Airtel’s Money head feted at the Annual IT Women Conference

Airtel Kenya’s Head of Airtel Money Topyster Muga has been crowned the IT Woman of the Year at the first Annual IT Women Conference in Sub-Saharan Africa organized by Techno Brain- Kenya. 

Dubbed the Pink Potential Initiative, the event brought together over 100 women in the IT industry to mentor, inspire and network and is aimed at celebrating the great achievements by women in the industry.

Lydia Njaaga, Microsoft Products Director presents a certificate to Airtel's head of Airtel Money, Topyster Muga.

Topyster was recognized for her contribution in the IT industry having spearheaded innovation of the Airtel Money Pesa Card – a Visa card mirroring the Airtel Money account, being part of the project steering committee to spearhead the formation of the mobile money association of Kenya and winning the Nelson Mandela scholarship award to undertake an MBA at INSEAD Business School in France and previously while at Vodafone Group, leading the launch of M-Pesa in several emerging markets.

“Pink Potential fosters a mentoring approach.  Mentoring is a critical link to career advancement because it enhances employee satisfaction, improves retention, advances business objectives, and increases productivity.  It can also enrich the professional and personal lives of both mentor and protégé. We are excited for Topyster and for Airtel for demonstrating their support for women in IT,” said Sarah Richson, Global HR Director, Techno Brain Group.

She added: “One of our key objectives is to recognize and celebrate IT women who are making a difference in their world as well as to inspire more women into an IT career trajectory and leadership. Toppy has exhibited this in her leadership and the strides she has made at Airtel.”

On her part, Topyster noted: “I am humbled to be the recipient of this award. This clearly is a recognition of the continuous effort that women in Kenya continue to put in the IT sector. This recognition is a great motivation to hundreds of women who continue to give their contribution in different sectors of the economy and is also a challenge to our young women who are inspired to achieve their dreams.”     

“Women are breaking barriers and succeeding in careers that many could never have imagined. Topyster’ s recognition is a timely motivation to our women employees and many others in different sectors who need to believe in their potential to succeed in whatever fields they want to pursue,” noted Airtel Kenya Chief Executive Officer Adil El Youssefi.

The Annual Women IT conference is an event that seeks to acknowledge individuals who have spearheaded innovative new software or products, or generally-available IT services, that make the biggest contribution to business technology or to IT in general. 

Airtel continues to record growth in data, mobile voice and SMS traffic

 Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youssefi takes Viola Kipchumba (center)through the process of subscribing to Airtel Unliminet. Looking on is radio personality Amina Abdi.

The quarter under review exhibited mixed trends in terms of local mobile voice traffic per operator.    

  

Airtel Kenya Limited experienced an increase in total local mobile voice traffic that stood at 1.85 billion up from 1.83 billion minutes reported during the previous period. 

Its market share for the whole financial year grew significantly to stand at 16.4 per cent up from 10.7 per cent market shares reported in the previous year. This growth could be attributed to Airtel’s acquisition of Essar’s yuMobile subscriptions late last year.      

The total number of SMS sent has maintained an upward trend regardless of the stiff competition from OTTs. During the quarter under review, local SMS traffic stood at 6.57 billion up from 6.55 billion messages reported in the previous quarter. Similarly, the volume of SMS sent throughout the year grew significantly to 27.4 billion up from 24.4 billion messages sent during the previous year. This could be attributed to the lowering of SMS tariff and provision of lucrative SMS bundles by a majority of mobile operators. 

Airtel Kenya’s SMS traffic volume gained 1.1 percentage points on market share to stand at 8.0 percent with 527 million SMS during the quarter up from 452million messages registered during the last quarter. The total messages sent throughout the year stood at 1.5 billion up from 731 million messages sent during the previous year.    

Airtel’s market share for data grew year on year from 13.5% in the previous year 2013/14 to 19% by the end of the year June 2015. Safaricom’s market share for data dropped from 71.6% in the previous year to 63% by the end of the year.  

    

The growth in mobile voice traffic, SMS traffic and data for the second largest operator in the country may be attributed to its innovative product- Airtel #UnlimiNet that was launched early this year. The product continues to  champion #UnlimitedConnections to Kenyans by ensuring that they are always connected by the ability to call all networks and remain connected with friends and family on social media platforms and profession networks on the internet even after they run out of data bundles. Airtel UnlimiNet allows customers to enjoy free minutes voice calls and SMSs to any network, making it the most affordable cross-network voice call offer in Kenya with blended rates as low as Ksh 1.7 per minute.    

The growth may also be attributed to the company’s network upgrade exercise undertaken in the months of April, May and June that significantly enhanced Airtel’s network capacity, robustness and help deliver best-in-class experience that include improved voice quality.    

Early this month, Airtel launched a 50-day-long national consumer promotion dubbed Smartika na 5X, that will give its customers a chance to win 50 cars in the 50 day period, as well as daily prizes of cash and airtime.  The promotion gives an opportunity to its prepaid customers who achieve their targets on “5X bonus” to win one of the fifty cars, airtime worth Ksh. 2,000 or cash prize worth Ksh. 2,000.  5X bonus is a prepaid special offer where customers on the Airtel network have the opportunity to enjoy 500% airtime bonus on meeting a daily target on airtime used.

Airtel, the top social media brand in Kenya

Airtel has been recognized as the top Social Media Brand in Kenya by the Africa Brand Index, a listing of the most successful brands in Africa on social media, according to key metrics such as community growth, content engagement, sentiment and dozens of others.    

The Africa Brand Index is a listing of the top brands on social media, measured by an aggregate score of dozens of social signals. Airtel Kenya has been listed as the top brand on social media in the country based on its growth and response rate on the rankings provided by the index as shown in the link: http://africabrandindex.com. The company has also been recognized as the second top Telecommunications Brand in Africa on Social Media, coming in ahead of MTN South Africa. Vodacom South Africa is the top telecommunications brand in the continent.       

With tens of thousands of @Twitter followers and hundreds of thousands of Facebook fans in the country, Airtel Kenya has not only been singled out as the top Kenyan brand on social media but was also recently recognized as a global best practice case study on social care. The company has made significant strides in being socially devoted and receptive to its customers, receiving and responding to questions and communicating within the shortest time possible.

In July, Airtel Kenya was recognized as a global best practice case study by Socialbakers, a global social media analytics firm for outstanding performance in serving customers online. This award recognized the company’s outstanding use of online social media platforms in engagement and resolution of customer issues.

Airtel was singled out as being socially devoted and receptive to its customers, receiving and responding to questions and communicating within the shortest time possible. A brand qualifies to be Socially Devoted if it responds to at least 65 percent of audience questions on Facebook and/or Twitter.

Social network signals are weighted approximately according to their overall usage on the continent - Facebook signals therefore would contribute highest in countries where Facebook usage is higher than other social networks.

Social media has been a key channel for Airtel Kenya to interact with its customers and it remains at the heart of its communication strategies. As evidenced of the power of social media, the company actively engages with its customers via social media platforms which include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Google Plus. 

Social media networks especially @Facebook and @Twitter have become popular gateways for customer seeking help or updates in needy situation and as a result of this, brands that are committed to their customers and have the capabilities have tapped into them.