Few weeks ago, there were speculations that the telecoms industry was about to witness the exit of MTN Nigeria from the telecommunications industry in Nigeria. And that was because the company had gone through several challenges, one of which was the fine imposed on it following the SIM card registration crisis.
However, after a long silence, the largest network operator opted to opened up to the media on the true state of affairs of the company and the latest development at the Falomo House, corporate headquarters of the South Africa Company.
Two of its top management leaders, the new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ferdi Moolman and Head of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola were brought before a group of select journalist at the company’s boardroom to clear the air on some key issues concerning MTN Nigeria.
Oyagbola who has been with the company from inception while introducing the new boss of MTN Nigeria said that the reason for the meeting was to intimate the country that as ICT company, the brand wants to continue to be a development partner with the government and offer services that will not only improve the economy but have impact on the life of its subscribers through the best quality services that it offers.
Corroborating her, Moolman said it has put behind all the challenges of the past, and wants to open a new chapter with all its development partners, which also include government and its agencies.
He said that the first thing that it would want to is restore its relationship with the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, so that the industry could move forward.
It added that early resolution of the impasse is important for the telco as the total fine amounted to about 95 per cent of the Group’s total revenue for a year.
Beyond the SIM card registration, the company had before now had issues with the NCC over poor quality services and the inability of the operator to meet the key performance indicator set by stakeholders in the industry, which it was fined.
In resolving that problem, the operator did a holistic network modernisation across the country in 2011, which eventually resulted to optimum performance.
But then network hiccups, which could not be explained surfaced Moolman noting that MTN had indeed made huge investment in network upgrade.
He said that as company it is disappointed sometimes some of its effort do not immediately achieve result due to size of the country, when compared with countries like the United Kingdom.
“When we roll out the network ten years ago, the issue was to cover the whole country as best as we can, and instead of rolling out in the areas where we have best quality, we felt that we should cover the country”, he said.
According to him, though MTN has had technicians who drive around to monitor what is happening across the network, but then the geographical spread of the country is a challenge, and as such even after upgrade sites still go down simultaneously.
Moolman who replaced the first Nigeria Managing Director, Mr. Micheal Ikpoki following the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, SIM registration crisis that resulted to fining the company a whopping $5.2 billion said that the new team leadership at MTN Nigeria is open to honestly answer an questions put to across to it.
He admitted that there are several challenges in the telecoms industry in the country, and that for him it is not the challenges but the future prospect that the industry holds for MTN Nigeria.
One of such challenges he pointed out was the series of events that made MTN Nigeria to drag the NCC to court, which according to him would not strain the existing relationship them.
He made it clear that whatever the outcome of the court case, MTN would still hold the NCC in highest regard revealing that his company was prepared to go to any length to restore relationship with the NCC.
Similarly, describing NCC as most important stakeholder to MTN as far as the industry is concerned, Oyagbola said,”We have utmost respect for them. The approach of this new team is to correct where we have erred in the past, ensure good business relationship with all stakeholders in the industry. This begins with show of good faith; speaking the truth, to be able to restore and generate more goodwill.”
After leaving Nigeria many years ago, Moolman who described himself as a Lagos boy said that he was not sure of ever returning to the country but the turn of events in the country has brought him back saying that wherever any problem is in the services of MTN Nigeria, he is willing to fix it.
He was however quick to confess about the enormity of the fine, saying that part of the reasons MTN felt the court resolution was imperative, was that the fine amounted to about 95 per cent of the company’s total revenue for a year.
Moolman added that another challenge is the falling oil prices and fluctuating foreign exchange were having a negative impact on the ability of the company to import equipment from abroad.
“It is really disturbing and it has become more difficult to import equipment from abroad. These two issues of falling oil prices and fluctuating foreign exchange regime are serious issues, but we have confidence in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) efforts to resolve the matter”, he said.
Moolman said going forward; MTN is positioning itself as full digital company playing deep in the broadband, broadcasting and digital content space in the information and communications technology sector.
“We would like to take this company from a telecom company to a people’s company so that people can communicate with each other, entertain themselves, something that people are proud to be part of”, he said.
The duo recall the Visafone transaction as an impetus of its abiding faith in the country, saying that it wants to use it to make broadband services available to all Nigerians wherever they are.
He said that the acquisition of Visafone was part of the MTN Nigeria broadband strategy to give Nigeria the best quality broadband services that will growing and boost internet access in the country.
Expressing concerned about the image impact that the SIM card registration exercise had created for the MTN, Moolman said it has commenced a complete re-registration of all its more than 63 million subscribers in Nigeria noting that a solid database of MTN’s subscribers was crucial to the next phase of the telecommunications revolution, especially in the area of broadband provisioning.
No comments:
Post a Comment