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Tag: MTN

  • Police personnel to participate in fitness exercise in Enugu

    Police personnel to participate in fitness exercise in Enugu

    Over 750 policemen and other personnel from sister security agencies and corporate bodies are to participate in the police routine monthly fitness exercise in Enugu.

    Officers and men of other security agencies invited to the exercise included: Nigeria Prisons Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps ( NSCDC ), Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRSC ) and the National Drug Law enforcement Agency ( NDLEA ).

    The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, SP Ebere Amaraizu, said in Enugu that the exercise would be the last for the year and that it would hold on Saturday.

    Amaraizu said the exercise, tagged: “Walk/Jog for Life’’, was meant to keep the police personnel and other security personnel in Enugu State “up and doing” in the discharge of their duties.

    Read also: Police to strengthen ‘bail is free’ campaign

    He also said this would also promote synergy and co-operation among security agencies and members of the public.

    “The fitness exercise will ensure agility for officers and men of the police, other sister agencies, the media, corporate organisations and other relevant stakeholders.

    “This edition is proudly powered by MTN Nigeria.

    “The take-off point for the exercise is police headquarters, Enugu.

    “It is an engagement programme of police and its numerous public to unite us together as sports is a unifying factor.

    “It will also engender healthy life-style as well as for a safe and secure environment and state,’’ Amaraizu, who is also the sports officer of the Police Command, said.

    The Enugu State Police Command monthly exercise started in January 2013.

    NAN

  • First scientists fair in Southeast coming

    There are plans to bring together for the first time inventors and innovators to showcase their products in the Southeast. A non-governmental organisation based in Enugu, the South Saharan Social Development Organisation is behind that plan.

    The NGO said that over 25 original inventions and innovations from people either from the Southeast or resident there, shortlisted from over 100 applications and entries would showcase their indigenous technological inventions.

    The Programme Manager of the Organisation, Mr Onyinye Nwachukwu said in a statement in Enugu that the fair would promote scientific and technological innovations and inventions in the region.

    According to Nwachukwu, the event is part of the organisation’s response to recession and to promote enterprise and entrepreneurship especially among youths.

    “The programme also aims to halt the disregard for innovation in the country which has been the trend since independence despite the abundance of scientists and technologists.

    “Thus, it will encourage innovation and further boost entrepreneurship in Nigeria in general,’’ he said.

    Nwachukwu said that the programme, which is tagged: “Showcasing the Can-Do Igbo Spirit: Innovations and Inventions from the Southeast’’, is under the organisation’s Ola Ndi Igbo (Jewels of the East) programme.

    He noted that the programme would attract over 1,000 visitors from within and outside of Nigeria including people from the private sector, investors, government officials, the diplomatic community and the general public.

    “This event is having the support of Life Lager Beer, the Ford Foundation, MTN, Ellington Company, Fidelity Bank, Radio Nigeria, NOTAP and many others.

    “It will take place on Dec. 18 from 10a.m. to 4p.m. at the Oakland Centre, Enugu and is open to the public free of charge,’’ he said.

    In addition to N1 million grand prize and other consolation prizes, the shortlisted inventors would receive training on patenting, financial management, how to run a business, marketing and branding of the technological innovative product.

     

  • Ogun, MTN partner on Yellow Heart Initiative

    The Ogun State government and MTN Foundation, with other healthcare agencies, have pledged to work together to tackle infant and maternal mortality.

    Director, MTN Foundation Dennis Okoro said the foundation is sensitive to the plights of members of the community where it operates. “We are very sensitive to challenges within our society, which is why we go the extra mile to make the people’s lives brighter. It is against this backdrop that the foundation created a mandate to improve healthcare, education and economic empowerment.

    “Ogun is the first to experience the Yellow Heart Initiative, and other states will follow. We realise that most deaths – mother and children – can be prevented using existing knowledge and proven cost-effective interventions. This is why we hope to use the Yellow Heart initiative to address predominant issues, such as attitude and cultural practices, which hinder women and children from accessing healthcare services in the society.”

    Commissioner for Health Dr. Babatunde Ipaye thanked the foundation for the initiative and other impactful projects.

    Ipaye, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary Dr N.O Aigoro, said the partnership comes at a time when the state is taking serious steps to improve its healthcare.

    He said: “The yellow heart initiative is especially laudable, not only because it is a step in the right direction, but also because it aligns with what the state is doing to improve healthcare. In Ogun State, we have the Araya Scale-up (Community Based Health Insurance Scheme), which provides beneficiaries with a card that qualifies them to visit any of the designated Health Care Providers in their councils and get free healthcare.

    “This is why we are grateful to MTN for this support, and we pledge our commitment to ensuring that the yellow heart initiative reaches as many people as possible.”

  • MTN, Lumos expand to Cote d’Ivoire

    MTN, Lumos expand to Cote d’Ivoire

    West Africa’s booming off-grid solar industry is drawing international investors eyeing expansion.

    Lumos Global, a Dutch off-grid developer that raised $90 million last year to start business in Nigeria, said its expanding in Ivory Coast this month. In both countries, Amsterdam-based Lumos is using a partnership with MTN Group Ltd. that allows customers pay for solar power with their mobile phones.

    “It’s all very clear that this is a viable solution,” said Lumos co-founder Nir Marom in a telephone interview from Lagos, Nigeria. “It’s growing in all of Africa, specifically West Africa.”

    Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest rates of energy access on the planet and is home to about half of the world’s 1.2 billion people without reliable electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. The problem extends to businesses as well as households, cutting into productivity and growth. Startups across the region have started linking mobile phone networks with power developers to create pay-as-you-go models that expand access to electricity.

    Since it launched its services in Nigeria in 2016, Lumos has sold 65,000 solar systems, providing power to as many as 250,000 people, according to the company. Similar demand may be found in the Ivory Coast, where about 40 percent of people among the population of 24 million live without electricity, according to the World Bank.

    Lumos plans to use part of the equity it raised last year to fund its initial expansion while also seeking additional cash from banks, development finance institutions and private investors, Marom said, declining to say how much the company is seeking to raise.

  • MTN Nigeria’s public offering coming

    MTN Group Ltd. is focused on laying the groundwork for an initial public offering (IPO) of its Nigerian business and should complete the process in the next six months, its Chief Executive Officer, Rob Shuter, said.

    “We have a lot of advisers running around getting everything ready. It’s a complicated process and there’s a lot of regulation that needs to be arranged. We are moving forward well with the project and anticipate concluding that in the next six months or so,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV yesterday.

    MTN agreed to the Lagos IPO as part of the settlement of a $1 billion fine imposed by Nigerian regulators on MTN in 2015. Africa’s biggest wireless operator by sales incurred the penalty after missing a deadline to disconnect unregistered subscribers amid a security crackdown in the west African country. Since then, the CEO said he’s been “pleased” with MTN’s operation in Nigeria, the biggest of the Johannesburg-based company’s 22 markets across Africa and the Middle East.

    Shuter, 50, joined MTN in March after holding executive roles at Vodafone Group Plc in Europe. He is the permanent replacement for Sifiso Dabengwa, who resigned after the Nigerian fine was imposed. Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko had run the company in the interim period.

    MTN had named the Vodafone Executive as CEO in wake of Nigeria fine.  MTN’s two other main countries are Iran and South Africa. In the former, Shuter said the company isn’t “holding back” on expansion plans even as U.S. President Donald Trump objects to the terms of a nuclear deal that led to the lifting of economic sanctions last year. MTN has about 49.5 million customers in Iran, just under Nigeria’s 50.3 million, and has repatriated almost $1 billion from the country in the last 12 months.

    “We are putting a lot of investment into the ground in Irancell. There is a huge demand for mobile data there, its one of our fastest growing data markets. It is business as usual,” Shuter said.

    MTN has no immediate plans to expand into new countries, and is instead focused on improving operations in existing markets, which include conflict areas such as Afghanistan and South Sudan, according to the CEO.

    The company needs to “build what we need to and get our networks into shape. In months to come I think there will be an opportunity to participate in the consolidation of the market,”  Shuter said.

    MTN shares rose 0.2 per cent to 122.96 rand as of 10:53 a.m. in Johannesburg, valuing the company at 231 billion rand ($16.3 billion).

  • MTN calls $4.2bn claim by Turkcell opportunistic, baseless

    MTN calls $4.2bn claim by Turkcell opportunistic, baseless

    MTN on Tuesday called a 4.2 billion-dollar claim by Turkcell in a South African court over a disputed Iranian mobile phone licence “opportunistic” and “baseless”, the company said on Tuesday after filing a defence plea.

    Turkcell first sued MTN in a U.S. court in 2012, alleging the company used bribery and wrongful influence to win a lucrative Iranian license that was originally awarded to Turkcell.

    It dropped the suit in 2013 after U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a separate case made clear that U.S. courts would not have jurisdiction in a claim involving two foreign firms in an overseas dispute.

    In 2916, it filed in South Africa, where the case has been stuck in procedural wrangling since.

    “Turkcell’s claim is opportunistic, an abuse of the process of Court, baseless and without merit,” MTN said in a statement after filing a defence plea.

    Turkcell was not immediately available to comment.

    MTN obtained the license in Iran in 2005 and maintains that Turkcell missed out because it would not comply with an Iranian rule that caps the shareholding in the license at 49 percent.

    Iran is MTN’s third largest market out of the 22 countries the company operates in.

    MTN previously appointed a retired British judge to lead an external investigation into Turkcell’s allegations. That probe dismissed the accusations as “a fabric of lies, distortions and inventions”.

    NAN

  • Presidency faults volunteers’ attack on MTN

    The Presidency yester day criticised the attack on the Warri 1 MTN Connect Store by N-Power volunteers.

    They attempted to forcibly collect N-Power devices not allocated to them.

    The incident occurred on Monday and led to the alleged assault on an expectant mother, who is a worker at the telecommunications’ office in Warri, Delta State.

    Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation/Youth Employment Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede,  in a statement to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), described such action as unacceptable.

    “I received with displeasure, the report that N-Power beneficiaries in Warri bombarded the Warri 1 MTN Connect Store for N-Power devices last Monday.

    “The beneficiaries were unruly and assaulted an expectant mother staff member of MTN.

    “There is no excuse tenable for such behaviour; let me be clear that such behaviour is unacceptable. There is no reason under the sun for such behaviour,’’ he said.

    According to him, “this terrible behaviour will be investigated and appropriate sanctions will be meted out to those found to be behind the ugly incident.”

    Imoukhuede said the notice should also serve as a warning to other beneficiaries, who might wish to temporarily forget the acceptable conduct at the point of device collection.

    “Anyone caught will be dismissed from the N-Power programme.

    “At all times, the interest of beneficiaries is our  concern and we will address issues that distress you individually and collectively,’’ the presidential aide added.

    He said proper conduct, discipline and workplace ethics were the hallmark of the N-Power programme – skills and job enhancement creation investment under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).

    “Under the NSIP, our unemployed youths have an opportunity to improve their skills and competence under a two-year full time paid volunteer programme in their community schools, health centres or farms.’’

    Imoukhuede said  skill acquisition would empower them for employment after their exit from the programme.

    He recalled that the Federal Government entered into an asset finance agreement with the Bank of Industry to provide devices to N-Power beneficiaries at little or no cost.

    “At every point between purchasing, pre-loading and now distribution, we have updated beneficiaries.

    “We have even gone as far as uploading videos of the pre-loading process so beneficiaries can witness first-hand the hard work that goes into packaging each device.”

  • MTN employees lauded for their selfless generosity

    MTN employees lauded for their selfless generosity

    Over 11000 MTN employees across the company’s footprint swopped their corporate attire for personal protective equipment and armed themselves with shovels and paint brushes, to participate in activities aimed at uplifting local communities.

    These initiatives driven through MTN’s annual employee volunteerism programme, 21 Days of Y’ello Care, took place in 130 schools and will benefit 125 000 people. During this year’s edition of the campaign, 21 classrooms were constructed and 13 more renovated; 7 digital platforms established; 103 software programs installed and 10 Internet connectivity projects launched. Volunteers also made cash and in-kind donations and engaged in a host of other activities to support education.

    In recognition of the impact of the projects, MTN Group awards prizes to the top four performing operations. This year, MTN Swaziland claimed the highly sought after Group President and CEO prize of US$ 100 000, which will be ploughed back into their community projects.

    MTN Swaziland’s main project, dubbed Y’ello Bricks of Hope School Building Fund, saw the reconstruction of seven classrooms at Endlaleni Primary School, a school in Manzini that had been condemned by government health inspectors. The volunteers also rehabilitated a hostel at a primary school for the deaf, which was in dire straits.

    The project was part of MTN Swaziland’s efforts to help their government address the challenges of providing basic school infrastructure. Some of the conditions in Swaziland’s schools compromise the overall wellbeing of teachers and learners and thus impede the quality of education.

    MTN Swaziland CEO, Ambrose Dlamini thanked MTN Swaziland employees saying: “I am extremely excited that Swazi MTN received the top prize this year. I would like to thank the MTN Swaziland team for their participation and commitment. I would also like to thank them, from the bottom of my heart, for raising the Swazi flag.

    The project we embarked on this year, to build a primary school within 21 days, with 21 partners, was extremely humbling and powerful. We are also grateful to the Swaziland government, in particular, the Minister of Education, who assisted us with this year’s projects.”

  • NLC pickets agencies, multinationals over anti-labour practices

    NLC pickets agencies, multinationals over anti-labour practices

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Friday picketed the Abuja corporate headquarters of telecommunication giant, MTN Nigeria and the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) over anti-Labour practices, accusing the two organizations of subjecting workers to slave Labour.

    President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba who led the picketing said it was part of activities marking the international day for decent work, set aside by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to advance Issues of decent work, issues of occupational health and safety, better conditions of service, and minimum wage Wabba said every worker is entitled to better working conditions, accusing the telecommunication company of regularly renewing employment contract with its workers as a way of shying away from the respiratory similitude of paying gratuity and pension to them.

    At the AEPB, Wabba said: “We have identified two organisation’s, Abuja Environmental Protection Board where casualization has been on and workers have been denied the rights to unionise among other issues.

    Secondly is the notorious MTN which all of us are aware of. Every three months they sack the workers and give them a new contract. This is not acceptable, our laws do not accept that, and those workers need to be liberated.

    “We need to tell them that they need to respect international labour laws, they need to also respect our own labour laws but importantly, they must respect human and trade union rights.

    “Workers have dignity, workers are not slaves and therefore, all workers must be treated with the workers best of attention. Injury to one is an injury to all. Injury to the workers at MTN and AEPB is an injury to all Nigerian workers. Issues of minimum wage must be attended to within minimum time, we are running out of time”

  • MTN faults Industrial Court order to pay ex-staff N4.8Bn

    MTN faults Industrial Court order to pay ex-staff N4.8Bn

    MTN Nigeria Communications Limited has faulted the judgement of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), Akure Division, which ordered the company and MTN International, Mauritius, to pay its former Network Group Operations Manager, Mr Paul Odunewu, $13,419,728.54, £10,000 and N2,540,000 (totalling N4, 825,036,735.9) following alleged wrongful termination of employment.

    Justice Oyejoju Oyewunmi gave the order on Wednesday, September 27, 2017 following Odunewu’s suit challenging his 2006 termination and the deprivation of his entitlements including share options valued at $13,144,512.00.

    In a statement on Saturday responding to the judgment, the telecommunication company said the position of the National industrial Court on the suit filed by its former employee is “detrimental to our interests.”

    “The court’s position has been reviewed by our internal and external counsels. Following that review, we have approached a higher court requesting that the decision of the industrial court be set aside.

    “We believe that there are critical elements of our case which were not fully considered by the lower court before taking its position. We are confident that the outcome at the superior court will be different and that justice will not only be done but will be seen to be done in this case, “ the company stated,

    MTN said it is committed to a policy of openness, integrity, diligence and professionalism in the conduct of business – with customers, shareholders and each other.

    “Our Code of Conduct stipulates high labour standards regarding all our employees. In addition we have processes in place to ensure that we act in accordance with international standards and local laws.

    “ We therefore maintain that we treat all our employees fairly, as captured in the details of our employment contracts, signed and legally binding.  This situation was no different. The most basic commitment we make – to our customers, our shareholders, and each other – is to conduct ourselves in an ethical, honest and respectful manner”.

    MTN Group Limited, South Africa; MTN Nigeria and MTN International, Mauritius were first, second and third defendants in the suit which lasted 10 years from the Lagos State High Court to the NICN.

    Justice Oyewunmi ordered that the sums be paid by the second and third defendants, “except the issue of costs which is to be paid by all the defendants.

    The judge ordered MTN to make the payments within 30 days following which the sums would appreciate at 21 percent interest per annum.

    In reaching judgment, the court agreed with the submissions of Odunewu’s counsel, Mr Kemi Balogun (SAN) that MTN unfairly imposed a restraint of trade on Odunewu, thus preventing him from working for a period.

    The judge upheld Mr Balogun’s submission that the evidence showed that Odunewu neither committed any serious, persistent breach of the provisions of the agreement or the company’s code, nor was ever summoned to a disciplinary committee or found guilty of any misconduct or non-performance.

     

    Justice Oyewunmi observed, among others, that the defendants failed to controvert the testimony of a former MTN Chief Executive Officer, Mr Adrian Wood, regarding the offers made to Odunewu which persuaded him to quit his job in The United Kingdom and join MTN. Odunewu, a UK-based chartered engineer, was employed by MTN Nigeria in 2001.

    He said MTN pleaded with him to return home from the UK and help the company to develop its telecommunications in Nigeria. He averred that he was promised, among others, a Share Option, a long-term incentive scheme being developed by MTN. Odunewu said when he complained that the Share Option was not contained in his offer letter, MTN persuaded him to accept the job, adding that he would be entitled to the shares after three years.

     

    Odunewu said he worked at MTN for over four years, and was responsible for the network’s outstanding achievements, which continues till date. The former manager said he was responsible for the company’s pre-paid and post-paid revenue, subscription, voucher management and real-time charging. Odunewu commenced the suit against the defendants in 2007 before the High Court of Lagos State, but in 2012, it was transferred to and began afresh at NICN which had exclusive jurisdiction. Trial commenced on January 29, 2014.