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Introducing Africell
Africell is a leading telecommunications provider in Africa, currently operating in Gambia, Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Established in 2001, the company has rapidly grown to serve more than 12 million active subscribers across these markets.
In Gambia, Africell is recognized as the market leader, with an estimated 65% share of the mobile sector. The company’s extensive network and innovative solutions have made mobile services more accessible to Gambians, significantly contributing to the country's telecommunications development.
In Sierra Leone, Africell has played a key role in the telecom revolution, boasting the largest subscriber base in the country. With its robust infrastructure and customer-centric approach, Africell has empowered millions of Sierra Leoneans with affordable and reliable telecom and mobile money services.
Angola represents one of Africell’s most recent expansions. With a commitment to boost digital inclusion and stimulate economic growth, Africell has been rolling out state-of-the-art 4G infrastructure and mobile financial services, catering to the unbanked population.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africell has distinguished itself by offering affordable telecom services to both urban and rural populations. Despite the challenging market conditions, Africell has gained a significant subscriber base, offering innovative services like mobile money, which has made a significant impact on financial inclusion in the country.
Despite its outstanding achievements, Africell recognized the need to further optimize its operations, particularly in managing its expansive mobile money agent network across these diverse markets.
Challenges faced in setting up and managing the Mobile Money Agent Network
Mobile operators in Africa often grapple with a variety of challenges in managing their mobile money agent networks. As per a GSMA study, these challenges include:
Agent Training and Performance: Many mobile money agents lack adequate training, which can negatively impact service delivery and customer experience. Additionally, maintaining a standard level of performance across a vast and diverse agent network is a persistent challenge.
Agent Liquidity Management: Ensuring agents have enough float to meet customer demand is a major concern. If an agent lacks the necessary funds, they cannot facilitate transactions, frustrating customers and potentially damaging the service provider's reputation.
Consistency in Branding and Procedures: Operators need to ensure that agents strictly adhere to their branding guidelines and operational procedures. Inconsistency can lead to confusion among customers and dilute the brand's identity.
Monitoring and Supervision: With thousands of agents spread across extensive geographic areas, monitoring agent performance, adherence to guidelines, and service quality becomes a herculean task.
The Solution: FieldPro Agent Network App
FieldPro is a digital tool designed to tackle these challenges head-on, offering an innovative solution to manage mobile money agent networks effectively. The app is deployed among Trade Development Representatives. It has helped improve the management of the mobile money agent network in the following ways:
Agent Recruitment: An effective mobile app provides the necessary tools to manage recruitment efficiently. It can track and store information on potential agents, record assessment results, and streamline the onboarding process. FieldPro, for instance, can automate many of these tasks, making the recruitment process faster and more efficient.
Learn more about our mobile app capabilities here.
Agent Visiting: FieldPro can facilitate scheduling and route planning for TDRs, ensuring regular visits to agents. It can track these visits and record information like agent performance, customer feedback, and training needs. This feature enables mobile operators to maintain a closer relationship with agents and promptly address any issues.
Liquidity Management: The app can monitor agent liquidity in real-time, ensuring they always have enough float to facilitate transactions. FieldPro can alert TDRs when agents are running low on float, allowing for swift intervention. It can also provide insights into patterns of demand, helping agents to better manage their liquidity.
Read more about our real time dashboards here.
Branding Compliance: FieldPro allows TDRs to assess and monitor compliance with branding guidelines during their visits. They can capture and upload images directly into the app, providing proof of branding compliance. Non-compliant agents can be easily identified, and corrective actions can be taken promptly.
Product Awareness: FieldPro can serve as a training tool, offering modules on new products, features, and services. It ensures that agents are kept up-to-date with the latest offerings and can effectively communicate these to customers. The app can also host quizzes and assessments to ensure agents have a firm understanding of the product knowledge.
The Impact
FieldPro revolutionized the management of Africell's mobile money agent network, resulting in a significant improvement in customer experience, agent branding, and consistency of service delivery.
FieldPro also played a crucial role in educating agents about new features or services, ensuring the team's preparedness, as emphasized in a MicroSave report.
Africell representative, Richard Ghoussoub, lauded FieldPro saying,
"The app has transformed our operations and empowered our agents, ensuring they deliver high-quality, consistent services. It's given us a strong edge in a competitive market."
