AIRTEL KENYA

w w w . a F R I C A o u t l o o k m a g . c o m

A i r t e l

K e n y a

Airtel connects families, communities and individuals

w

w

w

.

a

f

r

i

c

a

.

a

i

r

t

e

l

.

c

o

m

A i rte l

K enya

K E N Y A ’ S

Telecom E X P E R T S

2

www.aFRICAoutlookmag.com

T

e

c

h

n

o

l

o

g

A year on and Airtel Kenya continue to grow from strength to strength, paving the way for other mobile operators by providing affordable, modern and innovative mobile solutions to all Writer Emily Jarvis Project Manager Donovan Smith

y

he year 2014 has been a busy one for Airtel’s operations in Kenya. From advances in its Airtel Money payment system, to a partnership with Facebook that offers free internet to users, the company continues to be driven by the vision of providing affordable and innovative mobile services to suit all. “Mobile phones are changing the way that many people live and work in Kenya.

They make business easier and more efficient, help families and communities to stay in touch and individuals to feel connected,” says Adil El Youssefi, Airtel Kenya’s new CEO. “It is our job to use our expertise in telecoms to help improve the lives of Kenyans and bring prosperity to our country.”

Airtel Money VISA Card

2014 has been a big year for Airtel Money developments in Kenya. Not only has the company launched a cross-border money transfer service pilot in November, but a new partnership with Visa & Chase Bank promises Airtel Money subscribers an Airtel Money Visa card. “The card allows Airtel money subscribers to withdraw money from their Airtel Money accounts from more than 1.8 million Visa ATM’s worldwide, and shop and pay for goods and services using Airtel Money at more than 30 million visa accepted merchant stores worldwide,” says Youssefi.

“It is our job to use our expertise in telecoms to help improve the lives of Kenyans and bring prosperity to our country According to the East Africa Community, mobile commerce is gaining importance in the region for its huge role in speeding up transactions, saving time and money for people and businesses. The introduction of more sophisticated financial services, such as credit, savings and insurance schemes through partnerships with financial service providers has positively changed the way businesses can operate in Kenya, speeding up efficiencies in key elements of regional integration.

Customers have become more interested about the efficiency and speed of their transactions and overall experience as a result.

www.aFRICAoutlookmag.com

3

A i r t e l

E

K e n y a

E ISON

F

S

ocial Media Care: What new age Consumer wants?

Customer care has now leapfrogged to a different level, considering the fact that now social media has enabled the consumer to touch base with the organization ANYWHERE and at ANYTIME. Social media has become THE most important channel of customer care.

F

E

L

D M

The statistics show that more consumers would recommend a brand that provides a quick but ineffective response than would recommend a brand that provides a slow but effective solution.

Adil El Youssefi Airtel Kenya MD & ceo

Aligning with the company’s success this year has been the appointment of Airtel Kenya’s new Managing Director and CEO, Adil El Youssefi, who has been with the telecoms giant since May 2014. He has been spearheading the consumerfocused turnaround strategy for the organisation.

With more than 13 years of experience in developing countries across Africa, Asia and Europe, Adil has strong leadership skills and a drive for achieving great things. This is coupled with a desire to positively inspire success in people and organisations.

Adil has an MBA from INSEAD, the Business School for the world and an MSc in Engineering from NSEIRB in France. He has experience in areas which include leadership, strategy, execution, marketing, product management, telecommunications, and consumer goods among other areas. Adil has grown companies in Chad and Ghana with a double digit Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) while ensuring their long term sustainability by focusing on market and customer understanding, devising a compelling vision, executing a winning strategy, inspiring and growing the leadership team while continuously engaging staff and other stakeholders.

He believes in open and fun communication, engagement and effective teamwork, emphasising that “nothing can be achieved without effective teamwork, leadership and a strong execution discipline”.

4

“There is a demand for not just convenience when it comes to making payment, but also efficiency. With this demand, we have to re-invent and innovate so that we can profitably meet the ever changing tastes and preferences of customers,” Youssefi comments.

DStv Partnership

This time last year, Airtel Kenya and DStv Mobile entered into a partnership which allowed Airtel subscribers to access DStv through their mobile network, using Drifta as a mobile decoder on Android phones.

“Our post-paid subscribers can now experience the best television in entertainment, free of charge,” highlights Youssefi.

Consequently, Airtel customers would not only get the chance to get their hands on the trendiest mobile devices, but also get to enjoy up to sixteen channels with three months free subscription.

Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) In April this year, the Communications Authority of Kenya licensed Mobile Pay, Finserve Africa and Zioncell Kenya to operate as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNOs). These

www.aFRICAoutlookmag.com

ISON helps its clients to offer social media care through a multi-pronged strategy:

C

M

Y

1. Choosing the right platform To measure & analyze social media interactions, a specialised tool needs to be deployed which can improve the manpower productivity by 45%. ISON deploys best in class tools for social media management providing greater efficiency to its clients.

2 Consumer Categorisation Different strokes for different folks.

Since every consumer is different so is his preference to use social media platforms. With right-fit hiring, focussed training & specialisation, ISON executives are capable of handling the requests for consumers across different social media platforms.

3. Real-Time Coverage ANYWHERE and ANYTIME consumer never sleeps i.e. people are looking at your updates/profile at any part of the world. We ensure that product updates, consumers’ issues which get reported first on social media platforms are responded and resolved within the specified TAT by working round the clock.

www.isonafrica.com

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

P

R

K Z

N E

D

P

R

SOC IA LM

S RIE NT OU

ENGLISH HAUSA PIDGIN ENGLISH IGBO ENGLISH KISWA ENGLISH LUGANDA RUNYAKITARA LUO SWAHILI ENGL M E G E N A T N A IN 2 DIOULA M KISWAHILI ENGLISH KINYARWANDA FRENCH M A 3 FRENCH I C FRENCH HAOUSA ZARMA ENGLISH KRIO MAL ED FRENCH ENGLISH NGAMBAYE ARABIC ENGLISH HAUSA

ENGLISH IGBO ENGLISH KISWAHILIENGLISH LUGANDA RUNY

LUO SWAHILI ENGLISH KISWAHILI ENGLISH KINYAR DIOULA MOORE FRENCH HAOUSA ZARMA ENGLISH KRIO MALAGASY FRENCH ENGLISH NGAMBAYE ARABIC ENGL PIDGIN ENGLISH IGBO ENGLISH KISWAHILI ENGLISH L RUNYAKITARA LUO SWAHILI ENGLISH KIS WAHILI ENGLISH KINYARWANDA FRENCH DIOULA MOORE FRENCH HA languages ZARMA ENGLISH KRIO FRENCH MALAGASY supported FRENCH E NORTH SUDAN

SOUTH SUDAN

NORTH SUDAN

SOUTH SUDAN

18

NGAMBAYE ARABIC ENGLISH HAUSA PIDGIN ENGLISH IGBO ENGLISH KISWAHILI ENGLISH LUGANDA RUNYAKITARA SWAHILI ENGLISH KISWAHILI ENGLISH KINYARWANDA DIOULA MOORE FRENCH HAOUSA ZARMA ENGLISH KR MALAGASY FRENCH ENGLISH NGAMBAYE ARABIC ENGL PIDGIN ENGLISH IGBO ENGLISH KISWAHILI ENGLISH LU RUNYAKITARA LUO SWAHILI ENGLISH KISWAHILI ENG KINYARWANDA FRENCH DIOULA MOORE FRENCH HAOUSA Z ENGLISH KRIO FRENCH MALAGASY FRENCH ENGLISH NG www.isonafrica.com ARABIC ENGLISH HAUSA PIDGIN ENGLISH IGBO ENGLISH K SEYCHELLES

A i r t e l

K e n y a

Pan Africa Life Assurance Limited

P

an Africa Life Assurance Limited has a rich history spanning 68 years since its inception in 1946. Pan Africa has experienced many positive changes over this period and ranks highly in the industry with a market share of 18.5% in individual life (No 2) and 24.6% in group risk (No 1) based on 2013 financials.

Kenya Airways Group CEO & MD Dr. Titus Naikuni and Airtel Africa CEO Christian de Faria exchange MOU agreement

three organisations received licenses under the “application service provider” category, which allows them to provide services such as customer registration, the issuance of SIM cards, billing and customer care. The operators will host their services on Airtel Kenya’s network.

Later in the year, Airtel opened the telecommunications and mobile commerce space in Africa with the signing of MOUs with host Africa’s leading airline, Kenya Airways as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, (MVNO) on its Kenyan Network.

The newcomers will offer customer registration, SIM cards issuance, billing and customer care. They will also be assigned their own numbering range, and will be hosted on the network.

Use of Mobile to Pay Your Taxes October 2014 saw Airtel Kenya agree to a partnership with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), which would allow Kenyan citizens the opportunity to pay their taxes via the Airtel Money service. Through the partnership, Airtel customers across the country are able inquire for KRA services, generate a KRA payment reference number and make quick and simple payments through Airtel Money, simply by dialling the short code *572#.

“The revolutionary service provides Airtel Money customers in Kenya with a convenient, flexible and time saving option for tax payment as they will no longer have to walk into KRA banking halls and queue up in order to pay their taxes,” affirms Youssefi.

Airtel Kenya Corporate Affairs Director Brand Dick Omondi and DStv Mobile General Manager Felix Kyengo display the DStv Drifta during the partnership launch.

6

www.aFRICAoutlookmag.com

Pan Africa has a solid capital base and draws experience and technical expertise from its strategic partnership with Sanlam, Africa’s second largest financial services group.

We have several partnerships including one with Airtel Kenya since 2013 where we launched Bima Mkononi (https:// panafricalife.co.ke/individual-life/bimamkononi/ ) to provide affordable life insurance entirely via one’s mobile phone.

Bima Mkononi (https://panafricalife.co.ke/ individual-life/bima-mkononi/ ) provides very flexible rates on premiums and premium payment frequency. We are now in the final stages of launching other new innovative insurance products to cater for the growing needs of the low to middle income segments that use Airtel’s vast network.

Pan Africa Life’s vision is to be the provider of choice in wealth creation and protection. Our relationship with Airtel Kenya will go a long way in augmenting our desire to realise this vision for the Kenyan insurable public.

“We are really excited at the opportunities presented by this partnership that we have forged with Airtel Kenya since it will give an opportunity to thousands of Kenyans who currently do not have any form of life insurance cover to have one at an affordable cost” - J M Muiruri – General Manager, Corporate Business T 020-2781000 E customerservice@pan-africa.com

www.pan-africa.com

Life’s been rewarding!

Upgraded to AA- from A+ by the Global Rating Company

Life Assurance | Investments | Education | Funeral | Accident & Disability | Retirement

Facebook: Pan Africa Life Assurance Ltd | Twitter @PanAfricaLife

AFRIC

YE

IF AL E

www.pan-africa.com

N

68

ISO 9001:2008

PA

Head Office | Pan Africa Life House | Kenyatta Avenue | P.O Box 44041 GPO -00100, Nairobi Tel: +254 2781000, +254 2247600, +254 2225050, +254 722206900/1, +254 733418807 | SMS: 30182 E: customerservice@pan-africa.com

ARS

A i r t e l

K e n y a

Facebook

Most recently of all, Airtel officially launched a partnership with Facebook to offer the Internet.org app to both its pre-paid and postpaid customers in Kenya. Facebook’s Internet.org app provides a set of locally relevant basic internet services free of charge in order to make it easier for people to access the internet.

“The partnership responds to the needs of our youthful customers who are in constant need to access the internet and keep in touch with events and activities at all times.”

Internet.org is a Facebook-led initiative with the goal of making the internet both affordable and increasing available access to the two thirds of the world who are not yet connected; in efforts to bring the same opportunities to everyone.

As part of Facebook’s Internet.org app in Kenya, Airtel

customers will have free access to: AccuWeather; BBC News; BBC Swahili; BabyCenter & MAMA; BrighterMonday; Daily Nation; Ebola Information; Facebook; Facts for Life; Girl Effect; Jamii Forums; Messenger; OLX; Scholars4Dev; SuperSport; Toto Health; Wattpad; Wikipedia.

Airtel in the Community

Airtel has not only strived to create a telecommunication network that is affordable and accessible to all, but has also invested heavily in terms of community capacity building through Airtel Spirit. This is in line with the Bharti philosophy of giving back to the society.

“The Airtel Spirit is the code which the brand lives by. Staff engage in sustainable community development initiatives to create lasting value that is beyond simply monetary value,” says Youssefi.

The Airtel Spirit is achieved on the strength of two pillars: 1. Education and Entrepreneurship Development Airtel identifies education as a very important area that helps in the realisation of individual and collective dreams and the development of the community. It is with this reason that the company has invested in education programmes that tap into Airtel’s technology and brand presence with the aim of enhancing the learning process in schools thus empowering the young minds for a better tomorrow.

“To foster and strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit in the youth, we use our expertise and diverse enterprise products and services to advance projects in youth ICT enterprise and small businesses,” emphasises Youssefi.

8

2. Staff in the Community Time is the most precious commodity we have. Airtel Spirit encourages a selfless giving of time on both an individual and a corporate level.

“We encourage our members of staff to take time out of their busy schedule to positively impact the community through mentorship programmes, health initiatives, environment preservation activities and disaster management.

“This makes a significant impact to both the member of staff and the people they are reaching out to, therefore passing on the Airtel spirit in a literal sense, as well as a metaphorical one,” Youssefi concludes.

www.aFRICAoutlookmag.com

ZTE Corporation

Z

TE Corporation is a globally-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions.

With operations in 160 countries, the company is a leader in technology innovation, delivering superior products and business solutions to clients all over the world. Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges and is China’s largest listed telecoms equipment company.

Offering the industry’s most comprehensive product range and endto-end solutions, ZTE delivers cuttingedge technology to telecommunications clients in wireless, access & bearer, value-added services, terminals, managed network services, and ICT solutions for enterprises and government agencies T +254 20 2731106

www.zte.com.cn

T

e

c

h

n

o

l

o

g

y

Global Success from Local Wisdom Customer Service: +254 20 2138216 http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/

www.aFRICAoutlookmag.com

9

E n q u iries Tel (UK): +44 (0) 1603 559 151 Tel (SA): +27 (0) 21 527 0053 ben.weaver@outlookpublishing.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS Tel (UK): +44 (0) 1603 559 152 matthew.staff@outlookpublishing.com

www.africaoutlookmag.com

Airtel Kenya Parkside Towers Mombasa Road Nairobi, Kenya 100 Tel: +254 734 110000 Email: customerservice@ke.airtel.com

www.africa.airtel.com