Vodacom forges partnerships, bundles services in DRC mining boom
Vodacom has earmarked the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) mining industry as a target for growth, building what it calls a “one-stop shop” for the country’s burgeoning mining sector.
Vodacom Business is building up adjacent services to complement an established, targeted solutions package — Digital Mine, supported by Internet of Things subsidiary IoT.nxt — as it aims to bundle health and safety, financial, and human resources services into an increasingly wide-reaching mining industry offensive.
The division is aiming to leverage the product of a previous partnership with Standard Bank and two local DRC mines in order to launch a series of health and financial services tools in the country. The performance of that existing partnership, which saw the creation of digital workplace app Umoja, has prompted plans to “expand into regions across Africa and globally”.
Umoja provides “real-time” data to employees such as payroll details, training, and feedback channels. Full-time employees are offered mobile devices, data bundles, and solar chargers to access the platform, with a claimed 80,000 hits on content in the first three months of operation. Vodacom claimed that “over 80%” of initial users remain active, with targets to reach 10,800 employees (albeit with no timeline set).
Regardless, ambitions to take the solution beyond DRC borders indicates a level of satisfaction with current performance, and the potential Vodacom Business sees as it adds further adjacent services to the platform.
Mining has long been a focus for Vodacom, and doubling down on the industry in the DRC appears to make sense given its scale. Minerals and petroleum account for approximately 95% of the DRC’s total export value, and its mines produce around two-thirds of the world’s cobalt.
From products to solutions
Speaking at the annual DRC Mining Week and quoted by local outlet CAJ, Stephanie Saidi, Executive Head of Sales at Vodacom Business, said that the operator’s connectivity propositions reflect an effort to “forge partnerships”, supporting the country’s “industrial strategy”.
Specifically, Saidi talked up the potential for the mining industry to make use of Vodacom DRC’s financial services portfolio, including its m-money platform M-PESA, as Vodacom Business looks to layer services on top of Digital Mine.
This reflects Vodacom’s wider ‘telco to TechCo’ transformation strategy which, as Group Chief Executive Shameel Joosub puts it, requires the Group to “deliver on our multi-product strategy, our system of advantage”. Or, as Vodacom DRC CEO Pamela Ilunga reportedly said at the DRC Mining Week, a “migration from product provider to solutions provider”.
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