Why Faith is not about to reinvent the wheel

Dar es Salaam. Informed and impactful decisions are sometimes made with the help of those who had experienced and lived them to be assured of the outcome.

As head of Mobile Financial Services (corporate, partnerships and government) at MTMSL Tanzania Limited (Tigo Pesa) - and also the co-founder of Kilimo Fresh - it took Faith Pella her working experience in Nigeria to start thinking of bringing her Fintech and digital expertise to Tanzania.

Faith’s career journey unfolded upon becoming an accountant at Airline Cargo Tanzania. This was after she completed her studies at the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) in 2008. Three years later, she enrolled for a master’s degree in International Business at the same institute.

“Before I embarked on my Master’s degree programme, I was interested in business. This gave me a chance to understand deeper business mechanics. However, over time, my interests shifted towards technology. The company I worked with, Cellulant Tanzania Chapter, had enlisted mobile added services including mobile payments integrations and mobile banking. So, the working wheel in the company took a minor turn and so did my work,” she tells The Citizen.

Her company also adopted technology from other countries.

After working as a business development manager for about five years, Faith was promoted to country manager for the Tanzania Chapter in 2014.

“Two years later, I got an opportunity to go and work in the company’s Nigeria Chapter as a chief operations officer. I served in the position for two years. My working experience grew several inches longer as I was exposed to Fintech and agricultural technology. I slowly started thinking of bringing my expertise back home,” Faith reveals to The Citizen.

As thoughts of expanding her knowledge and implementing it in her motherland clouded her head, she was presented with two working positions in Nigeria that could have upgraded her title; but she chose Tanzania.

Upon her coming back home in 2019, Faith was presented with yet two opportunities.: to work at MTMSL Tanzania Ltd (Tigo Pesa) as head of MFS corporate, partnerhsips, government - a position she holds to-date. The second chance was to become a board member of Tanzania Startup Association (TSA) which bridges start-ups with the government. She applied for membership and became part of the association.

“When I was in Nigeria, I had also built my passion in agriculture because my former company was keen to see the linkage between technology innovation and agriculture. We had even conducted a project called Government Enhancement Scheme in which we reached out to about four million farmers in Nigeria over a period of four years and provided them with an e-wallet platform to manage subsidies distribution,” she narrates.

Starting work at Tigo Pesa, Faith’s role was to observe, study and develop initiatives that surround agriculture in the country as well as to interact with key players in the agricultural sector in Tanzania and see how they can all collectively advance it.

Of the many hats that Faith wears, she is also the co-founder of an agricultural start-up called Kilimo Fresh Foods Africa Limited. She established Kilimo Fresh in 2019 with Baraka Jeremih and Justice Mangu with whom she had worked side by side during her time in Nigeria.

“We began discussing development of Kilimo Fresh in Tanzania when we were all working for Cellulant. The two of them had experience in agriculture and I was an expert in Agri Tech, so we became the perfect trio. Our work is to connect and expose small farmers of fresh produce to the seamless market,” Faith details.

Throughout the years, Faith has seen challenges that made her reassess her life goals as well as remind herself of her strength.

“There are countless times I was discouraged but I’m a tough nut to crack since I understand and acknowledge the fact that I am a go-getter and firm believer in the saying that ‘hard work pays’. I have seen it and I have lived it. Knowing what I want and what I don’t in my life and career has helped me and it keeps pushing me through the rough waves,” Faith says.

One of the most vulnerable moments that Faith went through, she recalls, was the gender stereotype that ‘women are incomplete without marriage and children’. This influenced her to think of marriage at the time when she silently knew that she was not ready to tie the knot with anyone.

“I thought that if I married, it would create a particular status for me in the society. I had my career evolving on one side, I had the person I was engaged to on the other and I had people’s perceptions as well. I could not keep up with the weight and pressure from all the three sides, so I did not go forward with the marriage,” she states.

According to Faith, many women are subjected to marriage by societal pressure even when they were not ready for one.

“For a long time, women have experienced gender inequality more so when society continues to turn a blind eye towards this issue. Despite the efforts made by various stakeholders to enhance women participation in leadership, it should never be like they are doing us a favour by selecting us to be members of boards and organizations because we deserve to take part in any top decision-making system, just like men do,” Faith emphasizes.

She explains that it is about time organisations take note of the potential inherent in women and envision the impact that will come forth once those women get to hold higher positions.

“Women should also take chances. When you believe in your skills and abilities, you are likely to win more hearts than when you do not. You do not have to fit in with societal expectations of you. Embrace your differences as you work on upskilling, the society will eventually adjust,” Faith believes.