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EDISON Alliance Members Commit to 1 Billion Lives Challenge

21 September 2021

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EDISON Alliance Members Commit to 1 Billion Lives Challenge

Posted on by amogelangmaluleka
  • The EDISON Alliance, through the 1 Billion Lives Challenge, announced today it would accelerate digitally inclusive solutions for 1 billion people through harnessing commitments from governments, companies and other organisations globally.
  • The 1 Billion Lives Challenge brings together digital inclusion commitments in health, finance and education while spotlighting new financing mechanisms to accelerate the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
  • The initial wave of commitments has been made by American Tower, Apollo Hospitals, Giga, the Governments of Bangladesh and Indonesia, Mastercard, MTN, Qualcomm, Southern Communities Initiative, Tony Elumelu Foundation, University of Cape Town in South Africa, Verizon, Western Union, Women in Tech and many more to come.
  • Read more about the EDISON Alliance and the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2021

The EDISON Alliance aims to improve the lives of 1 billion people through the 1 Billion Lives Challenge by increasing affordable digital access to healthcare, finance and education by 2025. Although 85% of the world’s population lives in areas covered by 4G, only half are online. Cost, not coverage, is the critical barrier to connectivity. In low-income countries, home to 650 million people, mobile broadband is 18 times more expensive than in developed countries, as a proportion of average income.

Derek O’Halloran, Head of the Platform for Shaping the Future of Digital Economy and New Value Creation at the World Economic Forum, said: “Most of the world’s population live within the coverage of broadband infrastructure. However, the lack of relevant, affordable services means that still 47% of people cannot participate and do not benefit from the internet. This challenge is about more than infrastructure – it is about the collaboration and investment needed across different industries, governments and civil society to bring safe, meaningful services to people’s lives. Today we launch the 1 Billion Lives Challenge to catalyse the commitments and silo-breaking partnerships needed to make this happen.” 

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how critical it is to access healthcare, education and financial services online. Yet, deep inequalities persist in the affordability of digital access between least-developed and most-developed countries. The data clearly demonstrate the need for quick and decisive mobilisation of resources and commitments to closing the digital divide. With focused resources and a coordinated response, the 1 Billion Lives Challenge aims to drive change and harness businesses, organisations and governments together to reimagine a digitally inclusive future.

“As we emerge from the COVID19 pandemic, it’s never been clearer that digital accessibility, affordability and usability are critical to participate in everything from education and banking to receiving basic healthcare,” said Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO, Verizon. “Through the EDISON Alliance, we aim to create a more digitally inclusive world by connecting 1 Billion Lives to this fundamental core of our society.”

By spotlighting and accelerating concrete commitments, the 1 Billion Lives Challenge aims to:

  • Accelerate the delivery of digital services for unserved and underserved populations
  • Inspire more public commitments to digital inclusion
  • Demonstrate that universal digital inclusion is an achievable goal
  • Support Alliance organisations in the achievement of their digital inclusion goals
  • Develop global relationships and sustainable, scalable models for further impact to 2030

The three sectors of health, finance and education are key areas of focus for the EDISON Alliance. Two billion people still lack access to healthcare, 1.7 billion remain unbanked and 265 million children have no access to education. Enhancing internet access to this enormous unserved population will help ensure they are not left behind in realising their basic rights. 

“The EDISON Alliance’s 1 Billion Lives Challenge seeks to embed digital inclusion into the design of policies, infrastructure, and services to address the disproportionate impact that exclusion from the digital economy has on women and other underserved populations,” said Paula Ingabire, Minister for ICT and Innovation, Rwanda.

The Alliance supplies ongoing guidance and research on leading best practices to empower policy-makers and relevant stakeholders with mechanisms to make informed decisions and pioneer innovative ways of financing digital inclusion. These tools are key enablers to help achieve the 1 Billion Lives Challenge and include the Shared Principles for an Inclusive Financial System, the Guidebook for Digital Inclusion Bond Financing and the EDISON Navigator, an online tool currently being designed to provide users easy access to curated information on best practices and lessons learned in digital inclusion approaches. 

The 1 Billion Lives Challenge brings together leaders of global businesses, international organisations and governments who have pledged to improve a quantified number of lives through digitally inclusive services. The initial wave of existing and new commitments assembled to meet this challenge includes:

  • American Tower: American Tower is building 2,000 Digital Communities over the next five years to improve the quality of life for economically disadvantaged or underserved global communities by supporting connectivity worldwide through community education, healthcare access, financial inclusion and career development.
  • Apollo Hospitals: Apollo Remote HealthCare Intervention programs have provided health care services to about 16 million people across various projects as of July 2021. The aim and target for these programs is to impact an additional 20 million people in resource constrained communities by the year 2025, thus touching the lives of at least 36 million people.
  • Bangladesh: Digital Bangladesh, a vision of the government of Bangladesh, is creating unprecedented public-private partnerships to accelerate bottom-up socio-economic development. The initiative will connect over 5,000 rural and urban local government institution-based one-stop service centres with fibre optic by 2022 and 200,000 public facilities (including over 100,000 schools and more than 18,000 health clinics) with fibre, 4G/5G, and the country’s second satellite by 2025. A whole-of-government citizen-centric platform MyGov has been launched to simplify, decentralize and digitize 90% of G2C services by 2023, with most payments going cashless by 2025.
  • Giga:Giga is a global initiative, led by UNICEF and ITU, to connect every school to the internet and every young person to information, opportunity and choice. This translates to a goal to achieve universal school connectivity. By 2030, Giga hopes to connect 2.8 million schools and over 500 million children.
  • Indonesia: Indonesia is accelerating the development of telecommunications infrastructure to support the growth of the digital economy, aiming not only to provide more than 12,000 villages with 4G cellular networks by the end of 2022 (10 years faster than the initial plan) but also to connect 150,000 public facilities with internet access through the launch of the Satellite of Republic of Indonesia I (SATRIA I) in 2023.
  • Mastercard:Last year, Mastercard reached its five-year goal of bringing 500 million previously unbanked people into the financial system, through more than 350 innovative programmes across 80 countries. But that is not enough, especially now that a global pandemic has made the contrasts of the digital divide even more stark. Mastercard is doubling down on its original commitment, taking everything they have learned so far and reaching to bring another 500 million people into the digital economy by 2025, for a total of 1 billion individuals. It is also committing to help 50 million small and micro merchants, with a direct focus on providing 25 million women entrepreneurs with solutions that can help them grow their businesses.
  • MTN:MTN has committed to include financially 100 million people and 2 million SMEs by the end of 2025.
  • Qualcomm: By 2025, Qualcomm is committed to enrich the lives of 27 million people by continuing to bring technology to underserved communities around the world through their Qualcomm® Wireless Reach™ programme and engage 1.5 million students and teachers across the globe in their strategic STEM initiatives.
  • Southern Communities Initiative (SCI):Led by Robert F.Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners; Rich Lesser, CEO of Boston Consulting Group and Dan Schulman, President and CEO at PayPal,SCI aims to drive more investment into six southern communities in the United States that are home to half of all African Americans, reducing the digital divide in nearly four million households over the next 10 years (about 3 million households, or 9 million people, by 2025). SCI is also working to dismantle systemic inequities and the digital divide, and increasing access to education, connectivity and jobs.
  • Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF): Through the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, a $100 million commitment by leading investor and philanthropist Tony Elumelu, the foundation has empowered over 10,000 African entrepreneurs from across all 54 African countries with funding, training, mentorship and access to key networks. It is inspired by his philosophy of Africapitalism that positions the private sector, and young entrepreneurs in particular, as key players in eradicating poverty and transforming Africa. Through its TEFConnect platform, the foundation aims to support up to 10 million Africans by 2030.
  • University of Cape Town, South Africa:The universityis committed to digital inclusion in Africa. Through its “one student, one laptop” initiative, the university aims to provide 3,000 high-quality laptops every year to students on financial aid. In addition, the university’s Online High School programme aims to provide quality education to 1,000 students every year through connected, digital technologies and an open, freely available self-paced curriculum.
  • Verizon: Verizon is dedicated to economic, environmental and social advancement, and has committed $3 billion to help those who need it most across a five-year span through 2025. This includes 10 million youths provided with digital skills training by 2030, 1 million small businesses provided with resources to help them thrive in the digital economy by 2030, 100% net-zero operational emissions by 2035, 500,000 individuals prepared for jobs of the future by 2030, and $3 billion in green bond issuances (three bonds issued at $1 billion).
  • Western Union: Through the global pandemic, the international flow of remittances has remained more resilient than other private capital flows. In the post-pandemic economic rebuilding that lies ahead, there will be significant need for innovation and technology to keep financial support flowing across borders, particularly to developing countries. When this money moves fluidly, good things happen. A child goes to school, a business expands, emergency aid arrives the moment it is needed. That is why Western Union is committed to enabling 300 million people to digitally connect to the global economy through mobile wallets by 2025.
  • Women in Tech: Women in Tech is committed to empower 1 million women and girls in STEM by 2025 across 6 continents through skilling, mentorship, advocacy and community support. In addition, our social impact fully online school HER Digital Academy aims to provide 100.000 students quality education in web development programs and digital technology, building skills and confidence to best equip them for the future of work. Women in Tech is an international non-profit organization on a mission to close the gender gap and to help women embrace technology.

Visit the website to learn more and join the 1 Billion Lives Challenge.

MTN GlobalConnect launches 5G International Roaming with Smart Communications, Inc. Philippines in South Africa

Posted on by amogelangmaluleka

MTN South Africa network will be the first mobile operator in Africa to provide access to 5G technology to customers from the Philippines through its international roaming agreement with the Philippines’ leading mobile services provider, Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart). The agreement delivers on MTN’s and Smart’s commitment to keeping its travelers connected and providing them with access to 5G; both at home and when travelling as capable devices become available.

Customers of Smart in South Africa can enjoy 5G roaming access when they subscribe to Smart’s GigaRoam 1GB roaming plan for only P999 valid for 5 days. To subscribe, simply access https://roam.smart.com.ph or the GigaLife app.

“This is part of Smart’s commitment to bring our world-class services anywhere in the world by expanding our 5G roaming coverage in Africa, after our successful rollout with 46 partners in Europe, USA, Middle East and Asia,” said Ray Arsenal, AVP and Head of Roaming Partnerships.

“We’re excited to launch 5G roaming in South Africa with Smart’s network because of what it means for customers,” said Arne Casteleyn, General Manager – International Roaming, MTN GlobalConnect. “With MTN Y’ello Connect Roaming Hub and our central Roaming team, we never stop innovating, developing and deploying faster roaming services to provide our customers with access to a next-generation network. Furthermore, providing 5G services to our visitors coming to Africa is crucial to get the same data speeds as at home and to harness trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT). We continue to ramp up the roll out of 4G, VoLTE and 5G roaming with the world’s top operators which proves MTN’s commitment to provide excellent roaming services to its travelers as travel restrictions ease with mass vaccinations.”

Established in 2018, MTN GlobalConnect is based in Dubai and its team is made up of more than 25 nationalities.

MTN Group announces new mobile money partnership with Flutterwave across Africa

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Businesses integrating Flutterwave in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia can receive payments via MTN Mobile Money

MTN is pleased to announce a mobile money partnership with Africa’s leading payments technology company, Flutterwave. This partnership will allow businesses integrating Flutterwave in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia to receive payments via MTN Mobile Money (MoMo). 

MTN MoMo is a fintech platform providing consumers and businesses with an electronic wallet, enabling electronic transfers and payments as well as access to digital and financial services. At the end of June 2021, MTN MoMo had 48.9 million active users and 581,514 merchants. MoMo enables businesses to accept and make payments within the mobile money ecosystem. This new partnership will enable Flutterwave to offer MTN Mobile Money as a payment method to its business customers.

In recent years, Africa has witnessed an explosion in mobile penetration as smartphone adoption has risen rapidly. According to the GSMA, this year Africa will hit the half a billion mark of unique mobile subscribers and the continent will reach 50% subscriber penetration by 2025. Sub-Saharan Africa alone is responsible for more than 45% of the world’s mobile money accounts with the number of account holders exceeding half a billion by 2020, as shared on Statista.

Through this partnership, MTN and Flutterwave will positively contribute to this trend by increasing mobile money usage and penetration in Africa to improve local economies and livelihoods as well as create opportunities for individuals and businesses across the continent.

Commenting on the partnership, Serigne Dioum, MTN Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer said: “As we progress on our journey to becoming the largest fintech platform in Africa, we will empower millions of businesses to embrace e-commerce in our markets to accept digital payments from MoMo consumers. We believe this is an enabler to accelerating digitized payments in Africa. Building strong ecosystems through partnerships is central to our platform strategy and we will continue to invest in expanding the reach of our platform to consumers and businesses in Africa.”   

Commenting on the collaboration, Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “Africa has one of the highest growth rates for mobile money adoption and e-commerce in the world. It makes sense that we help provide a seamless payment method to support and ensure African businesses reap the full benefits of the e-commerce boom in the region. Our goal has always been to grow a new wave of prosperity in Africa by creating more avenues for businesses in Africa to accept payments. With this partnership, we can achieve this while creating endless possibilities for our customers.” 

The new partnership will further expand on Flutterwave’s previous collaboration with MTN, beyond Uganda and Rwanda – with the potential of deepening adoption of digital payments and e-commerce in Africa, a sector expected to reach $29 billion by 2022, according to Statista. 

ayoba launches a continent wide campaign: ‘Life inside ayoba’

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MTN, in partnership with ayoba, today launched a dynamic media campaign entitled: ‘Life inside ayoba’ that will bring the African super app to life. The campaign brings together all the features of the super app including chat, voice and video calling, channels, music via playlists, gaming, micro apps as well as payment facilities in some territories.

The campaign highlights the simplicity and versatility of the app, and the advantages a user gains in using all its exciting features.

“ayoba is a strategic platform for MTN as it harnesses Africa’s unique digital ecosystem and context. We believe it to be a triple-play opportunity to advance free messaging, content distribution and e-commerce powered by an open platform. Made in Africa for the World, ayoba is highly localised and tailored for African and Middle East consumer needs. This campaign is perfect for our markets, it is vibrant and relevant and is sure to appeal to all who use it,” says Serigne Dioum, MTN Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer.

MTN Group’s digital revenue increased by 23.8%* in the six months to end-June 2021, supported by the greater uptake of services. In the period, instant messaging platform ayoba recorded 8.0 million monthly active users, an addition of 2.5 million since December 2020. It has now been integrated into 18 MTN markets.

Our goal is to reach 19 million monthly active users  by the end of this year and 100 million by 2025, leveraging MTN’s existing base to scale up quickly and then grow as an OTT player in new markets.

The ayoba TV campaign is supported by radio, localised to each broadcast territory, as well as outdoor, print and on-ground activations. The message is simple – ayoba has everything you need. 

“There is a need to go above the line to raise the awareness of ayoba. We strongly believe that our app will appeal to many in Africa and the Middle East and provides digital solutions to the day-to-day life of the consumer.  In building the campaign we looked at what unites our African users, rather than what divides them.  We had to show users that they can find everything they need in our all-in-one app.  This approach has brought us a textured and innovative campaign, and we are very proud of it. We are excited to launch the campaign with the full support of MTN,” says Burak Akinci, Chief Executive Officer of Simfy (ayoba).

2021 has been a busy year so far for ayoba, which celebrated its second year of operations in May 2021.

ayoba is accelerating not only digital inclusion but also financial inclusion, with MTN MoMo integrated into ayoba in select markets including Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon and Congo Brazzaville.  ayoba recently received the award for Best OTT Brand of the Year at the Marketing World Awards 2021.  This adds to the 2020 win for ayoba at the Africa Digital Awards for Best Mobile Application in November 2020

MTN Group announces new appointment to drive expansion of digital services

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MTN Group today announced the appointment of Burak Akinci as Chief Executive Officer of Simfy (ayoba), reporting to the MTN Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer Serigne Dioum and responsible for the super app ayoba.   

Effective 1 September 2021, Burak joins Africa’s leading mobile operator from Turkcell, where he was CEO of BiP, an instant messaging platform with millions of users across 192 countries. Burak, with over 20 years of experience in marketing, digital businesses and technologies, led the build-out of the BiP platform, which has more than 30 million users. In his new role, he will be based in Cape Town.

“We are thrilled that an executive of Burak’s calibre is joining us. His appointment accelerates our work to build the largest and most valuable platforms as we target greater digital and financial inclusion across the continent,” said Dioum.

Commenting on his appointment, Akinci said “I feel honoured and very excited to join MTN family and Ayoba. I believe in the digital vision for Africa driven by MTN and I am confident that, with this great team, we will build the best communication platform and super app of Africa.” At the end of March 2021, MTN had 5.3 million monthly active ayoba users across 20 markets and a plan to grow this to 100 million in 2025. We aim to capture more than 10% of the gross merchandise value of the digital economy in our footprint as we move beyond the traditional telco-led Mobile Money (MoMo) offering with ayoba, which is an OTT (over the top) service that does not require users to be MTN subscribers. We are also targeting 100 million MoMo users by 2025, up from 46.6 million at end-March.

MTN Group and Sanlam announce strategic Insuretech alliance

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Sanlam and MTN Group announced today that they are joining forces in an exclusive strategic alliance (the Alliance) to distribute Sanlam Group insurance and investment products across Africa, further developing MTN’s mobile financial services business.

The Alliance will build a digital insurance and investment business, which will be an integral part of MTN’s fintech offering. It will provide people across the continent with easier access to these services, particularly those sectors of the population that have typically been unable to access traditional distribution channels for such products.

The Alliance has the potential to pre-empt and adapt to digital disruption in markets where both Sanlam and MTN operate. It will also enable MTN to accelerate and scale its InsurTech offering through its brand and reach and by leveraging Sanlam’s licensing and geographical footprint, as well as its broad product capabilities and expertise. MTN InsurTech businesses currently have approximately 6 million active policyholders, with target of over 30 million policyholders by 2025 with this new Alliance.

The collaboration provides Sanlam with the opportunity to extend consumer access to its products and grow its Africa operations by providing insurance to MTN’s customer base across the continent, thereby deepening its extensive footprint in Africa.

Commenting on the formation of the Alliance, Sanlam Group CEO Mr Paul Hanratty said: “We are excited by MTN’s development of modern mobile financial services for the benefit and empowerment of the African consumer. It gives us great pride to be able to partner with MTN to build the best possible range of solutions in the insurance and investment arena for consumers. We anticipate strong long-term growth in mobile financial services and insurance and investments are no exception to this.”

The collaboration offers MTN the opportunity to provide more value-added services to its customers, enhancing its existing offering. “MTN Group is equally excited to be partnering with Sanlam in driving financial inclusion across the continent and providing customers with insurance and investment products tailored to the needs of the African consumer,” said MTN Group President and CEO Mr. Ralph Mupita.

“Sanlam is the ideal partner as the leading insurance and investment business across Africa, and with partnership key to its strategic and execution approach. MTN has built a scale fintech business with over 100 million wallets, of which approximately half are actively using Mobile Money services every month, presenting a meaningful opportunity to further drive financial inclusion through the provision of appropriate insurance and investment solutions.”

The Alliance will build and leverage the strengths and assets of both Sanlam and MTN to establish a digital insurance and investment capability across Africa.

In the initial period, the Alliance will be chaired by Ralph Mupita, with Paul Hanratty as Deputy Chair. While approximately 46% of Africa’s population has access to and uses cell phone services, insurance penetration remains low at less than 5% in most markets except South Africa.

The transaction is subject to the parties concluding definitive agreements and completing the relevant suspensive conditions.

MTN is the largest telecommunications operator in Africa with a presence in 17 countries on the continent and a total of more than 270 million subscribers across its total 21 markets. It is also a large fintech operator, with a presence in 19 countries and 100 million wallets, 800 000 agents and 650 000 merchants signed up.

Sanlam is the largest non-banking financial services group in Africa, with a presence in 33 countries across the continent. Forming mutually beneficial partnerships is part of Sanlam’s business model and is a key pillar for accelerating growth on the African continent.

MTN Group reports strong H1 2021 operating results, calls for vaccine equity for developing markets

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MTN Group today reported a strong performance for the first half of 2021: exceeding most medium-term targets; reducing debt; advancing digital and financial inclusion; and cutting the cost to communicate across Africa. The Group also called for vaccine equity amid a deepening divide between countries that have access to vaccines for their people and those that do not.

“Notwithstanding the many challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, MTN delivered a solid H1, exceeding most of the Group’s medium-term targets through sustained commercial momentum as we executed on our Ambition 2025 strategy,” said MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita.

We continued to prioritise the health of our people, as well as sustain initiatives to support Africa’s recovery from the pandemic’s devastating impacts on lives and livelihoods. By 12 July 2021, we had 2 452 COVID-19 infections across our operations and mourned the loss of 18 MTN employees. By that date, just over 8% of our staff had been vaccinated with at least one dose.

“We add our voice to the calls by the World Health Organisation and the Africa CDC for COVID-19 vaccine equity for developing markets. The push for herd immunity across the world and a return to broad-based socio-economic global growth will not be possible while developing markets battle to access vaccines,” said Mupita. “Public private partnerships focused on a sustainable future for our planet will be critical to successfully navigate this pandemic.”

With the launch of the #OneMorePush campaign in July, MTN Group extended our partnership with the Africa CDC. This campaign encourages people to not give up in the fight against COVID-19 and to continue to wear their masks, wash their hands and practise social distancing, at a time when vaccination levels in our markets still lag those in developed countries.

At the end of June 2021, across our 21 markets MTN Group had more than 277 million voice subscribers; 117 million active data customers; almost 49 million active Mobile Money users; and eight million users of our instant messaging platform ayoba.

In constant currency terms, service revenue increased by 20% in H1 to almost R82 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before once-off items increased by 24% to nearly R39 billion. The Group’s EBITDA margin expanded by 1.6 percentage points to 44.9%.

Reported headline earnings per share (HEPS) declined by 10%, impacted by non-operational and once-off items, which included accounting adjustments related to our Middle East portfolio as well as material COVID-19 donations. Excluding these, adjusted HEPS increased by 31.5%. This supported the further expansion of adjusted return on equity, which was up by more than four percentage points to 18.3%. In line with previous guidance, no interim dividend was declared.

We made good progress in reducing our holding company debt, which declined to R36.7 billion from R43.3 billion, and the holdco leverage reduced to 1.4x in the half. This was boosted by cash inflows received from our operating companies of R9.3 billion, which included R4.0 billion from Nigeria, as well as R1.8 billion in proceeds from the sale of our stake in Belgacom International Carrier Services.

We advanced our work to create shared value, driven by our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life. We added approximately R50 billion of economic value to sustain societies in our markets; increased the number of people covered by broadband by more than 25 million; and reduced the average effective data rate per megabyte across our markets by more than 17%. We also paid cash taxes of R7.2 billion in support of the nation states in which we operate, up 47% year-on-year.

We made progress in efforts to reach net zero emissions by 2040, including working closely with our suppliers to reduce our scope 3 emissions. To accelerate diversity and inclusion, we set a target of 50% women representation of executives and boards across our operating companies.

Our April 2021 bid for a new telecom licence in Ethiopia was unsuccessful. Our bid took into account the licence conditions as well as related uncertainties. We had also adopted a partnership approach to ensure that funding and risk was diversified. While disappointing, we are comfortable that our approach was guided by disciplined strategic and capital allocation frameworks. The Group has decided not to participate in the new liberalisation processes underway in Ethiopia, and we thank the Ethiopian government for the opportunity to have been part of the previous process. We also thank the partners we had in our unsuccessful licence bid.

We announced our decision to abandon the MTN operation in Syria given regulatory actions and demands that make operating in that country untenable. We reserve our rights to seek redress through international legal processes given the actions of the Syrian authorities that have left us with no other choice than to exit. MTN Syria represented less than 1% of MTN Group EBITDA at the end of 2020. In line with our focus on Africa, we continue to explore options to exit Yemen and Afghanistan in an orderly manner.

MTN Announces the appointment of new Executive for Tax

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MTN Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Troopti Desai as Group Executive: Tax, effective 13 September 2021.

Troopti is an admitted attorney and has extensive experience in the fields of Labour Law, Immigration Law, Corporate Tax, Mergers & Acquisitions Tax, Tax Incentives, Corporate Governance, Legal and Finance, as well as Tax policy and Revenue Authority engagement.

She joins MTN from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), where she was a Partner in the Corporate Tax department, responsible for managing various forms of Tax Risk for multinationals and SA-listed clients across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Prior to PWC, Troopti was the Head of Tax for SSA at General Electric (GE) and was also a Director of multiple GE entities in South Africa.

She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree, a Higher Diploma in Tax Law, and an MBA from Wits University.

Africa CDC and MTN accelerate fight against COVID-19 with “OneMorePush” campaign

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The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and pan-African operator MTN Group today launched a joint campaign – “One More Push” – to encourage people across the continent to not give up in the fight against COVID-19, and to continue to wear their masks, wash their hands and practice social distancing.

“With third and fourth waves of COVID-19 sweeping across parts of Africa, we cannot overstate the importance of everyone doing their best right now to keep the virus at bay,” says Africa CDC Director, Dr John Nkengasong. “This campaign aims to encourage people to keep practising the preventative measures we know can limit the spread of COVID-19.”

The awareness campaign is an extension of the African Union’s ‘Adapted Africa Joint Continental Strategy for COVID-19 Pandemic’ endorsed by Africa’s Health Ministers and aligned to the ‘Prevent, Monitor and Treat’ approach. It is also an extension of the partnership between the Africa CDC and MTN, which includes the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to health workers across the continent through the Group’s US$25 million donation.

“One More Push” is a renewed drive to encourage the public not to give up now. It asks that all of us keep our masks on, wash or sanitise our hands, and maintain a physical distance from each other until it is safe to no longer do so. In this way, we will be able to get back to the ‘old normal’ (or the best possible version of it) sooner rather than later.

The “One More Push” campaign is about encouraging the people of Africa to remain vigilant in fighting COVID-19, at a time when we are experiencing new waves of infections, and vaccination progress towards herd immunity is still some time away for our people.” says MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita, noting that MTN’s fortunes were closely tied to the health and prosperity of the continent.

A key part of the campaign is onemorepushafrica.com, a digital content hub of credible and authoritative third-party content covering all things related to COVID-19. This includes facts around getting vaccinated, advice from leading healthcare bodies and medical experts, and important information from the Africa CDC.

“As we continue with the distribution of vaccines across the continent, we all need to keep focused on overcoming COVID-19,” said Dr Nkengasong. “We implore all of Africa’s people to keep it up – let’s all give it one more push.”

Visit onemorepushafrica.com for trustworthy content around vaccinations and the virus and to let us know what you are keeping your mask up for. Follow the #OneMorePushAfrica conversation on social media.

MTN JOINS NEW GLOBAL COALITION TO REACH ONE BILLION PEOPLE AND DRIVE GREEN ACTIONS

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  • MTN Group has today joined ‘Every Action Counts’, a new coalition to connect experts in nature conservation and climate change with some of the world’s leading digital platforms, financial institutions and consumer goods firms.
  • Ambitious aim to empower 1 billion digital green champions by 2025. Founding partners include: Ant Group, BBVA, Dana, FNZ, GCash, Mastercard, MTN, Sanlam and Telenor Microfinance Bank.
  • “Nature provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, but we have not been so kind in return. I welcome this coalition aiming to empower 1 billion people to become part of creating a world where everyday actions and choices combat climate change and end biodiversity loss. As we embark on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, putting people at the centre of the green transition is key,” says Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UN Environment Programme, a supporter of Every Action Counts.  

(Monday 28 June 2021). MTN Group has today joined a new global partnership to harness the power of green consumer behaviours to enhance biodiversity and climate efforts. The ‘Every Action Counts’ (EAC) coalition is launched today by the Green Digital Finance Alliance (GDFA), funded by the Finance for Biodiversity (F4B) initiative of the MAVA Foundation

The EAC brings together a global network of digital, financial, e-commerce, and consumer goods and services companies with experts in sustainability, and nature and biodiversity conservation. The new network will share best practices in encouraging individuals to take positive actions in daily life to create planet-friendly outcomes. Each coalition member will endeavour to pursue locally relevant approaches to driving sustainable consumer behaviours by advancing people-centric, tech-enabled and innovation-oriented engagement models.

The coalition holds the potential to scale green action as a norm which is encouraged, recognised and rewarded leveraging technology and innovation models.

Examples of this work in practice include:

  • Philippines-based GCash forest, which rewards app users who reduce their carbon footprint by planting trees in partnership with groups such as WWF.
  • Mastercard is uniting its global network of businesses and consumers in climate action through the Priceless Planet Coalition reforestation initiative. The company is also collaborating with partners to create innovative digital products that provide insights about the carbon impact of purchases and enable people to easily contribute to preserving the environment.
  • Ant Forest, a green initiative on the Alipay platform that encourages users to adopt low carbon activities in daily life, such as going to work by bus instead of by car, and paying utility bills online instead of offline. The initiative has enabled the planting of over 220 million trees in less than five years.

The coalition aims to promote knowledge sharing to inspire innovative green tech solutions around the world, helping each payment platform and consumer goods company to focus on the green behaviours most relevant to their audience.

Nompilo Morafo, Group Executive: Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, at launch partner MTN said: “As MTN works to drive greater digital and financial inclusion, we recognise the importance of reducing our impact on the environment and balancing this to ensure more people are connected daily. We take a conservative approach to the use of energy, plastic, water and other resources through demand reduction, refurbishment, recycling and upcycling. For us, Every Action Counts enable us to offer our customers access to opportunities towards greener lifestyles and green job opportunities which can unlock the green economy across our markets.”

Marianne Haahr, spokesperson for the ‘Every Action Counts’ coalition and Executive Director of Green Digital Finance Alliance, said: “This new coalition wants to creatively leverage technology and partnerships to enhance green awareness and catalyse green action for 1 billion people by 2025. We want to encourage consumer behaviour that can become a driver of nature conservation and regeneration.

“We see a future where economic growth can coexist with, and even support, nature conservation and climate action, which is why we are bringing together partners who can help champion this vision for our global economy.”

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UN Environment Programme, a supporter of ‘Every Action Counts’ said: “Nature provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, but we have not been so kind in return. I welcome this coalition aiming to empower 1 billion people to become part of creating a world where everyday actions and choices combat climate change and end biodiversity loss. As we embark on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, putting people at the centre of the green transition is key.”

Launch partners are: Ant Group (China), BBVA (Spain), BigPay (Malaysia), DANA (Indonesia), FNZ (UK), GCash (Philippines), Lazada Group (Singapore), Mastercard (US), MTN Group (South Africa), Paytm (India), SANLAM (South Africa), and Telenor Microfinance Bank (Pakistan).

Experts working with the coalition include Siegmar Otto, a leading researcher on sustainable consumer behaviour and human-computer interaction; Professor Richard Wood of the Industrial Ecology Programme at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology); and environmental engineer Francesca Verones, also at NTNU.