Thousands of women entrepreneurs in Indonesia can now receive free business advice through their mobile phones, helping to boost women’s empowerment and Indonesia’s economy, thanks to an inspiring new partnership announced by Qtel Group, Indosat, Cherie Blair Foundation, and Nokia.
Indosat, part of Qtel Group, is the first operator in the world to offer the new Nokia Life+Usaha Wanita (Business Women) service, exclusively available for Indosat users. The service was launched at a special ceremony in Jakarta attended by Meliadi Sembiring and Braman Setio, deputy ministers small medium enterprise, Cherie Blair; Qtel Group chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani, Indosat president director and chief executive officer Alexander Rusli, and Jawahar Kanjilal, Nokia Life vice president and global head.
Built for Indonesian women entrepreneurs, Usaha Wanita is provided through the Nokia Life+ web app and provides information on topics such as business management, banking and credit access, customer management and marketing for small businesses. The service is aimed at women who run a small- or medium-sized business, women who are just starting their own micro-enterprise and young women who aspire to have their own
business.
Other topics supported include interpersonal communications and life skills, to ensure that the service addresses multiple facets of a woman’s daily life.
Information for the service has been developed with the Foundation for Social Change, and is offered free for one year to Indosat’s women customers.
Usaha Wanita is accessed via the Nokia Life+ web app, which is supported by a wide range of Nokia Series 40 mobile phones and all Nokia Asha smartphones. Nokia Life+ is available from the Nokia Xpress Browser home page or as a download from the Nokia Store. Nokia Life+ benefits from Nokia’s Xpress Internet platform, which can make browsing the web up to 90% more efficient, allowing users to save on data charges.
Sheikh Abdullah said: “We are proud that Indosat’s Usaha Wanita service will deliver the latest life-enhancing mobile technology thanks to this innovative partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and Nokia. The transformational Usaha Wanita service will help empower women in Indonesia, which is crucial for the society and economy to grow. As a company, we are aware of the fact that closing the digital gender divide has a positive social and economic impact on families and communities. We see the launch of services like this one as critical to increasing access to the full benefit of mobile technology for women.”
Usaha Wanita is based upon research that was conducted by the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, made possible by support from the ExxonMobil Foundation. The research, titled “Mobile value added services- a business growth opportunity for women entrepreneurs”, was published in May 2012.
It was focused on Nigeria, Indonesia and Egypt and is part of a three-phase collaboration between the Foundation and ExxonMobil to extend the benefits of mobile value added services to women entrepreneurs.
Across the three markets, 98% of entrepreneurial activity is driven by micro-entrepreneurs, who have few employees and low capital, according to the report. Additional results show that more than 88% of women entrepreneurs are willing to use mobile value-added services for their businesses, and 82% of women entrepreneurs said they would pay for such value-added services.
Cherie Blair said: “Our research demonstrates the urgent need for the Usaha Wanita service, and we are delighted to be working with Indosat and Nokia on this project. Usaha Wanita furthers our commitment to empowering women entrepreneurs, in developing and emerging countries. We look forward to continuing to work with Qtel Group in developing services that address topics important to women.”