Few weeks after launching this campaign, IGIHE caught up with Sharon Mazimhaka, General Manager, Corporate Services and Company Secretary at MTN Rwanda to shed light on anticipated outcomes of the campaign to be rolled out countrywide for four-months.

Implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health, the campaign was launched early July 2021 with the objective to reinforce awareness around the importance of properly wearing face masks as a way of curbing the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
The campaign seeks among other things to encourage the public to adhere to all COVID-19 preventive measures instituted by the Ministry of Health.

As Mazimhaka explained, MTN Rwanda is deeply invested in the well-being of the communities within which it operates where the telecom is convinced that setting an agenda to extend awareness on recommended health guidelines would be a step further to ensuring safe communities and returning to normalcy.

“Wearing face masks properly is one of key initiatives individuals can take to play their part in containing the spread of COVID-19. The aim of the campaign is to motivate individuals to push through and continue to wear face masks properly and also adhere to other containment measures including social distancing, washing hands among others. This campaign is an opportunity for us to support national efforts in response to the pandemic,” she said.

In addition to the four-month campaign, MTN Rwanda contributed 20,000 face masks and 500 Oxygen saturation monitors as further support towards the ongoing public health needs.

In light of the campaign, MTN Rwanda pledged to support 40 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are running e-commerce businesses by zero-rating access to their websites for MTN customers and granting them 3 months-FREE access to MoMo Biz (a digital platform that enables businesses to easily conduct end-to-end MoMo transactions).

“The Government has encouraged people to go cashless and embrace digital transactions which is another way of reducing transmission of the virus. By supporting SMEs with zero rate access to e-commerce platforms, we are convinced that it will help to reduce crowds in market places and complements guidelines to keep social distancing,” stated Mazimhaka.

She stressed that the telecom is not only concerned about generating returns but also takes heed on the wellbeing of members of the community.

“We are much concerned about our communities and understand that it is our responsibility to use the resources we have to play whatever role we can, especially during this pandemic, to help them to stay safe,” she noted.

Apart from ‘One More Push’ campaign, MTN Rwanda has been engaged in diverse projects that are geared towards positively impacting communities in the areas of Economic Empowerment, Education and Health.

These include recent partnership with HeHe, a technology company that enables businesses in operation optimization. This partnership consists of financial support for SMEs in the agribusiness sector and providing trainings in digital marketing to better equip them to market their products on local and international ecommerce marketplaces.

In June this year, MTN Rwanda pledged to construct six hand washing facilities at various schools in Nyamasheke District to underwrite efforts in place to mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus.

Through the annual ’WeCare Month’ campaign held in June 2021, the telecom also donated Rwf100,000,000 to the Ministry of Education through its newly established institution Rwanda TVET Board to facilitate the infrastructure of 10 computer labs in various TVET schools across the country.

The One More Push campaign was adopted from MTN Group as a way to reinforce the message of wearing face masks properly to combat any further spread of the coronavirus.

It runs for four months and will be present on radio, TV, outdoor and digital media channels.

Among others, MTN Rwanda has pledged to offer its communication channels to the Ministry of Health and Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) to disseminate important messages to the public on COVID-19 preventive measures.

Implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health, the campaign was launched early July 2021 with the objective to reinforce awareness around the importance of properly wearing face masks as a way of curbing the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.