Encomium
Recently, the MTN Media Innovation Programme (MIP) Fellows visited the MTN Nigeria Headquarters. During this visit, they met with some MTN executives, where they discussed MTN’s business direction and interventions. Some of the interventions include:
1. The Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme: In 2021, MTN announced its interest in completing the construction of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway. The Expressway is a vital link connecting major economic hubs in the southeastern region of Nigeria. The technology company will reconstruct the 110km road under the Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme (RITC).
“Work is ongoing at the Enugu/ Onitsha expressway under the RITC, we started that a few months ago, it’s not just something we are considering. The contractors have been appointed by the Federal Ministry of Works and we are remunerating them as agreed under all the contractor terms of public procurement”, Karl said whilst addressing the Fellows.
2. Expansion of Financial Inclusion through MoMo PSB: It is no news that MTN launched its financial services – MoMo PSB in April 2022, after receiving an operating license from the CBN. As of March 2023, the fintech had held $14.4 million (₦6.6 billion) in customer deposits. For MTN’s MoMo, financial inclusion goes beyond creating basic websites and access to simple wallet solutions. “We’ll be empowering our customers to send money to every African country and receive money from African countries. And we’re doing that within the African rails, without dollar-based transactions, essentially just leveraging currency swaps. So, for us, it’s one of those services that we’re offering that would enable our customers to be able to live a much better life and a more connected life, not just in Nigeria, but also across Africa.”, Usoro, MoMo PSB explained.
3. The Green Building: MTN is committed to ensuring green practices and sustainability standards. A while back, the organization announced building a state-of-the-art, iconic green building as its head office. Karl confirmed the land has been procured and the design processes have begun. He also estimated four years or less for the completion.
4. Expansion of 5G Technology: 5G technology launched a little over a year ago. Muhammed Rufai, the Chief Technical Officer of MTN Nigeria shed light on the expansion of 5G. The 5G network offers extremely high speeds and low latency. Mohammed confirmed apart from the 13 cities of 5G technology, eight more cities will be added before the end of the year. He said “As you know, these rollouts are gradual. We started with 2G technology and now we are covering over 92% of Nigerians with 2G. And then we moved on to all these technologies. We have the highest population coverage by far. And we also had significant investment and focus on rural coverage. So those areas that are ordinarily not covered, we have invested quite a bit and deployed many sites in this program.
So, in the same way we have done with all the other technologies, we will do with 5G. We have 13 cities now, eight more cities soon. By the end of the year, we’ll have about over 2300 total 5G sites.”
