THE Kilimanjaro Marathon for the first time will see Tigo Tanzania partnering with other companies to hold the internationally-recognised charity event that seeks to raise funds for good causes, such as environmental conservation around Mt. Kilimanjaro.
According to a statement made available to the ‘Daily News’, the telecommunications company will be sponsoring the Tigo Kili Half- Marathon, a 21- kilometre race, on March 1 and pledged to commit over 80m/- to the major event.
“Tigo’s spirit of participation in this event is borne out of commitment to the development of sports and every aspect of the social and economic of this country, including environmental conservation,” the newly appointed Tigo Tanzania Interim General Manager, Cecile Tiano, said in the statement.
Tiano said that Tigo recognised the ‘northern zone’ as a commercial and tourist hub in addition to being a gateway to other countries and has targeted the zone its investment commitment.
The northern zone which comprises Arusha, Manyara, Kilimanjaro, Singida and Dodoma regions has, according to Tiano, been a major beneficiary of Tigo’s sponsorships and corporate responsibility initiatives which seek to directly turn around the social welfare of the people in the areas of education, health, environment, entrepreneurship, job creation, arts and sports.
“Through our initiatives such as the Tigo Ngorongoro Run held every year in Karatu, the company, with its partners, has been able to inject and mobilize resources which go into buying mosquito nets that are distributed to schools and buying equipment for hospitals in Karatu district,” she said.
Tiano said that this year they plan to set up over 748 sites countrywide out of which 300 will be in the northern zone (already 334 towers exists) in a bid to ensure that residents of every village in the five regions get connected to their services.
At an average cost of 100,000 US dollars per site, this translates to investing over 75 million US dollars in the country with 30 million US dollars going into the five regions, Tiano said.
“This means giving more people new social and economic opportunities, integrating them to the global economy through internet access and, in the process, enabling them to embrace a digital lifestyle,” she remarked.
In the past two years, Tigo has been investing an average of two million US dollars per week on its infrastructure countrywide.
This investment has been put into expanding its networks by building new sites, even in the remotest villages, upgrading its network to 3G to enable people access data, training their workforce and giving back to communities through their corporate responsibility programmes.
Source:DailyNews
