Ethio Telecom celebrates International Women’s Day under the theme: Digital Inclusion for Gender Equality

Ethiopia’s mobile network operator, Ethio Telecom has marked this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) by offering over 3 million dirr worth of free smartphones for 2014 EFY best-performing 353 women cleaners drawn from Addis Ababa’s.

According to a statement released, the move also forms part of the network operator’s commitment to discharging its corporate responsibilities, particularly in ensuring women’s multifaceted participation, empowering and enabling them to actively participate in a wide range of societal affairs over its long and persistent years of service.

During a brief ceremony to commemorate the day and held on the theme ‘Digital Inclusion for Gender Equality’, the 353 women were acknowledged for their immense contribution towards the cleanness and beauty of the African capital, Addis Ababa which is the seat of a number of International organizations and has become tourist destination as well as for making the city a conducive environment for its residents.

Officials believe that the provision of smart held handset devices to these outstanding women is mainly aimed at bridging the digital divide and enabling women to access digital technology and financial services which have now come to be a must to use such gadgets to ease the day-to-day life and business activities as well as to ensure women’s digital economy inclusion and equality.

The statement further noted that “as part of marking the Women’s International Day, we are also delighted to inform you that we have launched a two day long Women’s Day package with up to 25% discount which is available at My Ethiotel or *999# including a 10% bonus while purchasing the package via telebirr App.”

“Since women's inclusion and empowerment is one of the values and commitments of our company, for the last three years alone, our company invested 54.4 million birr for purchasing over 70 thousand mobile handsets to hand over as a gift to support women, thereby enabling them access to information and digital economy,” it said.