An interview with Mohamed Dabbour, CEO, Millicom Africa

Only 16 per cent of Tanzanian children under the age of five are registered at birth, and only half of those registered receive a birth certificate.

In 2011 the Registration Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) of Tanzania developed, with support from UNICEF, a five-year strategy that aimed to make the birth registration process more affordable, widely accessible and efficient. After identifying three pilot locations – Dar Es Salaam, Mbeya and Mwanza – a Memorandum of Understanding was developed with relevant ministries to allow the project partners to legally test a new mobile registration process. To further modernise the registration process RITA and UNICEF worked with Tigo Tanzania starting in 2013 to develop innovative mobile applications that could allow registrars to collect birth registration data and remotely upload it to a centralised system. In addition to providing their technical expertise to this project, Tigo provided registrars with free mobile handsets, data and SMS texting.

On a visit to the Dar Es Salaam pilot location, GSMA Direct-General Mats Granryd met with Millicom Africa CEO, Mohamed Dabbour, to discuss the impact this initiative has had on the local community. Learn more about our Sustainable and Responsible Business Leadership work here.