Tigo wins G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation

Millicom International Cellular S.A., operators of the Tigo mobile brand has emerged one of 15 winners in the G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation.

The winners were announced and presented with awards at the G20 Leaders Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico on June 18, 2012.

The Challenge recognized businesses with innovative, scalable or replicable and commercially viable ways of working with people living at the base of the pyramid in developing countries like Ghana.

The G20 defines inclusive business models as those which help companies turn under-served populations into dynamic consumer markets and diverse new sources of supply.

A statement on Millicom's website said “Millicom has been recognized by the Challenge for making mobile telephony affordable to even the lowest earners in developing countries by offering Tigo branded voice and data services in small denominations and accessible to all through its extensive distribution network of more than 680,000 points of sale.”

It said the recent introduction of Tigo mobile financial services, 'Tigo Cash' in some markets, like Ghana, where Millicom operated, had been identified as an enabler of financial inclusion for the unbanked populations.

In Ghana, Tigo has the lowest on-net call rate of 3Gp per minute.

It runs 'Tigo Cash' service, and also has an insurance policy dubbed “Tigo Insurance”, which won an award at the Second MobileWorld Ghana Telecom Awards this year.

The insurance scheme gives customers and one other person of the choice life insurance cover for using specific amounts of credit within a particular period of time.

It enables persons who otherwise were unable to subscribe to the mainstream insurance schemes and pay the relatively high premiums, to get insurance cover at extremely affordable rates.

Tigo recently launched three unlimited time-based internet packages that allows customers to consume data credit in terms of time and not in terms of bytes, and customers paid specific amounts for daily, weekly and monthly unlimited packages.

Tigo Ghana has also revamped the “Tigo Number One” package, and added daily and weekly packages, to allow people to pick one special Tigo number and pay a token that allows the customers to call that number for unlimited number of times and talk for unlimited periods for the respective period of the package.

Tigo Ghana officials said all those Value Added Services were innovative and scalable ways of giving opportunity to the less privileged to have access to services and experiences they could not normally afford.

Director of IFC's Inclusive Business Models Group, Toshiya Masuoka was quoted as saying; “We look forward to seeing the winners of the G20 Challenge thrive and learning more on how they translated their successful models in different regions across the world, as Millicom has shown by operating in several countries in Latin America and Africa."

President and CEO of Millicom, Mikael Grahne also said: "We are delighted to have been recognized through this award for our innovation and our financial, environmental and social sustainability. Operating in our markets presents us with opportunities as well as responsibilities to the communities. As one of the largest foreign investors and direct and indirect employers in our markets, but also through the products we offer our customers, we can contribute positively to the economies where we operate and to the lives of the millions of people who live there."

Story by Ghana/Samuel Nii Narku Dowuona/Adom News