Ethiopia Buna Football Club and Eleibat Solutions launched an integrated sports platform to enable fans to self-register and manage other activities. The application which has four phases will be available online.
The application, Tifozo, will help Bunna fans to register their membership using their smartphones and pay fees in the 200 agent shops of Elibat.
The application which was enabled by Elibat will be facilitated by its agents around the country. The company has about 200 active agent shops which will increase to 2,000 in the coming month.
The fans, from all over the world, will be filling information in the application and can pay the registration and monthly fee in the agent shops.
The project exported data from the existing 18,000 members to a new database. The club also launched an electronic ID card for its fans. It will have a secret passcode that can’t be used by another person if it gets lost. The card will give various services in the future including stadium entrance.
“The inclusion of the electronic ID card will not incur any additional fee for its members,” said Netsanet Raya, CEO, and founder of Elibat.
In the first phase, the application will enable the purchase of any product by the club besides membership sign in.
“We were only able to sell our soccer jerseys and other kits representing our club in Addis Ababa, but this application will enable not only local fans but also those residing overseas to purchase online, “ said Surgeon Feqade Mamo a.k.a. Chento. “The project Elibat came up with, will make our club the wealthiest on the continent.”
According to research conducted by the developer, there are about 6million Buna sport club fans around the globe.
The application is going to be available in Dubai and the US after mid-September. They hope fans overseas will use it to buy the club’s products.
“Tifozo will be available in many other foreign courtiers after the pilot is over,” Netsanet told Capital.
The club which starts registering its fans before 33 years didn’t have enough fence to support its costs.
During the launching ceremony, six competitor clubs and the national team was invited to learn about the technology and to follow Bunna’s lead.
“In the 21st century it’s uncivilized to watch fans travel long kilometers to obtain service which they can get at hand,” said Fekade.
Ethiopia Bunna is among the five football clubs in Africa with a large number of fans.
The club which was transferred for the fans from the National Coffee Trading Corporation is mainly supported by the coffee exporters.
The system also considers those who didn’t use smart phones to call to the call center, 6061, and get the service or to know the location of the direction of agent hopes.
Netsanet revealed that there are ongoing deals with three banks to integrate the application with their system. After the financial integration is completed fans are expected to have their payments from their bank account, which is going to minimize the appearance at the shops.
“The Integration between the banks will be applicable within two months maximum,” said Netsanet.
It will turn the football industry to be more profitable and accessible which may also lead to the improvement.
The current reform in the telecom is also a surprise for us” said Nestanet. “The agents will give the service at a cheaper operational coast.”
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