The award-winning Nokia Life Business Women service is now available to women entrepreneurs in Tanzania on Nokia Life+.
The service, offered in a partnership between the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the ExxonMobil Foundation and Nokia, already benefits 75,000 women in Indonesia and Nigeria.
Business Women hopes to attract another 75,000 women entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Accessed via the Nokia Life+ web app, it will provide tailored content and information to help women entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.
The service is available in both English and Kiswahili languages. The content is custom developed by Tanzania Gatsby Trust for specific needs of women running micro, small and medium businesses in Tanzania.
Mama Muze
Mama Muze is a businesswoman who is already supported by the Tanzania Gatsby Trust. She established a food processing business in 2005 but would like help to attract more customers.
The Business Women service was designed with women like Mama Muze in mind. It will provide access to information about how to work with traders, improve distribution channels, tap into valuable existing networks and how to attract and retain customers.
“We are delighted to see the Business Women service expand into Tanzania,” said Jawahar Kanjilal, Vice President and Global Head of Nokia Life.
“Business Women has the ability to inform as well inspire, giving women entrepreneurs direct opportunities to develop and apply new skills. We are very proud to be part of this initiative and make a real impact with entrepreneurial women in Tanzania.”
Mobile power
The Nokia Life+ Business Women service was inspired by research conducted by the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and Booz & Company on the challenges facing women entrepreneurs and how mobile technology could be used to help overcome them.
The study, supported by ExxonMobil Foundation, found that the high penetration of mobile phones in the developing world made it an ideal tool to help women entrepreneurs to start or grow their businesses.
The launch of the Business Women service in Tanzania was announced at the George W. Bush Institute’s Investing in Women: Strengthening Africa Summit.
Cherie Blair, founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, said:
“This important service will make a difference to the lives of tens of thousands of women entrepreneurs in Tanzania in the next year and hundreds of thousands more in the long term on a global scale.”
Business Women recently won the 2013 Global Telecoms Business Award for Best Consumer Service Innovation and provides a model template for empowering female entrepreneurs in the developing world.
Top image credit: NeilsPhotography