NIGERIA – South African multinational mobile telecommunications company, MTN has announced that it would invest US$1.6billion in Nigerian market over the next three years.
Mr. Rob Shuter, the MTN Group President/CEO, announced this in Abuja, when the MTN Board paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Ali Pantami. Shuter.
MTN currently maintains the biggest market share, though the competition is certainly growing stiffer.
While MTN formerly had 40 percent of the market share, current statistics show that the telco now controls 37.2 percent, estimated to be 65.7 million subscribers.
While addressing his visitors, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Ali Pantami tasked MTN and all telecommunications companies operating in Nigeria to improve on quality of service to satisfy their customers in the country.
Pantami pointed out that Federal Government was committed to providing conducive and enabling environment for all mobile telecommunications operating in the country to do their business without any hindrance in any part of the country.
He said, “I am happy that you also appreciated our modest efforts in addressing most of the challenges being faced by mobile telecommunications in Nigeria.”
“We have achieved a lot in addressing most of the challenges; issues of vandalism, Right of Ways (RoW) and several others.”
The minister said that the government was working on strengthening the policy to ensure that telecommunications infrastructure is well protected in the country.
He also revealed that the President has given directives to security agencies to provide security to critical telecommunications infrastructure in their different locations in the country.
Pantami, however, expressed concern at the untapped market and urged the telecommunications companies to exploit the market opportunity in the country legitimately.
“Please, try to get your priorities right. Look at the areas that are underserved and invest and the earlier you realised that, the better for you,” pantami said.
MTN Nigeria is one of the most profitable subsidiaries of the South African based Telecoms giant.
In 2019, the telco recorded a revenue of 856.4 billion naira ( about US$2.36 billion) in the nine months ending September 30, a 12 percent increase when compared to the NGN 764.4 billion (about US$2.1 billion) recorded during the same period in 2018.
