Unexpected miracle: vodafone's ultrasound programme delivers more than expected

Her decision turned out to be

“When I got to the health centre, I was registered and given a sheet and number,” Dora said. “The midwives gave education on the four-star diets. I was then ushered into the scan room where I had my scan done. I saw my baby, and the report was given to me. We

However, just minutes after receiving her scan, Dora began experiencing cramps in her abdomen. The midwives who were present quickly assessed ed. They rushed her to the ward where, shortly after, she gave birth to a bouncing baby which aims to make the benets of digital society accessible to all. The provision of free ultrasounds is a step towards addressing the needs of pregnant, underserved women while harnessing the power of portable, life-saving technology.

Patricia Obo-Nai, CEO of Vodafone Ghana, emphasised the importance of partnerships in accelerating access to digital healthcare in Ghana, saying, “We believe that no woman should die during childbirth, and we are committed to leveraging technology to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality rates in Ghana.” villages across the country can access free mobile ultrasound services. To date, the programme has helped provide free ultrasound scans to over 20,000 pregnant women.

Manwuro, a 29-year-old mother of three, knows this all too well.

Living in Amanase, a remote village in the Ayensuano District of the Eastern Region, Dora had been paying GHC30 for every ultrasound scan during her pregnancy and had to travel to Suhum or Asuboi for the service. Many expectant mothers across Ghana face similar healthcare challenges.

Dora became intrigued when she heard through her community’s information centre that the programme would provide free ultrasound scan services for pregnant women in her community, and she decided to take part.

“It was like a miracle to me,” Dora says. “If not for the scan programme, I would have had to pay for transportation to the clinic, and I may have arrived late because my husband was not around.”

“They gave me all the necessary support during the programme, and I heard this was the rst time this has happened during a scan service by Vodafone,” she said happily.

This initiative is also in line with Vodafone Ghana’s “Inclusion for All” purpose pillar,

For Dora, the Rural Ultrasound Scan programme has had a signi cant impact on her life, and she recommends it to all pregnant women. “The services are free, and the sta are friendly as well,” she said. “You get answers to all your questions and get snacks after the programme.”

With initiatives like the Rural Ultrasound Scan programme, Vodafone Ghana is taking important steps to address the healthcare challenges facing underserved communities in Ghana and ensure that no mother or child is left behind.

Huawei’s FinTech 2.0 to Support Ghana’s Mobile Money, Deepen Financial Inclusion

Huawei on Thursday, March 16, 2023 delivered its position on the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications’ 2023 Mobile Technology for Development (MT4D) Conference dubbed, “Driving Digital Inclusion In The Real Economy” with its FinTech 2.0 Solution.

At the event, held at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra, Mr. Lee Maina, Head of FinTech,

Huawei Southern Africa Region indicated that, Huawei as a Global Leader in FinTech Solutions with insight on current trends in Ghana, Kenya and other Sub-Saharan countries where inclusion has heavily been driven by mobile money and its reach to the unserved and underserved, believes that: “It’s the ideal time to expand FinTech from

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Story continued from page 8 being ubiquitous to a tool used in deepening nancial inclusion to help drive value for the real economy.”

According to Mr. Lee Maina, Mobile FinTech space is entering a new phase where customer data is becoming more critical in the endeavor to authenticate, o er the most suitable services and in carrying out more precise credit assessments. “This is no longer those “nice to have” approaches but a vital cog in retaining and gaining market share in an ever-crowding industry where even new entrants are challenging established incumbents.”

In the race for ownership of the customers’ mind share, we believe the winners will be the ones that will have the most valuable, relevant, holistic and authenticated body of data that enables them to o er the most suitable services to customers, at the most suitable time and at a user speci c pricing.

For us to generate this rich data that’s scattered across di erent sectors, platforms and players, there is the need for concerted e orts from all stakeholders not only in bringing everyone online but also in collapsing our approach to technology from Silo based to layer based where information is easily shared. Huawei’s FinTech 2.0 seeks to bridge this gap created by fragmentation by bringing this layered approach not just to FinTech Technology but also in the upselling of ideal services where the personalized proposition for each user deepens based on our understanding of each customers habits and needs.

As a world-leading ICT enterprise, Our Vision and Mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected and intelligent world. With Fintech 2.0, we continue to invest heavily in FinTech research and innovation, supporting players in the FinTech space to create end to end solutions that will bring the value chains online, basically seeking to solve some of the persistent problems they may be having beyond payments.

That way, we remove any lethargies to adoption extending their resilience, ultimately generating the required data to extend services & drive localized innovation and ensuring e cient deployment of capital and resources.

For the Ghanaian market, Huawei has deployed its

Finance and payments cloud as part of its FINTECH 2.0 strategy which boasts micro loan, buy now pay later, shoppers’ loan, overdraft, savings, Super apps with mini apps etc. allowing FinTechs in Ghana to enjoy them on SAAS (Software As A Service) mode with minimal investment whiles o ering them the exibility to localize the solutions and utilize the local developer ecosystem for scale & support via a low code/no code developer platform.

Its estimated that Ghana has over 20K developers and the local universities add approximately 1K new developers into the job market annually. It’s not viable to absorb all these talents in the current job environment nor will all the surplus have an equal stab at entrepreneurship, it is therefore prudent to devise a sustainable way to accommodate them into our FinTech strategy and ecosystem and they will play a vital role not only in scaling our services to the longtail customer segments but also in driving local innovations. Huawei Low code/no code developer solution empowers FinTechs to achieve this vision.

“We have deployed our FinTech in more than 40 sites globally which is currently serving more than 400M customers, so It’s not just Technology but our ability to package all this best practice learnings from other successful sites and bring that success DNA to your project to ensure faster time to revenue. Huawei seeks partnerships in Ghana with like-minded organizations to deepen nancial inclusion”, - Lee Maina –Huawei Head of FinTech, Southern Africa region.

About MT4D Conference Mobile Technology for Development is an event that provides the platform for stakeholders within the nancial, technology and development sector to converge at a single location to share ideas, exhibit solutions and take stock of innovations in payments, deposit, credit, remittance and insurance, and build partnerships for enhanced e ort towards nancial inclusion in Ghana. Through the insights and perspectives shared policy ideas is formulated to in uence policies on nancial inclusion.

The event is the largest gathering of Fintech players, innovators, regulators, investors, big techs, developmental communities, and several other players in Africa and from across the globe.

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