Partnership to turn 4,000 women in Ghana, others into mobile money entrepreneurs
Operators of Tigo, Millicom International Cellular together with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women have formed a public-private partnership to help women in Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda.
The partnership is to foster women’s entrepreneurship in these countries which are said to have the fast growing African mobile financial services industry.
“This public-private partnership will provide over 4,000 women throughout Tanzania, Ghana and Rwanda with support and training to set up a business as a Tigo Mobile Money agent, contributing to financial inclusion for themselves and thousands of other people,” the three said in a joint statement issued December 18, 2012.
The partnership is for a period of 18 months and “the women involved will have access to 12-month working capital loans for their mobile money businesses distributed through Millicom’s mobile financial services platform.”
The women will also benefit from business skills training on financial literacy which will be an important component of the training curriculum, according to officials.
They hoped that having more women agents will increase the number of women who benefit from mobile services.
The statement quoted USAID Chief Innovation Officer, Maura O’Neill, as saying “The components of this partnership are ground-breaking, and we are excited to watch them unfold for the benefit of women and their families in Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana.”
“Women entrepreneurs stand to gain a great deal from selling mobile money products. Setting up mobile sales provides additional household income and the opportunity for these women to be financially independent,” said Cherie Blair.
Adding his comment, Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO for Millicom said the initiative will deliver financial literacy and business development training for the women entrepreneurs to support them in managing their mobile money agent business.
By Ekow Quandzie