Tigo Pesa infuses rights, duties awareness into its users
A consumer and service provider are two peas in a pod, looking at their interdependence.
As for global view, the latter is a scapegoat for disruption of such an ecosystem as the lopsided conclusion is drawn only on a basis of filed complaints by consumers.
If consumers abide by all duties liable to, perhaps, they would not be crying out loud for their rights.
As a country, we need a fair and common ground for exercising and protecting rights and duties of both sides, should we make an economic headway, there is no holding back Tigo Pesa when it comes to safeguarding consumers rights. The leading mobile money services powerhouse – replete with innovative flairs – offers products that deliver world class customer -experience to consumers while rendering appropriate user guide tips.
Prior to the marking of the World Consumers Rights day, which is observed on every March 15, Tigo Pesa’s Chief Officer, Ms. Angelica Pesha, held talks with The Citizen on how they celebrate the day together with providing awareness on the rights and duties entitled to Tigo Pesa services consumers as follows: -
Qns: Every March 15, the world celebrates World Consumers Rights day. Why does this matter to you?
Ans: Consumers are the reason we exist, for this matter, this day is a very important day to us. It’s an opportunity for us to re-engage and work with our customer to highlight on the rights and responsibility as we provide products and services to simplify their lives.
Qns: Who is your consumer? How important is he/she/it?
Ans: Tigo Pesa consumer is any person or institution that uses any of our suit of products and services. We serve both individual customers and corporate customers enabling their financial services like Payments of good and services, sending money, payment of bills, government payments, corporate disbursements to mention a few.
Qns: Tigo Pesa has been one of the most successful mobile money transfer services in the market for several years now with a huge customer base. What are Tigo Pesa consumers’ rights?
Ans: Thank you for a good question, first, Tigo Pesa, like other financial services in the country, is regulated by the relevant government authorities and institutions that have already put in place stipulations for consumers of our services.
Our consumers are entitled to the right to access quality services, assurance of security of products and services, protection of privacy and confidentiality, education, and explanations on how to use products, non-discrimination, opportunity to file complaint, resolution of filed complaints, prior alert before service expiry/termination, representation, appropriate transactions statement and appeal when dissatisfied with service or product. We simply want to ensure the customer gets the best services under the best terms and conditions.
Qns: There is no right without duty. Tell us about the duties of your consumers.
Ans: We work hand in hand with our customers to ensure we give them the best of services. We both have a part to play as it is in any relationship. For a consumer to access his/hrights, he/she must fulfill responsibilities owed to the service provider for a Win Win service provision and usage.
For consumers to partake any of our products and services, they must follow the stipulated terms and conditions, that guide and educate them on the best way of accessing and using the products and services.
The consumer is responsible for using Tigo Pesa services professionally and legally, he/she must comply with the rules and regulations, non-disclosure or safety keeping of their password (password should always be kept secret from any other person), and must comply with Tigo Pesa terms and conditions. He/she is liable to the payment of all applicable charges and all government related levies when transacting.
Qns: What laws protect the consumer of Tigo Pesa services?
Ans:Tigo Pesa is fully regulated by the Central Bank of Tanzania , as a financial institution. The central Bank, has issued a “Financial Services Consumer Protection Act,” of 2019 to protect all financial service consumers. Tigo Pesa follows this in addition to other Best Practices in the world under other requirements like GSMA Code of Conduct and Sox Compliance to ensure world class customer services provision.
Qns: What stands as a mark of Tigo Pesa’s success since its inception?
Ans: First and foremost, Tigo Pesa has managed to grow and reach more customers in the country.
Within ten years of operation, it has reached more than 9 million customers, backed by more than 120,000 agents scattered nationwide and over 110,000 merchants giving its customers a wide range of choice to access its services. Tigo Pesa also Partners with over 1500 Corporates to provide Collections and Disbursement services.
So, I can say that we have been very successful in terms of financial inclusion of the unbanked population across the country and contributing highly in perking up the aspired National Development Vision of 2025.
We have also been leading on the innovation space, where we have brought a lot of 1st in the world propositions putting us on the world map. We introduced services like Cross border transfers with currency conversion, were the 1st to introduce merchants’ payments and Financial Services Application (Tigo Pesa App) in the market and many more. These products and services have now become core services to mobile money across the globe.
We are proud of the innovations we continue to do. This is all because we want to give our customers the best services that are simple to use, convenient and secure. We will continue to listen to our customers so we can bring more relevant products and services to them like we did with Lipa Kwa Simu and Jihudumie services. These services were born from listening to our customers changing needs and looking to solve their challenges.
Tigo Pesa started as a remittance product with sending and receiving money but has now grown into a full-fledged financial services platform enabling customers to enjoy all financial services and payments.
Our customers can make savings through our Tigo Pesa Kibubu service, get an instant cash loan through our Nivushe service and also get insurance services through our Bima Mkononi service. Customers can also make payments of goods and services through our 110,000 partner merchants across the country. Money can also be accessed though our 120,000 agents across the country.
We have also connected Tigo Pesa to the world by enabling cross border payments from anywhere in the world to Tigo Pesa and also sending to all East African countries through our partners.
We have further given customers control of their money through our Jihudumie services, where we enable transaction reversal, Luku Token retrieval and provision of electronic statement.
Qns: What should a Tigo Pesa user do when he or she encounters a challenge in using the service?
Ans: If a Tigo Pesa user experiences a challenge when using our services, the first thing he or she can do is dial our customer service number which is 100.
He/she can also visit social media and have the challenge resolved immediately after filing his/her complaint.
Nonetheless, he/she can visit our Tigo shops found throughout the country to report his/her concern.
Since Tigo Pesa focuses on the customer centric innovation, we have come up with the “Jihudumie/Self Care” service that enables the users to solve, by themselves, some of the common challenges encountered when doing transactions.
For instance; in an event that a customer sends money to a wrong person, the customer can log in to the Self-care service and reverse wrong transaction. Also, customers can retrieve LUKU tokens, and access transaction statements easily via dialing Tigo Pesa menu of *150*01#, chose 6, then follow instructions for self-service, Jihudumie or through the Tigo Pesa App on your mobile phone.
Qns: Cybercrime is a global disaster and mobile money transfer service is not spared. What has been Tigo Pesa’s resilience plan?
Ans: It is a tragedy that has plagued not only us but also other financial services providers. Due to the rise of cybercrime, we have been cooperating with the relevant authorities including the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) and security agencies namely the Police Force and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to educate our consumers so that they can understand the proper use of our services. We do this through phone calls, text messages, television, radio and social networks campaigns. We will continue to educate our customers and find better ways to serve them every day.
Qns: How do you improve your services to protect your customers?
Ans: security of our products is very key as we deal with customer money. We have experts across the business in product development, security, risk and compliance who ensure thorough review of product concepts to ensure products very secure.
Our product development process goes through several reviews involving risk asnd fraud aspects, security and consumer protections teams to mention a few. All these processes are keen to ensure secure products and services.
Qns: How do you talk about the competition you have against other financial service providers?
Ans: We understand that there is still a lot to be done in the market to reach more people and also to solve their financial needs. We cannot do this on our own but rather through relevant partnerships with other players in the market. We are continuously looking at how we can partner for the best products and services so as to provide more access, superior products and services to solve needs of our customers.
Despite making great strides as a nation in financial services still there are several underserved areas and population, with untapped abundant opportunities.
And we believe that positive competition and collaboration are key towards the company and industry prosperity as well as the country.
Would you like to tell your Tigo Pesa customers?
Ans: We, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for the continued support in using our products and services and for the valuable feedback they continue giving us that helps us innovate and give them more products and services.
Secondly, I would like to assure our customer that we will continue to listen to their feedback and changing needs so we can serve them better..
Lastly, we urge Tigo Pesa services consumers to continue to use our service responsibly and by considering terms and conditions so that their rights are granted as quickly as possible.
Tigo Pesa, Jana, Leo na Kesho.
You can access Tigo Pesa services through any of its nearby agents and make sure you count your money before leaving.
