Western Union Lends A "Helping Hand" To Africa

Africans abroad send a lot of money to their relatives in Africa via Western Union’s money transfer services. So naturally, people would wonder if the money transfer company gives anything back to the community.

Daniel Canning, the company’s Marketing Director believes that the story of Western Union’s “human side” has not been told very effectively. “We are very proud to tell this story, because I don’t think we have told it very effectively,” he said.

“Besides offering product values for our customers, we want people to recognize that western Union is the leader in money transfer. And we hope to maintain our leadership by continuing to offer the most value in the market. But also when we give back, that resonates with people that ‘I have made a choice as a consumer of companies that I want to do business with, because I know that they are giving back more than other companies.’ So western Union has that intention in mind with the ‘Helping Hands’ program,” he said.

The financial services giant recently unveiled the company’s global philanthropic program, ‘Helping Hand,’ as a vehicle to “support humanitarian causes fostering health and education,” Canning explained.

He reported that together with its agent representatives in Africa, the company has, in the past four years, donated more than $1.6 million to support more than 60 projects and emergency relief causes across the continent.

“The reality is that we are very proud that Western Union has been involved in some of these programs. And it is very impressive to see the impact that these types of donations can make on people’s lives, especially children. So, it’s something that we think it is worth telling,” he stated.

Canning, along with the company’s Regional Manager for West Africa, Ismahill Diaby; Marketing Specialist, Rita Nazi; joined local company officials at a meeting in Atlanta that he said was a customer appreciation day “to share the good news” with the leaders of various community organizations.

He also used the opportunity to explain the tenets of the company’s recently announced rate reductions, and stressed that combined with their wide variety of options, it (Western Union) offers the best value for its customers.

“I think the best way that we can help our customers to celebrate the holidays is offering the best value in the market. And at this point, honestly, we think we got it. If you asked me two months ago for Africa, ‘do we have the best value in the marketplace,’ it would have been harder for me to say absolutely, without a doubt,” he said.

“Because we were a lot more expensive and we give a lot more to our consumers in terms of what we offer and other pieces of our program. None of our competitors offer a program that allows you to earn transaction to earn points in rewards or future discounts.”

The Gold Card The Gold Card offers for every gold card transaction a free five-minute phone call to Africa, five minutes. “No other program out there does that. We think that we have the best value out there, so that is how we celebrate the holidays for our consumers,” he said.

“At the end of the day any consumer who makes decisions about purchasing any services or product is looking for value. And price is one factor in value. But price is not the only factor,” he said.

Canning added: “We felt that we need to ensure that we have the best value in money transfer to Africa, that is what we’ve done. We have a price that is very consistent with where our competitors are but we offer far more, and the far more include the fact that with Western Union you have more options to sending your money in terms of places to send money from, more than 46,000 locations going on 50,000 locations so it’s more convenient for the receiver.

“We have over 10,000 locations now in Africa, which far outstrips the number for any of our other competitors. But that said you could send money via the web, by telephone or one of our retail location circuits in the United States.

Debit Card Option “Additionally, we have a service that we think is interesting for a section of our consumers, and that is paying for Western Union transaction with your debit cards that means when you send money instead of walking around with a lot of cash to a location or having to go get that cash from your bank, you can walk to a Western Union station, swipe your debit card no additional charge same price as if you used cash and you’ve done your money transfer,” he reported

“So the convenient aspect, the safety aspect of it is that we are happy to offer the consumers is to give them another choice when they send their money, our competitors do not have that offering.”

On a familiarization tour of the US to observe the company’s operations, Ismahill Diaby, West Africa Regional Marketing Manager, who was part of the delegation concurred on the company’s “unsung” humanitarian efforts, noting that he also came along “to tell the good news,” of efforts on the ground, in the African continent. “It is important for us who are in Africa to share with you the values that we have for Africans living there,” he said.

The Moroccan-based official of Ivorian descent said the company’s commitment to quality in their service offering is the same in Africa. “The service is the same in Africa, and we make sure that when people go to our locations to pick up the money that the quality of the services is as high as possible. So these are also some of the things that we wanted to share with you. And the fact that we reduced our prices, means that we are listen to our customers and we want them to trust us,” indicated.

He also emphasized that the company is doing more in humanitarian efforts than it is known to the general public. “We are doing so many things to support our people in Africa. Maybe you were not informed about them,” he asked, revealing for instance that, “Last year, there was a famine [in Niger]. This crisis was really huge and we could not just let things happen like that and we decided to support it strongly. We provided hundreds of tons of cereal, and this helped save thousands of children in this part of the country.”

Besides humanitarian projects he intimated the company also supports many social activities. “We do sponsor sport, health and education,” noting further, that during the summer in most African countries “we have many children that are in the street and do not have anything to do. And what we do is organize football tournaments and practice, just to occupy them during the summer and give them the opportunity to do something interesting before they go back to school.

“And it was important to bring some good news to them with the new pricing. We did listen to the message of our customers and we know that they are struggling a lot and I am struggling also to send money to my relatives in the Ivory Coast,” he said.