Felicia Nhama, head of Tmcel’s Social Responsibility and Corporate Communication Unit (URSCC), tells Profile about her inspiring professional career.
On the one hand, Felicia shares her experience by commenting on cooperation and development projects that have been successful under her coordination. On the other hand, she appreciates the impact of ESG indicators on the institution where she works, highlighting the importance of these practices for its growth and sustainability.
Profile Mozambique: Could you share with us a summary of your career path until you joined Tmcel? What were the main challenges you faced along the way?
Felícia Nhama: My professional career began in 2002. In September 2004, I joined the now-defunct Mcel, before it merged with the now-defunct TDM, as a customer service agent, and a year later, I took on the role of Secretary to the Board of Directors, a position I held for four years. I then took on new challenges as a Corporate Affairs Technician in the Corporate Communications and Social Responsibility area.
In time, an opportunity arose for the position of Senior Manager in the same area, which I applied for and held for eight years, until the companies merged. After the restructuring, I continued as the area’s coordinator.
I faced many challenges, both personal and professional. I reconciled motherhood, home and studies, managing to graduate while working and looking after two children. In the professional environment, I had to adapt to different leadership styles, working directly with five different leaders.
One of the biggest challenges came when I was left alone in the Corporate Communications and Social Responsibility sector, after the entire team left at the same time. I took on all the functions of the three colleagues who left, as well as my own, dealing with complex tasks such as internal and external communication, crisis management, partnerships and social projects. This period required intense dedication, with work outside office hours, including weekends, especially in crisis situations. This experience was fundamental in recognizing my skills within the company.
PM: Considering Mozambique’s socio-economic context, what are the biggest challenges in implementing social responsibility strategies in the corporate sector?
FM: In my opinion, Mozambique still faces many challenges in this process. Firstly, there is the issue of the absence of clear policies or guidelines that can guide companies in conducting social responsibility actions. Secondly, these same policies face the challenge of a lack of incentives that can motivate companies to develop more and more socially responsible actions.
Companies also need to be encouraged, motivated and engaged so that they are more interested in contributing to the well-being and quality of life of the communities in which they operate. In my opinion, another major challenge in implementing corporate social responsibility projects is the lack of close alignment with the government, in order to make corporate actions converge with government priorities and thus achieve tangible goals with an impact on society.
In order for corporate social responsibility to be visible and notorious, it needs to generate positive transformations and results for all those involved: the company, the government, communities and society as a whole. There is also the challenge of the government’s failure to regulate the Patronage Law, where the law’s objectives and advantages for companies are still unclear.
This last point has been the biggest concern for companies when they think about social investments, as they see this law as a detriment rather than an incentive, which puts companies off expanding their investments in social projects. There is an urgent need to revise and regulate this law so that everyone benefits and neither party loses out. Only in this way will we have real, concrete social responsibility with an impact.
PM: How can corporate communication be used to mitigate crises and strengthen the company’s image?
FM: Firstly, we have to understand that corporate communication represents a set of actions and practices that companies must adopt, the main aim of which is to generate an impact on the company’s different stakeholders. On the other hand, corporate communication is related to the strategies used for the company to communicate efficiently with its publics, both internal and external.
Therefore, in the process of mitigating crises, corporate communication must be efficient because only in this way does it help to build and maintain a positive image of the company, including strengthening brand identity because a well-communicated brand generates trust and customer loyalty. Communication in times of crisis is one of the important elements in avoiding noise and consequently problems in the workplace. It becomes a vital resource for establishing a dialog with both internal and external audiences, in this case customers and the media.
The main strategy in the process of crisis management in corporate communication lies in anticipation and prevention, which allows companies to react and prepare proactively to face challenges before they turn into major crises.
For this reason, companies must design internal crisis communication policies and procedures, and these must be duly clear and segmented, taking into account the type of crisis, the degree of public affected, the size and scope, among other relevant factors that can negatively impact the company’s image if they are not well articulated.
PM: Could you share some examples of cooperation and development projects that have been successful under your coordination?
FM: There are several projects and each one has had and continues to have its impact. However, looking at the size of the project and its impact, I can first mention a project developed in the area of health, the SER project – Serviço Expedido de Resultados, a cooperation and development project between Tmcel, the Ministry of Health, through the INS – Instituto Nacional de Sáude and CHAI – Clinton Health Initiative.
It is a project with great national and international impact, which began in 2010 to improve the area of maternal and child health, where HIV test results for children born to HIV-positive mothers are now sent via a printer that works through a sim card and tmcel’s GPRS technology.
The advancement of this technology has reduced the time it takes to send results from 6 months to 28 days, which has led to children starting treatment earlier and as a result has helped to save lives. This project positioned Mozambique as a pioneer in the use of cell phones to transmit laboratory results in the National Health Service and proved that new information and communication technologies are effective in the health system.
M-Health became a reality in Mozambique with the implementation of this project, which earned former US president and patron of the international organization implementing the project, Bill Clinton, a visit to Mozambique in 2012, where he visited the Polana Caniço Health Centre, where one of the laboratories with this service was installed.
Another noteworthy project implemented under my coordination was the MOPA project, a participatory monitoring platform for solid waste management in the city of Maputo in 2015. MOPA was developed in partnership with Tmcel, which provided the USSD technology platform for its operation free of charge. This project allows problems related to waste management to be identified and reported, making it possible for the various players, such as the municipality, private waste collectors and citizens, to intervene.
The partners in this project were UX – User Experience, a Mozambican startup, the World Bank and, in addition to mcel, the Maputo City Council and the non-governmental organization Livaningo.
I remember at the time that when the startup showed up at the company to talk about the project, I said yes, even before submitting it for approval. I realized the impact and results, the scale of the project and the conviction that we should definitely embrace the project and have our brand associated with it. It was then that the partner said that he had already made several contacts and attempts to approach the project but they hadn’t been forwarded to the right area and at that moment, for the first time, I felt that I was in the right place and with the right person for the project to be implemented and made a reality.
The impact was even greater when the project won a worldwide award at the Global Innovation Competition, a competition held in Accra, the capital of Ghana, which aimed to identify the best technologies focused on public participation and citizen engagement on the African and Asian continents. It was an enormous satisfaction to know that we were part, as a company, of such a large-scale project, that we believed in the project, supported it and the impact was beyond expectations.
PM: How does Tmcel ensure that its social responsibility actions are aligned with the real needs of the communities where it operates?
FM: The company has internal policies and procedures that serve as guidelines for social responsibility actions. These documents contain certain criteria and guidelines that guide the company in implementing its social responsibility projects. On the other hand, work is also done to listen to community leaders and engage in dialogue with the beneficiary communities, in order to understand the real needs of the communities themselves and ensure that the actions respond exactly to the needs pointed out by them.
In these cases, it is also important to carry out a technical feasibility study and identify potential before implementing a project, so that the actions planned have the desired results. I can cite an example of a project in which a feasibility study was not carried out properly by one of the parties and a properly equipped computer room was installed in a district in which that was probably not the real need or priority of the community, and for this reason the room remained unused for more than a year, even damaging much of the computer equipment that had been installed.
We have this and many other examples of projects in communities which, when there is no prior fieldwork, consultation and dialog with the beneficiary communities, we find ourselves in these critical situations. Therefore, it’s best to involve all the stakeholders, especially the beneficiaries of such actions.
PM: How are the ESG indicators at your institution and what has been their impact?
FM: Companies that invest in good ESG practices make it easier to retain customers and reduce operating costs, and the first step in investing in this direction is to seek out information and look at the business, identifying good practices that help to guarantee the company’s reputation and image.
ESG indicators can have various benefits for the company, such as improving brand image, reducing risks and increasing process efficiency. However, it is important to note that each company is unique and the benefits can vary according to the sector and size of the company, among other factors. With regard to social practices, we can highlight a few practices, namely valuing health and safety in the workplace, diversity and inclusion and the company’s positioning in social causes.
Os indicadores de ESG devem estar acima do lucro e integrar questões ambientais, sociais e de governança na estratégia e operações da empresa, demonstrando um compromisso genuíno com um futuro sustentável e ético. Por isso, a empresa tem os seus indicadores alinhados à políticas internas e boas práticas de gestão traçadas pela empresa dentro dos objectivos a visão estratégica definida. Neste processo, todos os intervenientes são consciencializados sobre a sua importância para que participem nos processos de implementação de soluções.
