-value partnership during this year's Nairobi Innovation Week, to increase equitable access to digital literacy for some of the most disadvantaged children in Kenya. This includes girls and children with disabilities in urban informal settlements and some of the most remote areas of Kenya.

"Children are the leaders of the future, so we are excited to work with UNICEF and the Government to connect schools in remote areas to inspire tomorrow's leaders in Kenya. We are committed to using our technologies to meet the goals of sustainable development worldwide,” said Joachim Wuilmet, Nokia's head of Marketing and Communications, Middle East and Africa.

The partnership between Nokia and UNICEF Kenya brings together stakeholders from the Government of Kenya's Ministries of Education and ICT, as well as the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), children, teachers, content providers and mobile network operators in Kenya, to address challenges and unlock opportunities for digital learning and literacy.

“We are proud to have contributed to the development of the first Accessible Digital Textbook with support from the UNICEF Innovation Fund and Nokia. This is a major step in furthering inclusive education through innovative technology for children in Kenya and beyond," Maniza Zaman, Representative of UNICEF in Kenya said.

As an initial step, the Accessible Digital Textbook with special features for children, with hearing, visual and intellectual disabilities, has successfully been piloted in schools during the first quarter of 2019 and will be launched by the Government of Kenya later this month.

"With technical and financial support provided by UNICEF and active participation of children with disabilities, KICD has successfully produced the first accessible digital textbook for children in Grade 1, contributing to equitable access to digital literacy. This textbook provides quality digital content for children with disabilities on the Digital Literacy Project devices,” Dr. Julius Jwan, CEO of KICD said.

Scaling-up of internet connectivity in schools is planned to allow students to access quality digital learning materials that are aligned to the new competency-based curriculum and approved by the Government of Kenya.

Source: Telecompaper.com

[caption id="attachment_5658" align="alignnone" width="300"] Manufacturing firms need to invest in technology to drive innovation – AirtelTigo Chief Business Officer[/caption]

The Chief Business Officer of AirtelTigo Business, Ms Ethel Anamoo has urged manufacturing companies in the country to invest in new technology now to drive innovation that will shape the future of manufacturing and avoid falling behind global competitors.

According to her, the use of new technology will create efficiency in operational processes and drives cost-effectiveness in business activities to meet the demands and sustain growth.

Ms Anamoo made this known while speaking at the maiden edition of the Ghana Manufacturers Business Summit in Accra, under the theme: “Achieving Growth Turnaround in Manufacturing: The Role of Government.”

The summit brought together stakeholders in the sector to deliberate on issues of business growth, investments challenges confronting the sector and ways to achieve progressive productivity. “In a globalized world, staying at the sharp end has never been more important. I believe that investing in technology will drive innovation in the industry. It also sustains growth and meets demand,” she said.

She explained that AirtelTigo Business recognises the positive value and impact of technology on businesses and is focused on providing connectivity solutions for all industries, including the manufacturing sector to enable them to achieve profitability.

“Our connectivity solutions cover not only Ghana but span across Africa as we also leverage the infrastructure of our two parent companies – Bharti Airtel and Millicom,” adding that AirtelTigo has developed a wide range of solutions such as mobile solutions, fixed lines, internet connectivity and hosting services among others.

She emphasized that as a total communications provider, AirtelTigo partners’ businesses at every stage while providing tailored solutions for their specific needs to grow and remain profitable considering the changing trends.

Source: AirtelTigo