Econet wants to help small businesses make more money

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe CEO Douglas Mboweni

ECONET Wireless says it wants to help businesses, particularly small businesses in Zimbabwe, to generate more income using its products and services.

“We want our customers, who are increasingly running their own businesses, to see our network as a partner who will help them make more money,” said Econet Wireless Zimbabwe CEO Douglas Mboweni.
The boss of the largest mobile operator, said that “it’s no longer enough to simply offer cheaper calls, we need to help businesses to make more money using our services.” Unveiling a new service called OWNAI which helps businesses to sell their products Mboweni said, “We have products and services which can be used as tools to make your business more effective.”
OWNAI is an eCommerce Marketplace which allows Econet customers to market their products for free to more than 10,2 million registered Econet customers. “It is not possible to get that kind of market exposure, except through Econet,” said Mboweni.

Available on both mobile and desktop platforms, OWNAI allows users to buy new and pre-owned items at the most affordable prices, and it takes less than 30 seconds to post a free ad and start selling to interested buyers.

Mboweni said the service does not span Econet customers only but anyone (including non Econet customers) can actually access the platform and search for goods. He said the new service will not lead to the spread of “spam” SMS messages, and emphasised that Econet will not send customers adverts. Rather, he said customers choose to see adverts posted by others. “We have invested heavily in sophisticated spam and fraud-detection software and we will moderate every ad before it is published on OWNAI,” said Mboweni.