Truecaller, Vconnect partnership target 2m business owners
…As Hersi heads Sub Sahara Africa
By Josh Babatunde
With the integration of VConnect, Nigeria on Truecaller’s app, the partnership is expected to target over two million business owners in the country.
In a statement by Truecaller, it integrated VConnect business directory to its app for efficient
According to the duo, Truecaller and VConnect launched Truecaller Priority in Nigeria last year to enable businesses on VConnect to quickly identify if a call is a potential prospect. Many users searching for businesses on VConnect.com, call the numbers mentioned in their profile. These numbers, which are routed through VConnect intermediate numbers, are marked as ‘Priority’ in the Truecaller app.
VConnect Director Growth and Partnerships, Naveen Luthra, said, “This step of integrating our business listings on Truecaller platform, will further empower SMEs in Nigeria to get more visibility and new customers. This partnership deepens the relationships between two organisations, to bring about digital inclusion of small businesses here.”
Meanwhile, Truecaller disclosed that it would be setting up headquarters in Nairobi and has recruited Zakaria Hersi as Director of Partnerships for Africa.
In this position, Zakaria is spearheading its expansion in the region where he forges partnerships with various eco-system players.
Hersi says,“I’m excited to join Truecaller in such interesting juncture. My aim is to build upon the strong foundation that we have as a brand here and double up the pace of our growth and ambitions in the market. In the coming months we plan to roll out more partnerships and new services localized for the market.”
Zakaria has a background of launchmarketplaces around the world, and has helped the Swedish Investment firm Kinnevik launch Saltside in Nigeria where he was the Managing Director. He also had two stints working for Swedish based company Besedo, where he helped open offices in Colombia and Mauritius.
Recall that Truecaller launched its Developer Program with Truecaller SDK, its mobile identity product for digital start-ups and app developers, and announced that they will be doubling down on their monetization initiative, and introduce its Truecaller Priority program in Sub-Sahara Africa.
Truecaller has become one of the fastest growing consumer apps in Africa, and has consistently been topping the App Store Charts across the continent for the past two years.