Telecoms operators dial in to refugee markets

Nyarugusu on the border of Tanzania and Burundi, one of the largest refugee camps in the world, is an unlikely pioneer in how the telecoms industry views refugees. Established in 1996, it has population of 150,000. Vodacom, Vodafone’s African arm, installed a 3G tower within Nyarugusu in 2016, which it now shares with commercial rivals Tigo and Airtel. The tower is running at full capacity, according to the GSMA, the mobile industry trade body, but more striking is the average revenue per user of $4.40. That is slightly higher than the average revenue per user for the rest of Tanzania. Refugees are spending about a third of their disposable income on connectivity. Chris Earney, head of innovation at the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, says that Vodacom had initially built one tower to test the demand and this quickly proved the business case. He says that some telecoms companies are starting to realise that refugee communities represent “large untapped markets”.