Ambitious big data analysis project, Nafsi, has started with TA Telecom launching trials in Egypt, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa in a project that will use mobile technology to collect data from individual countries and map the personalities of the people living there.
Nafsi, which means “soul” or “being” in Swahili and Arabic, allows individuals across Africa to take a mobile-ready psychometric test to identify their personality type and will involve hundreds of thousands of people living across the continent.
Developed alongside Egypt’s first certified life coach and psychologist, Ahmed El Aawar, Nafsi uses a series of questions delivered by SMS and on mobile internet to help individuals determine their personality type.
Once this survey is completed the data is used to present individuals with a full breakdown of their character traits as well as offering tailored life advice based on the answers given. The personality types include: The Reformer, The Helper, The Achiever, The Individualist, The Investigator, The Loyalist, The Enthusiast, The Challenger and the Peacemaker.
Apart from offering life guidance to individual subscribers, TA Telecom will aggregate and analyse data gathered by the project to create personality maps of Africa, highlighting social attitudes and trends in the individual countries, information that will present opportunities for companies doing business in Africa, giving organisations a fresh insight into each country on the continent.
The long term target of the project Nafsi aims to allow businesses to reach their target audience, reduce irrelevant marketing and helping international companies realize the social differences across Africa.
Ahmed El Aawar, a certified life coach with more than 2,000 accredited hours and cognitive psychologist (Columbia University) said, “Nafsi was developed with the individual in mind. We wanted to use technology to reach out to people across Africa, speak to them and offer advice about areas of life where they can make improvements. The project uses a complex methodology of psychological Genotype (The Nature aspect of personality) recently understood by modern cognitive psychologist via the teachings of the Enneagram.”
“On top of this we also wanted to create something that would show how different Africa is. International companies can sometimes treat the continent as one market and even one country – it is a much more diverse and colourful tapestry than that. This survey will enable us to map the identity of Africa like never before and really show this.”
On his part Amr Shady, CEO of TA Telecom said “Africa can never be seen as one market. Each country has its own rules, regulations, religions, languages and social identity. Nafsi allows us to talk directly to the people in every country and find out what makes them tick. This is the largest data driven project we have delivered to the continent. Once our trials are complete, we plan to roll out Nafsi across Africa. Not only can we help improve the lives of individuals, but we can use this data to work closely with mobile operators and businesses looking to succeed on the continent.”
A full roll out to Nigeria, Morocco, Tanzania and Ghana will then follow, with the view to mapping 250,000 individual personality types over the course of the project.
