MTN named top African corporate brand

By Prince Osuagwu

MTN has been named the African most valued consumer brand, by the BrandFinance African Nation Brand League. The telecommunications giant bagged this award at the launch of the League’s 4th awards and the launch of the first BrandFinance African Nation Brand League in Johannesburg recently.
The BrandFinance Global Nation Brands league covered a global sample of 138 nation brands, including 36 African nations.  The top 10 countries in Africa were South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, Algeria, Angola, Tunisia, Ghana, Kenya and Libya.
“MTN’s ranking as Africa’s most valued consumer brand is a pleasant Africa Day surprise for MTN, and news of the accolade will be well received across our global footprint, especially in Africa where we are equally the most admired brand and leading corporate in the vast majority of our markets,” says MTN Marketing Executive, Jennifer Roberti.
Coming hot on the heels of being included as the only African brand in the 2011 BrandFinance Global 500 league table, the latest accolade bears testament to our Africa and marketing know-how.
“This shows the phenomenal growth of the MTN business in most operations, whether measured in terms of value share or subscriber numbers – for example nearly 70% of MTN’s total subscribers are in African markets, with Nigeria contributing 40.2 million, Ghana 9 million, South Africa 19 million and Uganda 6.9 million and Cote d’Ivoire 5.4 million,” says Roberti.
MTN is Africa’s leading mobile operator, with 147.2 million subscribers on the continent and in the Middle East.

Main One extends global footprint with Global Crossing partnership

Funke Opeke, MainOne boss

By Prince Osuagwu

Main One Cable Company, the open access wholesale provider, has announced its decision to deploy a new portfolio of IP-enabled services and has chosen to partner with Global Crossing ,a leading global IP solutions provider, in order to bring global connectivity to its clients. This strategic agreement will enable Main One to further extend its customers connectivity in countries where it doesn’t have coverage by being part of the Global Crossing Tier 1 MPLS network.

This network, reaches more than 700 cities in more than 70 countries. and it would  enable MainOne customers  to extend their connectivity through across the US, Canadian and Latin American markets.   

In addition to expanding Main One’s reach, the partnership will increase flexibility with its new set of products and provide significantly reduced transit charges for customer terminations.

According to Main One’s head of Marketing and Strategy, Adebayo Oyewole, “We chose Global Crossing for its particular regional strengths. Our partnership with Global Crossing enhances Main One’s position as the one-stop shop for accessing the public Internet via the Main One network, which is designed for high capacity service. The new product portfolio enables Main One to deliver a wide range of connectivity options to geographically dispersed locations, while reducing customers’ costs by converging previously disparate data, voice and video networks. 

With the partnership now, customers can actually start small and grow with confidence because of the opportunity of tuning in to the fast changing needs of the 21st century

Main One joins a select list of top-tier service providers offering Global Crossing Fast-Track Services portfolio to their enterprise end users. In addition to Converged IP Services and Private Line, Fast-Track Services include Ethernet, Collaboration and Managed Services.

Perhaps that is why Global Crossing’s head of Carrier Sales for South Europe, Middle East and Africa Habib Issa, said: “We’re very pleased to join with Main One in offering its customers global access and IP-based solutions" adding that “Global Crossing Fast-Track Services combine the business processes, products, services and system tools necessary for service providers to quickly offer their enterprise customers end-to-end global data solutions, backed by consistent Service Level Agreements.”

NCC says SIM registration key to Number Portability

SIM Cards

By Prince Osuagwu

Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management at the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Mr. Okechukwu Otanyi, has admonished Nigerian mobile phone subscribers to endeavour to register their SIM Cards as that will determine the introduction of Number Portability. 

Number Portability is a popular system which allows subscribers to move to any network of their choice while still retaining their loved numbers.  Nigerians have long awaited its introduction into Nigeria's telecom market .

Itanyi who spoke at the Consumer Outreach Programme, hosted by the Commission in Makun, Sagamu in Ogun State, said the forum provides an opportunity to request for the maximum cooperation of all subscribers, service providers and all the stakeholders to ensure the success of the ongoing SIM registration.

At the event at the Ewusi Palace hall where the Baale of Makun, Chief Ola Atobatele, represented the Oba, Mr. Itanyi said that the success of this exercise will determine the time from for the introduction of Number Portability.

”It must be noted that at this point that a credible database of all SIM Cards in the country is a basic pre-requisite for the introduction of Number Portability in the country”.

He emphasized that the SIM card registration process involves the capturing of digital photographs and biometric information of the subscribers. “The essence of exercise is to link every SIM Card to the identity of the owners so that if there are threat calls from a particular SIM Card, or  crime is committed using a particular mobile phone for instance, chances are that the identity of the owner  of the SIM card could be traced”, he said.

He said the security importance of the ongoing registration makes it a civic responsibility of all citizens to register their SIM Cards, saying the number of centres being deployed by the Commission will continue to increase by the day as subscribers in all nooks and crannies of the country will be registered before  the end of SIM registration on September 28, 2011.

Director of Consumer Affairs of NCC, Mrs. Mary Uduma, reiterated the need for subscribers to complain to NCC whenever the telecom operators do not respond to their complaints.

She said the Commission is working had to ensure that the operators do not take advantage of the consumers. He urged them to ensure that their SIM cards are registered to make them authentic owners of those lines.

Meanwhile, the SIM card registration campaign of the Commission continued nationwide with jingles radio and TV stations across the country. The Commission said that the number of centres across the country will continue to grow and that subscriber are free to register with either of the NCC appointed vendors or telecom operators.

Ghana, Nigeria for mobile banking revolution

By Prince Osuagwu

Knowing that what generates from Nigeria, spreads across the West African region like wild fire, the recent attempt by Nigeria’s Central Bank, CBN to license mobile money companies and as well try out modalities for a cashless society would see West Africans soon experiencing the benefits of mobile banking.

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria

John-Atta Mills, Ghanaian President

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This will bring on board, millions of people that have been excluded from financial services, equipping them with opportunities to play in the world mobile money market.
This is not also all there is to the revolution. Another boost to the revolution is the AITEC Banking and Mobile Money conference train now ready to berth Accra, Ghana, next month. The event is expected to draw  world’s top experts on mobile banking just as several countries in the region are merging their rising mobile coverage with financial systems that will allow citizens to use their mobile phones to transact, transfer and store money.
Similar roll-outs in Eastern Africa have transformed the financial sector. Since the launch of Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile money accounts, more than 13 million Kenyans have moved to using their phones to pay for goods, get cash from ATMs, receive payments and hold savings, in a wave that has seen more than half the population now using financial services.
In West Africa, with several platforms now in place, AITEC will be presenting to the region’s top banking managers’ cutting edge options in mobile banking, as well as information on the necessary safe-guards to ensure consumers’ money is kept safe.
In Ghana, MTN rolled out the first mobile money platform in Ghana in 2009, followed by Vodafone and late last year Ecobank announced the launch of mobile bank accounts with the ZAP platform from Zain.
At the same time, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has now issued approval-in-principle licences to 16 mobile money operators to carry out a pilot of a mobile financial services system for a period of four months to demonstrate that the system can work in the country.
With active mobile phones subscriptions in Nigeria at 88.3 million in December last year, experts have highlighted the potential of mobile phones to provide financial services to the more than two-thirds of Nigerians who are unbanked.
According to the Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA) report, 67 per cent of Nigeria’s population is unbanked and 78 per cent of the nation’s rural population is without a bank account.
Nigeria’s unbanked rates reflect Africa’s average, with only 20 per cent of African families having bank accounts.
However, with Africa having the fastest growth rates of mobile phone market in the world, the continent is now creating financial solutions that rest on mobile phone platforms. The International Telecommunications Union estimates mobile subscriptions across Africa have more than tripled to 333 million since 2005, and in South Africa, the DRC, Zambia and Kenya, mobile phone banking is now taking services to remote areas where conventional banks have been physically absent.
These subscribers are now opening accounts, checking their balances, paying their bills, transferring money, and catering for their daily financial needs without ever entering a bank.
A survey in Kenya last year reported that over 95 per cent of users rated mobile-based payments as quicker, easier, safer, more convenient and cheaper than any other alternative way of paying or receiving money.
The AITEC conference is expected to present issues on traceability and security in mobile banking, mobile banking via satellite, smart banking applications, and  how best to reach the unbanked with mobile money services, as well as on state-of-the art technology.

Ericsson goes home to manage Telenor Sweden online gaming

Vestberg, Ericsson CEO

By Prince Osuagwu

Ericsson last week announced the signing of a major managed services contract with Telenor Sweden , provider of data and telecommunication services. The three-year contract would see Ericsson managing and developing Telenor Sweden 's field services, including field maintenance and implementation services across its complete fixed and mobile networks.
Ericsson also hopes that through the deal, it will gain valuable competence in the service area and reinforce its services footprint in Sweden and its long-term service commitment in the region.
Meanwhile, with Ericsson’s IMS solution fully poised to play major role in the deal, players of Entropia, an online universe created by Sweden-based online gaming company Mindark, can now speak to each other live with high-quality voice services while gaming.
This is however Ericsson's first commercial business in the gaming sphere. Ericsson is deploying its existing voice technology based on IMS in a cloud service, called Ericsson In-Game Communication, EIGC, which makes it simple and cost-effective to introduce communication into games. Ericsson promises to provide and integrate the software into the Entropia Universe platform.
Mindark provides one of the most advanced Internet interaction solutions available today. Entropia Universe is a 3D virtual world with a real cash economy. It is growing in popularity, with more than one million registered users.
Chief Marketing Officer for Mindark, Christian Björkman , says that “it was important to have a system that is integrated into our own platform because then we could customize the functionality and have security that is required for us, since we deal with real money in our virtual world. The solution from Ericsson provided the best security and flexibility for us”.
With this service, 3D rendering is possible so that gamers will be able to talk and listen to avatars that are nearby, attend or give lectures for an interactive audience, and work in teams with secure leader-controlled access.
Mindark is well-known for placing the world's most expensive virtual item in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Perhaps that was why Björkman added that “this voice service will help us continue our strategy of adding value to the virtual world, plus bridging virtual and real-world possibilities and in terms of business, it would be possible to integrate new services such as break-out services, audio advertising and other voice-based services”.
Ericsson’s Vice President, head of Core & IMS however saw it in a different perspective saying that “this solution bridges the virtual experience with reality, and the telecoms world with the gaming world. It is exciting to combine Ericsson's outstanding competence in communication services with the large and fast-growing gaming industry sector."

Lagos plans transformation to software producer with software engineering institute

Gov Fashola of Lagos state

 


By Prince Osuagwu

The Lagos State Government has said that it is set to establish a software training institute to serve as a medium for achieving the production of reliable software systems and also equip average youth in the State with the functional knowledge and skill needed to transform into an entrepreneur.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Science & Technology, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat disclosed this at a press briefing to commemorate the fourth year in office of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN.
According to Hamzat, the training institute would reduce the cost of purchase of software by the State Government and other States as well.
He stressed that the local production of software will transform Lagos and indeed the entire country from a software consuming State to a software producing/outsourcing State.
The Commissioner added that apart from the institute producing competent hands that can compete in the software development around the world, this will also be an avenue to create young entrepreneurs who will be self reliant and independent without looking for white collar jobs or any employment.
The commissioner also hinted on the youth empowerment programme his Ministry had embarked upon,  disclosing that for three years running, the Ministry had organised an IT based Hands-on –Workshop for the youths.
He said the training consisted of PC Assembling/ Software Installation and Web Site Design, even as about 1,800 youths and school leavers from the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the State had benefitted from the training.
For him, these two courses ran concurrently for a duration of two weeks and were facilitated by registered and certified training outfits in the State”, Dr. Hamzat said.
He further disclosed that the state government had observed that with the advent of GSM in Nigeria there was need to venture into the opportunities available in the industry and it was why the Ministry partnered with Nokia to empower youth across the State in the configuration and repair of the mobile handset. He also revealed that so far, about 500 youths have been trained on that.

Glo doles out cars, other prizes to 3G, Blackberry dealers

Dr Mike Adenuga jr, Glo Chairman

By Prince Osuagwu

Second National Operator, Globacom, last week rewarded dealers on the Glo 3G High Speed Internet modem and prepaid Blackberry services who it considered outstanding, dolling out prizes ranging from brand new cars to power generating sets.
At the end of the day, a total of twelve dealers, comprising six for each of the two product categories, received the prizes at a Loyalty Reward Night held at Best Western Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
For the Glo 3G modem Business Associates Category, Osuneye Olasunkami of Suky Marketing Communication, who was adjudged the best performer, received the top prize of a brand new BMW 5 series car, while another company, Pathfinder Touch won the second prize of 10 KVA generator. Other winners in the category were Genie Infotech Limited who received a 5KVA generator, MCTEE Investments who got a 42-inch plasma television set, Samikuri Details who won a motorcycle and the sixth prize winner BMG Comm who went home with a set of computer, printer and scanner.
The six winners in the prepaid Blackberry category were Olusegun Jekami of MCTEE Investment who won the first prize of a brand new Kia Picanto, Suky Marketing Communication who received a 6.5 KVA generator and GoldBiz Resources who won a 42-inch plasma TV set.
However, Stratford Communication also was rewarded with a motorcycle, while the fifth prize went to Amistad Phones, who received a set of computer, printer and scanner. The sixth prize winner of a 1.5 KVA generator, was Badox Ventures.
Globacom’s Head of 3G and Blackberry Team, Wunmi Jewesimi, said the loyalty reward scheme was instituted to appreciate the business associates for their contribution in making the two flagship products huge successes in the market.
According to him “we are rewarding them for their outstanding performance and at the same time encouraging a healthy competition among all the 3G and Blackberry business associates.
especially for the two products