By Pascal Oparada
Till date, Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) remains South African companies’ biggest success story in Nigeria. The company began operations in the country on May 16, 2001, and has made a success of the brand.
As of June 2016, MTN recorded about 233 million subscribers across its operations in Africa. Although it operates in about 20 African countries, one-third of its revenue comes from Nigeria where it controls 35 percent of subscribers.
Of the 238 million active GSM lines in Nigeria, MTN has over 60 million as of January 2018, according to data obtained from Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
It ran into trouble with the Nigerian government in 2016 when it failed to disconnect preregistered SIM cards and was fined over $5 billion for the infraction.
It only recently paid a fraction of the fine after a plea bargain when it agreed to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Now it hopes to help other brands – from South Africa – replicate the same success in Nigeria by piggybacking others into the country.
One of the newest entrants into the Nigerian digital satellite television market, KWESE TV, owned by Econet Wireless founder, Strive Masiyiwa, is hoping to cash in on MTN’s success in Nigeria.
In December 2017, KWESE entered into a partnership with the telecoms giant to help sell its dish and decoder across major MTN shops in Lagos after it had done same for its rival, DStv, another South African brand.
The adverts are over the airwaves.
Mobile Content advertising company, TwinPine, partnered with the telecoms company in 2014 to sell targeted Mobile adverts to subscribers on the MTN network.
The agreement which is exclusive to TwinPine will take advantage of the tremendous traffic which MTN Play has to give advertisers and brand owners the opportunity to reach their target market through the platform.
“We are pleased to be partnering with MTN on this innovative platform. We have the technological capacity to meet the needs of advertisers however large”, Elo Umeh, Managing Director of TwinPine said during the partnership launch.
Lumos inverter, last year began a vigorous campaign to win the hearts of Nigerians who have already given up on the power situation in the country, to launch its operations.
Piggybacked by MTN, customers of Lumos have to pay in installments through their MTN lines, after initial deposit. Currently, Lumos is on the lips of most MTN subscribers who are using the services.
Nigerians expect a halt of the capital fight by MTN from Nigeria through its Initial Public Offer (IPO) anytime soon. They also hope that the telecoms company should carry other indigenous brands on its wings to recreate its own success where it has been welcomed and allowed to blossom without any hindrance. Many Nigerian brands wait to ride on MTN’s back to glory.