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  • Sim infraction: MTN has paid N165bn so far – NCC

    The Nigerian Communications Commission [NCC] said on Monday that the South African Mobile Telecommunication giant, MTN Nigeria, has so far paid N165billion out of the N300billion fine slammed on the company for SIM registration infractions in 2015.

    The NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, disclosed this when the MTN Group led by its Chairman in Nigeria, Dr. Pascal Dozie,  paid a courtesy visit to the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

    According to Prof. Danbatta, MTN has paid more than 50 per cent of the fine following its recent payment of N55billion in March.

    “I am happy to inform you that our agreement with MTN on how and when to pay the fine has been adhered to.

    “Just last month, March, we received a cheque of N55billion from MTN as part of the fine payment plan. This brought the total fine paid by MTN Nigeria to N165billion. This showed that more than half of the fine had been paid so far,” he said.

    Dozie appealed to NCC to auction more spectrums to further open up the ICT space and improve the country’s economy.

     

  • SIM fine: MTN pays N165bn out of N330bn – NCC

    The Nigerian Communications Commission ( NCC ) said that MTN has paid N165 billion out of the N330 billion fine imposed on it due to its inability to disconnect improperly registered SIM cards.

    Prof. Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC said this on Monday in Abuja when MTN Group, led by its Chairman in Nigeria, Dr Pascal Dozie visited the commission.

    In October 2015, the telecom regulator imposed a fine of N1.04 trillion on MTN Nigeria for not complying with government’s rule on deactivation of unregistered SIM cards.

    Also, the fine was imposed on MTN for not disconnecting about 5.1 million improperly registered lines in its network within the stipulated deadline.

    After several appeals and negotiations including diplomatic intervention by the South African government, the fine was reduced to N330billion.

    It initially made a commitment payment of N50billion to the government while the remaining balance of N280 billion was to be paid in six tranches in accordance with the agreements between the regulator and MTN.

    “I am happy to inform you that our agreement with MTN on how and when to pay the fine has been adhered to.

    “Just last month, March, we received a cheque of N55billion from MTN as part of the fine payment plan.

    “This brought the total fine paid by MTN Nigeria to N165billion, that is, more than half of the fine

    “It is a whopping sum of money and they have not defaulted and these payments they are making is consistent with the terms of agreement we reached with them ‘’ he said.

    He said that the installmental payment was in line with the terms of agreement reached between MTN and the regulatory body.

    According to Danbatta, the fine is aimed at ensuring that it is not business as usual but to ensure that the rules of engagement are respected.

    “It is also to ensure that the rules governing the telecom sector of the economy is adhered to.

    The NCC boss said that the commission would continue to cooperate with the telecom company because of its major contributions to the economic and digital growth of the nation’s economy.

    Earlier, Chairman of MTN Nigeria said Nigeria was one of the largest contributors to its market and the visit was to cement the relationship between it and NCC.

    Dozie appealed to NCC to auction more spectrums to further open up the ICT space and improve the country’s economy.

    NAN

  • MTN, Twinpine unveil app

    MTN and Twinpine have launched a new product to enhance marketing of products and services through the mobile phone.

    The product is capable of advertising products and services of MTN subscribers that leverage the opportunity created by the platform. It can only work through MTN lines.

    Unveiling the solution, representative of MTN, Shorafadeen Mohammed, said the app is a self-explanatory platform on which any subscriber can register on the website and start pushing averts to other users of the mobile network.

    He said MTN has 60 million subscribers, stressing that 50 million users are fully profiled with their locations, age, sex and others.

    He noted that the team has been able to customise languages for those that cannot understand English, especially those in the remote areas.

     

  • MTN reviews operations in Nigeria, 21 other countries

    MTN reviews operations in Nigeria, 21 other countries

    Africa’s biggest mobile-phone firm, MTN Group Ltd, yesterday said its is doing a spring clean of its empire, conducting a review to decide whether it really needs to be in all 22 of its markets across Africa and the Middle East. Some of the markets are tiny, others are war-torn while still more have regulators desperate to curb the telco’s perceived dominance.
    While MTN is highly unlikely to leave Nigeria, its biggest market, the carrier has had run-ins with the regulator and was forced to pay a $1 billion fine last year for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered users.
    It expects double-digit sales growth in the medium term, above an overall average of high-single digits, as economic conditions improve and it gains subscribers from troubled competitors. As part of the fine settlement, it agreed to list its local unit on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Talks are also ongoing with the regulator to use spectrum gained from its acquisition of Visafone in 2016. “Our strategy is to grow our network and we need all the spectrum we can,” its Chief Financial Officer, Ralph Mupita, said yesterday.
    In Benin Republic, MTN is in a dispute with regulatory authorities on frequency fees, which it said are too high. “While we are fighting hard to stay in that market, economic sense needs to prevail,” Maputa said.
    The telco received a $6.6 million fine from Cameroon’s telecoms regulator and a one-year reduction in its licence term for allegedly not complying with spectrum and subscriber registration regulations. The company was also ordered to disconnect 3 million subscribers. “It’s a big priority to resolve this in the near term. If it’s not resolvable, then it’s not resolvable. We want to find an amicable resolution to stay,” Mupita said.
    And in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, MTN said it won’t invest in countries it classified as “conflict markets,” which means the local units have to be self-funding to stay in business. The telco will take “appropriate action” if any of them are not cash-flow positive.
    “If the markets are able to return to a non-conflict situation they could be attractive to us,” Mupita said. “Syria, for instance, was one of our top 10 markets not so long ago.”
    Iran is one of MTN’s top three markets but the company is struggling to repatriate cash that’s been stuck in the country for years due to former U.S.-led and U.K. sanctions. The carrier has managed to repatriate about 6.5 billion rand ($546 million) to date and is in talks with the central bank to move another 5 billion rand later this year.
    “They are prioritising foreign-exchange allocation to primary industries such as food goods at the moment,” said Mupita.
    MTN has agreed to sell shares in its local unit to Ghanaian investors in exchange for a 4G license.
    “The primary objective is not to monetise, but to comply with regulatory requirements for the 4G license,” said Mupita.
    Angola plans to sell a minority stake in a state-owned telecommunications provider and hold an auction for a fourth industry operator in 2018.
    “We will certainly look at Angola and also Ethiopia if it opened up for a license. There are a couple of countries in West Africa that we could look at, like Togo and Senegal,” the CFO said.

  • MTN’s IPO

    •A good development for the telecommunications giant

    The local bourse has been abuzz over reports that the telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria Limited, is finally set to offload some 30 per cent of its shares valued at about $500 million to Nigerian investors during the first half of the year. For a market that has, in recent times, been upbeat, it is welcome news.

    Apart from helping to deepen the market, it promises a significant boost to its Nigerian operations through injection of additional capital from new shareholders. Coincidentally, the telecommunications company is also reported as preparing a similar offer on the Ghana Stock Exchange to raise $447 million this month to boost its operations in that country.

    The difference, however, is that whereas the Ghana Initial Public Offer merely formalises part of the conditions for granting the company the 15-year license for the fourth-generation spectrum – which is that Ghanaian investors own 35 percent of the business – the Nigerian public offer comes as part of the final settlement in the aftermath of the hefty penalty imposed on the company for its failure to meet the deadline to deactivate 5.2 million unregistered subscribers on its network in 2015.

    The National Communications Commission (NCC), citing Section 20(1) of Registration of Telephone Subscribers Regulations (TSR) 2011 had imposed a penalty of N200,000 for each unregistered but activated subscription medium, hence the initial fine of $5.2 billion. This was later reviewed downwards to $1 billion in June 2016 – in addition to mandatory listing.

    Would the telecommunications firm have agreed to sell its shares on the Nigerian bourse without the recourse to sanction? The development has since rendered the question academic. However, that this is now a done deal is certainly saying a lot for an entity that has resisted all previous entreaties to get listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange despite contributing about 40 per cent to the group’s profits. Nigerians therefore cannot wait to see the process proceed apace. Much as we expect to see MTN Nigeria demonstrate good faith through the entire process, we expect to see the capital market regulators – the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the NSE demonstrate a matching dexterity.

    We must of course draw lesson from Ghana which insisted, ab initio, that a sizeable chunk of the shares be reserved for its citizen-investors. Unlike Ghana where the word seems to be that the citizens not only deserve a piece of the action with their officials going as far as incorporating the provision in the agreement for awarding the licence, here, our officials have been known to moan to no end about the unwillingness of multinationals to get listed on the local bourse. In the end, the local economy is not only worse for it in terms of the billions repatriated annually through transfers; the local bourse is denied a potential source of much vitality.

    Although mandatory, nothing of course says that the listing cannot be win-win for all the parties – if successful. First is the huge capital to be raked in – funds considerably cheaper compared with other sources, to upgrade services. Second, is also the factor of goodwill to be generated, particularly for a firm hitherto perceived by Nigerians as a wholly foreign – albeit, South African entity.

    Shedding the ‘foreign’ toga of an entity only interested in raking huge profits to the exclusion of the locals would certainly do the telecommunications firm a lot of good at this time. Moreover, for a company often accused – either rightly or wrongly – of sundry corporate infractions, the ensuing compliance with stock exchange rules on disclosure and corporate governance post-listing would certainly clear any lingering dark clouds over its activities.

    In the long run, the bourse as indeed the economy as a whole can only be better for it.

  • No registered member of ALTON was sanctioned by NCC – Chairman

    No registered member of ALTON was sanctioned by NCC – Chairman

    Mr Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman, Association of Telecommunications of Nigeria ( ALTON ) says no current registered member of the  association is sanctioned by Nigerian Communications Commission ( NCC ) implicated in call masking.

    NCC on Tuesday imposed a range of sanctions on licenses of operators implicated in call masking.

    Masked calling is a technique used in e-commerce to protect and cover buyers’ and sellers’ personal phone numbers as private.

    Adebayo told our reporter on Wednesday in Abuja that his members were responsible corporate citizens who operate according to the laws.

    “We are delighted that in the report issued by NCC, there is no current registered member of our association that was involved.

    “And what it also goes to show is that our members are responsible corporate people who operate according to the laws.

    “They work according to the terms of their licenses, so the assurance we will continue to give is that as responsible association we will continue to comply with the rules of operations,’’ he said.

    Adebayo said ALTON as a responsible corporate organisation and with the  amount of investment by its members in the country suggested they had to take rules and regulations guiding their operations seriously.

    The ALTON Chairman also assured subscribers that operators would continue to provide best services.

    “As an industry that provides infrastructure for many other sub sector of the economy, we will continue to do our best to contribute to national economic  development

    “I am delighted about the report by the Bureau of Statistics on the new Gross Domestic Product ( GDP ) that the number of sectors playing critical roles in the  development of the economy were supported by the telecom sector,’’ Adebayo said.

    The big players in the telecom sector such as MTN, Airtel, Globacom, Nine Mobile, are registered members of  ALTON.

    NCC barred over 750,000 numbers assigned to several Private Network Links (PNL) and Local Exchange Operator (LEO) licensees, which number ranges were found to have been utilised for the practice of call masking.

    It listed the licensees whose numbers have been barred to include Vezeti Communications Services Ltd., Voix Networks Ltd.,  Mobitel Ltd., Peace Global Satellite Communications Ltd.

    Others are ABG Communications Ltd.  Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Ltd.,  Swift Telephone Networks Ltd. QVODA Telecoms Ltd., Wireless Telecoms Ltd. Emcatel Networks Ltd.

    NAN

  • SEC yet to get MTN’s $500m IPO

    SEC yet to get MTN’s $500m IPO

    The Securities and Exchange Commission  (SEC)yesterday said it had not been notified by the MTN Group on plans to raise about 500 million dollars from Nigeria’s capital market.

    A source who pleaded anonymity told the News Agency of the Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the commission was yet to receive any application from MTN on Initial Public Offering (IPO).

    “As of today, we are yet to receive any application or notification from MTN on the proposed IPO,’’ he said.

    The source said that the commission would remain committed to investors’ protection and development of the Nigerian capital market.

    There were reports that the MTN Group Ltd. was perfecting plans to raise about 500 million dollars from the sale of shares in its Nigerian business in the first half of 2018.

    Standard Bank Group Ltd. and Citigroup Inc. had been advising Africa’s largest mobile-phone company on the disposal of as much as 30 per cent of the Lagos-based unit on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

    It was learnt that the MTN had agreed to list the Nigerian unit as part of June 2016 agreement to pay one billion dollars fine for missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered subscribers amid a security crackdown.

    Speaking on the implications of MTN listing, Dr Uche Uwaleke, the Head of Banking and Finance Department, Nasarawa State University Keffi, said that the deal if perfected, would boost market capitalisation.

     

  • MTN eyes Africa’s biggest bank

    Africa’s biggest mobile telecoms operator, MTN’s ambitious business strategy is to become Africa’s biggest bank, its CEO Rob Shuter, has said.

    The company is encouraged by the progress made by its Mobile Money offering in other areasthat it operates in. This is despite MTN Mobile Money failing to gain traction in the South African market, with the telco eventually killing it off in 2016 due to lack of commercial viability.

    MTN Mobile Money allows anyone with a mobile phone to send and receive money quickly, safely, affordably and conveniently.

    “The core digital service that we have decided to put our money on is Mobile Money. Mobile Money is really about leveraging the strength of the brand and leveraging the strength of the distribution because we have built a huge informal distribution network for prepaid airtime to bring customers into a transactional banking system,” Shuter was quoted to have said by ITWeb Africa at Deloitte Africa 2018 Outlook conference in Woodmead, South Africa.

    He pointed out that MTN has deployed Mobile Money in 14 markets and “if we look at our 30-day active users, which is the most important matric, we are growing by half a million customers a month. I think that’s pretty cool and today we are sitting at 21 million subscribers”.

    “We are a new age transactional banking provider and it’s a very big imperative for us, and the key thing we want to do is to scale it rapidly,”he said.

    According to Shuter, MTN wants to build Mobile Money into a 60 million customer business in the next three to four years.

    “We will be the largest bank in Africa, leveraging scale, network, brand, infrastructure and distribution,” he noted.

    Detailing the company’s other plans, Shuter said he is upbeat about the economies of Africa and the Middle East, where the telco has operations.

    “We are very optimistic about what we see. For us, we see more opportunities than challenges. We see the need to focus on our core geographies and this is partially because this is where we see the growth. We see Asia-Pacific as the fastest growing economy, but Middle East and Africa are also following suit. MTN looks at the market in terms of three core customer segments – consumer, enterprise and wholesale,” Shuter pointed out.

    He added:“If we look at consumer, what is quite inspiring for us, looking at our geographies, is that we have a population of about 650 million people across the 22 markets we operate in. In the next three to four years, that 650 million people is going to grow to 700 million people. An increase of 50 million people is the same as adding another South Africa to the portfolio.

    “So, that gives us a lot of opportunity, actually still in the traditional voice business – SIM penetration, voice, handsets, SMS, etc.”

    According to Shuter, the three biggest markets for MTN are South Africa, Nigeria and Iran. He added that the economic conditions are improving. “In Nigeria, oil prices are coming back and inflation is coming under control. South Africa is also witnessing winds of change politically, while Iran is a market that is opening up, particularly to Europe, despite the rhetoric that we hear from the US,”he said.

    The other aspect that defines the market, he said, is the low level of Internet and digital services. “When you look at the adoption of mobile Internet, we are talking 20per cent to 30per cent of these markets. These are markets with born-digital youthful populations – these are people who were introduced to the Internet on a mobile device.”

    He believed that there is also potential for the adoption of digital services, which include mobile money, media, entertainment and social media.

    “So there are a lot of positives in the consumer side of the business. If we are looking at the market size, we are looking at R500 billion to R600 billion in all the geographies that we operate in; that’s about two-thirds of the market. If you want to be successful for the long run in our industry, you have to be very well-positioned in the consumer market in terms of brand, products, network, technology, resources, etc,”he said.

    The enterprise market, according to Shuter, is valued at R210 billion and growing at eight per cent year-on-year. “For sure, we have to be successful in the consumer segment because that’s the biggest segment but for an operator like us, a push in the enterprise sector can make a very big difference. It’s a large market with decent growth,”he said.

  • Scramble for MTN account: How winner emerged

    Managing PR accounts for multinationals require a lot of experience about branding and creative industry, which is why a lot of agencies do everything humanly possible to win such accounts.

    For MTN in particular, arguably one of the leading telcos operating in the country, a lot is usually at stake. The review of MTN billion naira global businesses commenced in 2016 when the Africa telecom giant requested the global network agencies with tentacles across African markets to apply for its business. Possibly, the first time a multinational brand will be committing the whole of its marketing and communications requirements to a range of agencies, courtesy of their alignment as global network.

    MTN finally shortlisted three agencies with global networks for the real contest to handle its business that spans across 22 countries in Africa, the global network agencies include Omnicom Group, WPP and French’s Publicis Groupe. These three has massive followership in affiliates and partners in Nigeria.

    At last, the Omnicom network emerged victorious beating arch rivals Publicis and famous WPP to the juicy pie on a continental pitch.  The development threw up DDB Lagos, the Nigerian incumbent on the business and respected affiliate of the Omnicom Group as lead agency on the business once again.

    Talking about Nigerian rival advertising holding groups rivalries, this was one pitch in which the Insight Publicis was expected to take it out on its arch rival DDB Lagos as regards the MTN business however, the result points in the direction that Insight and partner, Publicis will have to endure another round of waiting.

    The Omnicom group success at the MTN pitch compels the telecoms player entered into a partnership with Omnicom to manage the leading African telecoms brand across all markets and facets PR, Creative, Digital, Media. This makes it almost a fait accompli for the group’s local affiliates on ground in the country to “inherit” the various aspects of the business.

    In the light of this, DDB Lagos, TBWA Concept and Yellow Brick Road all part of the Omnicom group in Nigeria became the de-facto handlers of the MTN business in Nigeria with very good probability of working for the brand beyond the Nigerian market.

    Likewise, PHD Media, a member of the George Thorpe’s IMS group and ReachOMD’s second-line specialist media agency was handed over the media aspect of the business while Playhouse, a digital specialist shop goes home with the digital facet of the business, all for the sole reason of being local partners of Omnicom group.

    The greatest glitch however occurred as the PR apple cart was toppled as the existing Omnicom group PR agencies in Nigeria pre 2017 were refused access to the juicy business. However, as the media, creative and digital sector of the business were given out to existing Omnicom local partners, PR segment was left out.”

    PR agencies affected in this ‘infamous’ decision were famous Corporate & Financial Porter Novelli and Media Craft Fleishman Hilliard. The Omnicom group and the client, MTN, went round the industry to collect profiles of some agencies, after rigorous scrutiny, Ayeni Adekunle’s Black House Media (BHM) and Calixthus Okoruwa’s Xlr8 were brought in and substituted for Corporate & Financial Porter Novelli and Media Craft Fleishman Hilliard.

    BHM becomes the sixth agency that handles the MTN PR account in Nigeria while Xlr8 is consulting for the telecom giant for the second time. Corporate & Financial Porter Novelli was first briefed when the multinational brand came to the country, the services of Akin Adeoya’s Marketing Mix was sought to reduce the load of various PR projects of the brand with C & F, Marketing Mix was with the PR account of the brand for 12 years before Brooks +Blakes and DKK were recruited for the job to handle till 2017 December.

    Xlr8 and BHM are expected to resume the MTN Business this quarter as their representatives were in South Africa last December as part of their induction into the network along with other beneficiaries of the Omnicom largesse.

  • 9mobile biggest losers as Internet users hit 94.8 million in November – NCC

    9mobile biggest losers as Internet users hit 94.8 million in November – NCC

    The internet users increased marginally to 94 .8 million in November, the Nigerian Communications Commission ( NCC ), has said.

    The NCC made this disclosure in its Monthly Internet Subscribers Data for November 2017 on its website on Tuesday in Abuja.

    According to the data, Airtel, MTN and Glo gained more internet subscribers during the month, while 9mobile was the big loser.

    The data also showed that overall, internet users increased by to 94, 818,553 in November from 93,887,184 in October showing an increase of 931, 369.

    The data breakdown revealed that MTN gained 428, 596 new internet users increasing its subscription in November to 33,426,931 from 32,998,335 in October.

    It showed that 9mobile lost 180, 044 internet users in November decreasing its subscription to 11,407.180 as against October when it recorded 11,587,224 in October.

    It said Airtel gained the most with 632, 506 new internet users in November amounting to 23, 074,163 users as against 22,441,657 users in October.

    The data showed that Globacom also gained 50,311new users in November as the figure recorded was 26,910,279 as against 26,859,968 it had in October.

    Read Also: NCC gives out N17m to winners of tennis championship

    NAN