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successful relaunch has transformed the fortunes of mobile phone operator Mtel, the mobile arm of state-run Nitel. Since rebranding, the company has seen a rapid increase in its subscriber base and has ambitious plans for the future.
“We have to maintain and grow our market share,” says Chief Executive Officer Edwin Moore Momife (INTERVIEW). “At the moment we hold 11 per cent of the GSM market in Nigeria. We want to see that increase to about 15 per cent, which will have a significant impact on our finances, our infrastructure, our network capability, our people and our customer expectation.”
Mr Momife expects the company to achieve significant revenue growth. “If you look at our business in 2003 we were a N3.3 billion (£14 million) turnover company. In 2004, we had a N16 billion (£68 million) turnover, which shows significant growth. If you look at 2005 we are looking at closer to N35 billion (£148 million) towards the end of the year.”
Mtel, which recently announced its intention to upgrade its 2.5G network to 3G, aims to expand its subscriber base from the present 1.2 million to 6 million through product and service technology, network expansion and niche market development.
According to Mr Momife, creativity and innovation will be keys to making this happen. “The route that we are taking is to find niches, areas not being tapped adequately, opportunities not being leveraged properly. There is a whole lot coming down the line from Mtel in terms of publicity and creating products.”
The only one of the GSM firms that is wholly managed by Nigerians, Mtel has been undertaking a brand promotion exercise across the country.
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“In our market, some of the operators have been very audible and very visible, and that has created a challenge for us in the sense that we have to deliver a similar impact,” says Mr Momife. “Mtel has rebranded. The Mtel brand you see today is superior to the one that was there before. We’ll continue to get better and build upon the strong appeal we already have to the Nigerian people.
“There is a tendency for Nigerian people, in spite of the challenges, to still want Mtel to do well because they see it as their own. We are leveraging that. We are leveraging even more to synchronise the aspiration of the Nigerian people with our aspiration for growth.”
The company has been expanding its network to extend mobile telephone coverage to all 776 local government areas in Nigeria, and has worked with Ericsson, Motorola, Huawei and ZTE to deploy GPRS-based broadband data and content services.
“This development is particularly exciting as it will not only have direct benefits for the customer, but will establish the Mtel network as a marketplace for leading social and international content providers to profitably render services.”
As part of Nitel, Mtel faces privatisation. Mr Momife welcomes it as a positive step. “It’s a great opportunity for Mtel. We are going to have the know-how, wider capital base and some brand enhancement, if not a total re-brand. All these are things that will help the company.
“Internally it is also an opportunity for some of our people to work with some of the greatest companies in mobile telephony in the world. There will be a lot of learning and money transfer.
“Nigeria as a whole will benefit because if we are a dynamic growing mobile operator, able to take on the bigger three that are ahead of us, the market will be the better for it. There will be more employment, more revenue for government because more taxes will be paid, and there will be better services for customers.”
Website: www.mtelnigeria.com
Tel: +44 20 76296213, Fax: +44 20 74953707 - [email protected]