She was recently recognised among top 50 women in Management Africa Award.
Ms Angelica Pesha, the Chief Officer for Mobile Financial Service at Tigo Tanzania, part of Axian Telecom which offers the Tigo Pesa Mobile Money services says leading people is a humble experience, with quite lots of responsibilities.
Tigo Pesa service has over 13 million customers, 300,000 merchants, 200,000 agents, and a multi-talented, seasoned staff.
She says that overseeing a multimillion-dollar company takes a lot of work to make sure everything runs smoothly while keeping customers interests at the forefront by providing a 360-lifestyle solution of great services and innovating daily is no joke. This is a difficult task for anyone, but I guess it’s even more so for a woman.
The young chief officer says she is proud to be working at Axian, a company that provides equal opportunities to all, irrespective of gender.
“Axian is a performance-driven company. Delivering pertinent KPIs is the challenge other than the gender of the responsible party,” she says.
She notes however that being at the firm, means she has to work 3 times as hard to showcase herself, earn acceptance and respect from her peers, teammates, the organization and the business community at large; while ensuring that she is delivering above and beyond expectation.
“Considering I am the first female and non-expatriate to head a business role in Tigo, at the earliest stage of my leadership I had to turn a business unit into a full-fledged HTMSL – Tigo Pesa company,” she says.
The commitment and hard work she is putting up at Tigo made her to be recognised among top 50 women in Management Africa Awards, in March this year.
She says the award arrived at the ideal moment and the acknowledgement made her to feel great, and Know that the hard work she has been putting in for several years at the firm has been recognized outside Tigo and beyond borders.
“That showed that I have added value to the industry and continent at large. This gave me great pride,” she says.
She adds that the award also increased her sense of responsibility for other women as she had been trying hard for herself and her family but the experience and the award forced her to pause, reflect, and decide to “pay it forward.”
Ms Angelica says she is utilizing as an opportunity to inspire other women “to step out, step up, and own the seat.”
She says the award has made her embark on a journey to support others and to share more and enable her to take action .
She advise young women aspiring to take the challenges of these senior positions in leadership to “always soar higher”.
She says first and foremost, “you need to put in the work, always give it your best, give it your all and deliver above average results in everything that you do, taking up responsibilities while investing more on yourself in order, to stand out, to be seen, heard and recognized.”
She says young women aspiring to take up leadership positions also need to have a vision and strive to achieve it at all times.
“Challenges will always be there, just stay focused; ask for assistance, and offer to try something new to expand your knowledge, abilities, and experience, in my experience, most women are afraid to take the first step,” she says.
Moreover, she says having a mentor is very important, someone you look up to, that can support you on your journey. You need to take action to get what you want.
Surprisingly, she says all her mentors have always been men, saying more women mentors are needed to encourage their fellow women.
She also pointed out for the need to have support system, saying taking more responsibilities at work will take up more time asking for the need to balance work, family and other social responsibilities, thus maintaining equilibrium and developing a system that works.
When asked about the secret behind her success, Ms Angelica says she was raised in a way that she never looked at herself any less or incapable.
“My father did an amazing job on this. Always giving me confidence and telling me that I can succeed in anything. His has been ingrained in my mind since I was a little child, and has given me the self-assurance I needed to steer my career growth. I strongly recommend that parents raising daughters to take a’ leaf from my father’s book’ she says.
She adds “Hard work and tenacity, suppose it’s easier to persevere when you have a purpose or vision. As said before, you need to put in the work. I have put in the work, I am putting in the work and always striving to become the best version Angelica can be.”
According to her, being a permanent student; no man is an island; you gain knowledge and experience new things when you allow yourself to step out.
She says as a lifelong learner, she always welcomed the chance to pick up new skills through meeting new people, exploring, and using her eyes to notice things. This powerful mind set shift asserts that “learning to see is learning to solve.”
