Zain Nigeria has won a global award in London, the United Kingdom, for introducing a rural telephone micro franchise programme, aimed at empowering rural people to communicate and create wealth and employment
The company got the global recognition in the "Emerging Markets Expansions Innovation award" category with its Rural Acquisition Initiative (RAI), beating competition from other big players in the international telecom industry.
The organizers of the award explained that Zain’s RAI which was first introduced on a pilot scale in the South East region of Nigeria in 2006 followed by a national rollout in 2008 is the first of such an approach to serve rural consumers in Africa.
Also, Zain Group, the leading telecommunications company in Africa and the Middle East, won the Global Telecoms Business Wireless network infrastructure innovation award for ‘One Network’, the world’s first borderless or roaming free mobile telecoms network service.
The awards were presented in a glittering ceremony at the Sheraton Park Lane hotel in London, to the architects of the most innovative projects in the global telecom industry. The ceremony which was organised by Global Telecom Business attracted many high profile players in the industry.
Zain RAI which is targeted at low income consumers in most rural and poorest parts of Nigeria is a massive but still under-tapped market centres on an innovative micro-franchising plan for base stations management. The telecom franchise programme initiative is designed to involve rural residents in base station management and distribution programme, creating jobs, wealth, and improved products and services availability in the process.
Franchisees selected for the programme are the drivers of the programme as local entrepreneurs and in turn recruit representatives from their locality to sell services and protect local base station at the centre of their area. They are given necessary technical, marketing, sales and financial support by Zain to help grow their businesses.
Lars Stork, chief operating officer, Zain Nigeria, said that RAI demonstrates the company’s commitment to empowering the 50% of Nigerians who live and work in rural communities to communicate and boost their businesses.
According to him the award is an acknowledgement of the success of the programme which has brought about sustainable job creation, local wealth generation, and improved availability of Zain’s products and services as well as reduction in security threat by unemployed youths in many local communities.
On the other hand, ‘One Network’, the world’s first borderless mobile telecoms network service was adjudged a ground breaking innovation and hence deserving of the award.
Zain ‘One Network’ service reduces the cost of making telephone calls by allowing customers to communicate freely across geographical borders and continents without roaming call surcharges and without having to pay to receive incoming calls wherever they travel in the 16 countries that currently participate in Zain’s One Network. In addition the customers are able to top up their prepaid accounts with airtime purchased from more than 1 million sales outlets in any of the countries in which One Network is operational.
In acknowledgement, Dr Saad Al Barrak, Zain chief executive officer, said the the award is testament to the considerable investment and commitment to a project that connects customers across the many countries in which Zain operates. "The GTB Innovation Award also honours those whose hard work has gone into the One Network initiative, which delivers on our promise to provide unique and innovative products and services for Zain customers," he said.
