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Tag: MTN

  • MTN subscribers cry out over service outage

    MTN subscribers cry out over service outage

    Some MTN subscribers are presently experiencing service outage and are incapable of connecting with loved ones and business associates in parts of the country.

    TheNewsGuru gathered that the customers were unable to use the mobile network operator’s call, data and SMS services.

    “I cannot make calls, I cannot browse on the internet, I am stuck.This is so sad”, an MTN subscriber told TheNewsGuru.

    Some of the users, who also subscribed to other telecom service providers, have since swapped in the interim to link up with friends and family.

    As expected, some MTN subscribers have taken to social media to complain.

    @iamjudin1911 wrote, “Is this world coming to an end? I can’t make calls with MTN at the moment…better confess your sins before it’s too late.”

    @kessyl tweeted, “MTN network completely off in Abuja…What is happening please?”

    “Can anyone explain what is wrong with #MTN network?” @AjibolaJibsin asked.

     

    MTN recently celebrated 20 years of operations in Nigeria.

     

  • Alleged N451bn debt: Produce receipts of tax payments by MTN, Reps tell FIRS

    The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has asked the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to submit receipts of the tax payments made by MTN to the agency for 2007 and between 2010 and 2017.

    The request comes as the committee observed during its interaction with the agency on Wednesday that MTN is indebted to the tune of ₦451 billion.

    The FIRS chairman, Mr Muhammed Nami, however, told the committee that MTN is already paying the taxes owed government in instalments.

    Nami further disclosed that the sum of ₦10.104 trillion revenue is expected to be realized in the 2022 fiscal year, with the formal capturing of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms into the country’s tax net.

    Nami, who was speaking during the interactive session on the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), also unveiled plans for the introduction of Road Tax.

    “On the issue of a digital economy, the FIRS has a department called International Tax Department which is handling such cases,” he said.

    “Twitter and others are already registering with us. That is why in our revenue projections, we are raising it from N5 trillion in 2021 to N10 trillion in 2022. We expect the impact of those registrations to take effect.”

  • For MTN, a time to celebrate a success story – Okoh Aihe

    For MTN, a time to celebrate a success story – Okoh Aihe

    Okoh Aihe

    Twenty years with milestone achievements could be as brief as a wink of an eye. But the journey to yesterday, fraught with failure, could be as long as eternity, a never ending season of pain and sorrow. For MTN, one of the few corporate citizens that continues to validate the Nigerian economy, it has been twenty years of sustained tech revolution, a convoluting season of innovation and some kind of lithe management wizardry that have placed the organization in front of the pack for an indeterminate period and even into the foreseeable future.

    If you ask me the enthusiasm, excitement and all the drums are well deserved. Especially, in a land where there is little to celebrate at the moment, where hopelessness seems to be the strongest common factor binding the people together, an organization that has survived for twenty years, doing top range business, should be given the latitude to luxuriate in a well primed euphoria. On this, I stand with MTN.

    We love to celebrate as a people although present circumstances in the land have nearly succeeded in removing the songs from our mouth. So, it’s all very refreshing to see MTN give data bonuses to its subscribers but, for me, the clincher is to get into road infrastructure development.

    Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN Nigeria in a statement embedded in the half year unaudited financial statements, revealed the plan of the telecommunications company to participate in Nigeria’s Road Infrastructure Tax Credit (RITC) Scheme.

    “We are pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has approved our participation in the Road Infrastructure Tax Credit (RITC) Scheme. This is in response to the Government’s drive towards public-private partnerships in the rehabilitation of critical road infrastructure in Nigeria. We intend to participate in the restoration and refurbishment of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway,” he said.

    For those who have always argued that government should get out from under the veneer of politics, own up to the truth that it doesn’t have the financial capacity for serious infrastructure development, and invite the public to share in the development of the nation through a globally known Public Private Partnership (PPP) process, this is victory song. Except our advice should be for the process to be so well documented for continuity to be guaranteed. I mean another government doesn’t come into power and portray the process as a scam on the nation (that is what governments do, tapping into emotions to destroy legacy achievements or projects).

    Twenty years ago. As evanescent as yesterday. My mind returns to that interview with Irene Charnley at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja, by the water bed between the front desk and the Congress Hall. The historical auctions for Digital Mobile License conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) ended earlier in the evening, and Charnley who headed the MTN team, is walking a little triumphantly to the Congress Hall for some celebration over a dinner.

    But asked how prepared MTN was for the Nigerian market she was a little rambunctious when she told this writer that MTN was fully ready, based on the South African experience where research had indicated that the black population were not economically empowered to acquire mobile phones. Demands proved them very wrong and MTN struggled to satisfy the market.

    A few months down the line. Just days before August 8, 2001, the Vanguard team is with Karel Pienaar, pioneer chief executive of MTN, Nigeria, to get a scoop for the impending GSM launch. You see, now it will not make sense to the younger generation while a network launch should be a big deal. If circumspect of history, it was then, it may still be so now. Before the launch Nigeria had only about 500, 000 connected lines for the entire population of about 130m people. So it was quite celebratory when Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, from the private sector, headed the regulatory authority to put a major spin on the telecommunications industry. The mood in the nation was expectantly celebratory.

    Towards the end of the interview a question was posed to Pienaar, what happens if MTN hits over 100, 000 subscriber uptake (which was the regulator’s yearly benchmark for operators) in one month? Quite frankly, he said the network will go down. The crisis to meet market demand has been there ever since. We can now complain of quality of service but not the absence of phones any more. MTN has played a lead role under the circumstance.

    MTN had a structured plan for the market. When it came into the Nigerian market which couldn’t even help the new GSM entrants with any telecoms backbone, as the national carrier, Nitel, was essentially a flop, MTN initiated a fibre backbone from the North to the South, appropriately named, Yellobahn, in the manner of Infobahn which is a psychedelic adaptation of Germany’s Autobahn (superhighway). That cable has since been extended to different parts of the country.

    What is it that makes MTN very strong? The answers may form a pleasant bouquet – structured network roll out, target employment of high networth individuals, mostly Nigerians who had practiced abroad or were still there – Dem Elesho (Engineering), Afam Dozie (Marketing), Mike Ikpoki, from NCC, (Legal and Regulatory), Funke Opeke (Engineering) and now Karl Toriola (Engineering) who is the present chief executive.

    MTN had eyes on Nigerians who could grow to lead the Nigerian operations. This seemed to have been part of its long term project. The other was to use its management strength to harvest the corporate segment of the market. Without doubt MTN controls substantial percentage of high networth customers, the group that can talk on phone, go to sleep and wake on the same call, the tiny fraction to which airtime cost is but a little fund for sausage or, if you stroll towards the village, some little change for akara balls.

    The above partly explains MTN’s high earnings in the market but it is also very important to know that MTN has worked for whatever it gets from the Nigerian market.

    MTN built a backbone. It positioned Nigerians to help take over their market. It went to the exchange at a time public confidence on the Nigerian market was thinning out, as a vote of confidence on the economy. So, only the uninformed or the deliberately mischievous still call MTN a South African company. Above all, MTN has built such a formidable management that not even a crushing fine from government could take it down.

    You may screen this as the way the eagle reasons. Having viewed the market from the top, MTN looked out for who to lead the huge team into the feature. It reached out for Engr. Ndukwe, the man who opened up the market in the first place, to head the Board which now also includes former Minister, Omobola Johnson and Andrew Alli, a finance expert.

    For a truth, MTN built for the future. Now it is celebration time that follows a big harvest.

    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

     

  • Minister wades in as banks disconnect telco, customers from accessing USSD services, banking apps

    Minister wades in as banks disconnect telco, customers from accessing USSD services, banking apps

    Nigerians on Friday complained bitterly of their inability to use the the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and banking apps.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG observed that the complaints were more severe amongst MTN customers. They were unable to recharge their lines, do banking transactions on their MTN lines using USSD and the bank apps.

    As expected some Nigerians did not find the development easy and commented on it bitterly on their social media platforms:

    Meanwhile, a source in MTN who spoke with The Punch Newspaper said the telecommunications giant was not responsible for the disruptive services.

    He said, “Please note that MTN didn’t cut off customers and has no hand in this. This is strictly the banks acting on their own.

    “We woke up this morning to see that MTN customers were cut off from USSD services overnight. This has come as a surprise as there was no formal communication from the banks to their customers prior to their taking this action.

    The source disclosed that MTN had reduced the banks’ commission from an average of 3.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent which predicated the actions of the banks.

    According to the source, the reduction is standard because the volumes compensate for the reduction, adding that the contract with convenience channel partners and aggregators through which they were indirectly connected to the banks allowed this.

    The source said, “The banks wrote back to the aggregators to revert back to the old commission, otherwise, they would block MTN airtime in all their channels.

    “The channels were blocked midnight leaving our customers stranded. Interesting that the bank Managing Directors met and quickly took a decision. Subscribers to telecommunications are being denied services by the banks even when they have money in their accounts.”

    He noted that Zenith bank, which was connected directly to MTN and had their earnings at 2.70 per cent, was the only bank that had not blocked the telco.

    However, banks on MOD that had an uplift in their commission from 2.0 per cent to 2.75 per cent have blocked services, according to him. Banks with direct connection to the telco through MOD got a commission uplift.

    According to the source, the banks were unwilling to pay the cost of the USSD channel and were okay with cutting off subscribers in order to protect their profits.

    He added, “This only has to do with preservation of bank profits, which are already substantial and growing despite the wider economic conditions

    “The government needs to step in and deal with this once and for all. Nigerian banks need to stop their tyrannical posture.”

    Minister wades in

    Sensing the danger ahead, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami held a meeting with the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Executive Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) stating that the issues will be resolved soon and services restored.

  • Senate orders Airtel, MTN to uproot mast causing discomfort in Abuja

    Senate orders Airtel, MTN to uproot mast causing discomfort in Abuja

    The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday ordered MTN Group Limited and Airtel Nigeria to remove telecommunications mast mounted at No. 20, Oke-Agbe Street, Garki, Abuja.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Senate ordered removal of the telecoms mast for allegedly emitting unbearable noise and causing discomfort to residents of the area.

    The order followed a report of the Joint Committee on Communications and Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions by Senator Oluremi Tinubu and Senator Ayo Akinyelure.

    Senator Tinubu moved that the Senate do receive and consider the report of the Joint Committee in respect of petition by one Alhaji Bashir Abdullahi and five (5) others.

    Senator Nora Daduut seconded the motion for presentation of the report before Senator Tinubu laid and presented the report.

    “The Committee recommends that the safety of human lives should be of primary consideration and cannot be compromised.

    “The mast at No 20, Oke-Agbe Street, Garki, Abuja, should be removed and be relocated to a safer and more environmental friendly site.

    “I move that the Senate do approve the recommendations of the Joint Committees,” Senator Tinubu stated while presenting the report.

    In supporting the substance of the report, Senator Barau Jibrin said: “Mr. President, permit me to commend the joint committee on communications, Ethics, privileges and public petitions for a job well done. We need to protect our citizens from the operators of these telecommunications mast.

    “These masts are everywhere not only in Abuja and it is not good for our people. It should be a wakeup call to stop what they are doing. I urge my colleagues to lend their voices to the recommendations of this committee”.

    In his contribution to the debate of the report, Senator Adamu Aliero said, “I want to commend the Committee for a job well done and this should be extended to mast erected in residential areas. I support the recommendations of the committee and we should do all we can to protect the health of our citizens”.

    Following debate on the report, the Senate approved the recommendations of the report of the Joint Committees and ordered the mast be removed.

  • MTN expands NIN registration capabilities

    MTN expands NIN registration capabilities

    MTN has said it is exponentially increasing capability to provide National Identity Number enrolment services across its customer interaction touch points pan-Nigeria, rural locations inclusive.

    The telco in a statement issued on Thursday said it had deployed an onsite appointment booking system designed to limit indoor crowding, alongside standard COVID-19 safety protocols at its service centres, adding that it planned to launch an online version shortly.

    The company said this was to further support the Federal Government and the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy’s efforts to drive the NIN registration.

    According to MTN, an unswerving and sustainable national identity management system would deliver multiple benefits to the telecoms industry and the country as a whole by aiding national economic planning and enhancing security, governance and service delivery at all levels.

    MTN restated its commitment to roll out thousands of enrolment devices across all geo-political zones, noting that it had already commenced enrolment for NINs at a limited number of its service centres across Nigeria.

    “We seek the continued patience and understanding of our esteemed customers and the public as we continue scaling up capacity,” said the Chief Customer Relations Officer for MTN Nigeria, Ugonwa Nwoye.

    He gave the assurance that the telco was working with the NIMC and Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to expand the number of enrolment centres, and ensure they provided an access point for as many Nigerians.

    “This involves close collaboration between other Mobile Network Operators and NIMC to ensure certification and technical integration is seamless while offering maximum possible protection from COVID-19,” Nwoye added.

    He said MTN was committed to collaborating with the government to ensure Nigerians had access to a location where they could enrol in the NIN system, while simultaneously registering their SIM cards, which he noted was critical to the expansion of the digital economy.

     

  • Telecoms and security of lives: Time for desperate measures – Okoh Aihe

    Telecoms and security of lives: Time for desperate measures – Okoh Aihe

    By Okoh Aihe

     

    When we got into the first part of Kogi State, the young man behind me in the bus, who had engaged his colleagues in animated discussions all the way from Benin, tried to find out our location. Told that we were in Okene, he became a psychotic wreck and flew into kindergarten gibberish to the surprise of those who could hear him.

    Two weeks ago, he tried to control his emotions, his father was kidnapped on that road and those criminals from the hottest part of hell didn’t get in touch with the family until after three days. They demanded for N100m but the family went into a bruising, protracted negotiation and eventually shelled out N10m. The cheek of it all is that the bandits drove all the way to Abuja to collect the money and returned to base before releasing the old man. He still had their contacts in his phone!

    Another two weeks, a bus belonging to a popular transporter was taken on the same road with all the passengers. One of the passengers told his friend that the kidnappers would make contacts with their phone, put it on speaker so that everybody could hear the conversation or if you want to be more appropriate, negotiations. This went on for days. For those whose people were not responding well, they killed in very gruesome way. Two of the passengers were killed before their very eyes, to drive the fear home that what was happening was macabre reality and not make believe. He, an artisan, struggling to eke a manageable life, parted with N1.5m. Apart from the weapons, their phones were their most useful tools.

    So, you could imagine how elevated I felt last week when the House of Representatives told the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the regulatory agency, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to do something about SIM Registration in order to stem the wave of crime in the country. When you look around you and you see despondency, of people nearly giving up on their country, of a National Assembly – the Upper and Lower Chambers, very docile and distant, leaving the people to flagellate themselves about the wrong choices they have made, one should at least cheer one tiny hope of action, even if that action is accidental.

    How can there be so much death in the land and the National Assembly does not know the country is careening into a season of frightening overtime and that something should be done very urgently?

    At last the speaker of the House, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila spoke and I threw up my hands in momentary celebration. Unfortunately, that fleeting celebration has little grip in reality because nothing will happen except we flip the page and begin to do things differently. The reason being that history does not lie. If you look at history long enough, you can begin to see missteps and begin to think of corrective measures. This could be one of the reasons those enjoying the transiency of power abrogated history from the school system so that the evils of our leaders past and present could be interred with them and never studied to achieve a better future.

    But for some of us who enjoy the pleasures of history nobody can remove it from our brains with a magic wand. So, dear readers, let’s take a little journey into a much needed recall. The Regulations on Registration of Telephone Subscribers was made by the Nigerian Communications Commission on November 3, 2011. It was gazetted on November 11 of the same year. The Regulations made it mandatory for every phone line in Nigeria to be registered and also stating penalties for contravention.

    In Part 111, under Registration the Regulations state as follow: (1) Every Licensee shall register a subscribers’ information as specified under sub-regulation (2) of this regulation. (2) From the commencement of these Regulations, Licensees, Independent Registration Agents and Subscriber Registration Solution Providers shall in accordance with registration specifications and at no cost to the Commission or the subscriber capture, register and transmit to the Central Database the – (a) biometrics and other personal information of subscribers who request for the activation of the licensee’s subscription medium; and (b) in the case of a corporate body or other juristic person, the biometrics and other personal information of the authorized representative of the corporate body or other juristic person and name, address and where applicable, the registration number of the juristic person issued by the Corporate Affairs Commission.

    On Activation of new subscriptions, the Regulations state under Part 111, Regulation 12 (1) Upon the commencement of these Regulations, licensees shall only provide new subscribers with subscription mediums enabled for limited access to their network services and such limited access shall last for the duration of the activation window.

    The Regulations were very forward looking and tried to tie down every opportunity for malfeasance. No operator in the telecommunications industry would claim not to be aware of the details, especially when they have very robust regulatory departments.

    March 28, 2011, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah launched the Registration programme with lots of excitement and optimism for the following reasons: “First being that this nation has been waiting for the day when all the SIM Cards in use in the country are registered, and the identity of the owner of every line is known. This is done in other parts of the world and Nigeria wishes to be like other progressive nations of the world.

    “Another significance of this is the achievement of a Central Data base for mobile phone users in Nigeria. Today, therefore marks a major step taken by the NCC, to bequeath to our dear nation, an important tool, a pool of data that will assist other agencies of government, especially the security agencies, and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), etc. in carrying out their jobs in the national interest.”

    I must admit that the registration exercise has had its own successes but vicissitudes would be a more appropriate word. This was largely illustrated by the fine placed on MTN for contravening the regulations, failing to disconnect 5.1 incompletely registered SIM cards in October 2015. Initial fine was N1.04tn but negotiations dragged up to June 10, 2016, when all the parties agreed to a reduced fine of N330bn to be paid in several tranches.

    Even as bludgeoning as that fine may have been, has it solved the SIM registration problems? Not at all. A source within the regulatory Commission told this writer the problems persist, adding that all the relevant stakeholders including the security arms should get on the table to take very drastic decisions instead of chasing shadows.

    There is still a lot of dubious cross-registration especially by agents appointed by operators making it impossible for the registration process to be trimmed into acceptability. Those agents are incentivized on commission thus putting them under pressure to take short cuts that are hurting the purity of the process. The source also noted that a number of people in networth positions in government and businesses hardly go personally to register their SIMs, instead they send their reps by way of exploiting such a window provided in the Regulations. This explains in a very bizarre way why it may be possible for the regulator to say there are no unregistered SIM Cards in Nigeria. Instead the SIMs are inappropriately registered!

    My source was not also happy that some people arrested during enforcement exercises by the regulator were frivolously prosecuted by the Police and let off the hook to the consternation of the regulator. There has to be more commitment and seriousness from the Police, the source appealed.

    I want to suggest that the security situation in the country demands desperate measures by relevant stakeholders in order to stop the needless waste of lives. I am desperately requesting that Regulation 8 should immediately be modified to it make easy for security personnel to have access to subscriber’s data on the networks especially concerning criminal acts. What is in the Regulation at the moment is nightmare which makes life easy for the wicked.

    Okoh Aihe writes from Abuja

  • NCC grants MTN, 9mobile approval for national roaming service

    NCC grants MTN, 9mobile approval for national roaming service

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted approval for two mobile network operators (MNOs) to carry out trial on National Roaming Service for a period of three months, beginning from Aug. 1, 2020 and ending on Oct. 31.

    Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, NCC Director, Public Affairs, said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

    Adinde named the two telecoms operators as Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) Nigeria and the Emerging Markets Telecommunication Service Limited (EMTS), trading as 9Mobile in Nigeria.

    He said that with the approval the EMTS and MTN were expected to configure their networks to begin test and simulation for customer experience.

    “The trial approval covers a few Local Government Areas (LGAs), designated as the National Roaming geographic area, in Ondo State,” he said.

    Adinde said that Roaming Service will enable a mobile subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services when travelling outside a particular network geographical area by utilising the network coverage of other operators.

    He quoted NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, saying that “the primary objective of the National Roaming Service trial was to encourage network resource sharing among operators.

    “This will lead to operational expenditure (OPEX) optimisation and capital expenditure (CAPEX) efficiencies leading to freeing up of resources to expand mobile network coverage to unserved and underserved communities across the country.

    “This will lead to improved Quality of Service (QoS) delivery to subscribers.

    “The successful implementation of the trial will enable EMTS subscribers to access MTN network service within the National Roaming trial geographical area without the need for an MTN Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card, ” he said.

  • MTN President, CEO resigns, secures BT appointment

    MTN President, CEO resigns, secures BT appointment

    Rob Shuter, the President and Chief Executive Officer, CEO of MTN Group Limited, has resigned.
    It was learnt that his tenure recently expired and he and the MTN Group mutually agreed to part ways.
    Information available to TheNewsGuru indicates that the former MTN President has already secured another appointment with BT in London and is billed to resume sometime in January 2021.

    MTN Nigeria Communications Plc made the resignation of Rob Shuter known in information it posted on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange
    Shuter’s resignation from the organization is effective September 1st.

    He became a member of the Board of MTN Nigeria on April 13, 2017.

    “The board of MTN Nigeria would like to express its appreciation to Mr. Shuter for his exemplary leadership, focus, and commitment to the success of the company.

    “The board wishes him the best in his future endeavours,” the release stated.

  • Labour union threatens strike over MTN’s anti-labour practices

    Labour union threatens strike over MTN’s anti-labour practices

    The Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PTECSSAN) has threatened to embark on a two-week industrial action over the alleged anti-labour practices by the management of MTN Nigeria.

    The union, which is an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), issued the warning in a statement on Tuesday.

    It also vowed to disrupt the services of the telecommunications company nationwide after several attempts to resolve the issues failed.

    According to PTECSSAN, the issues bother on the remuneration of workers, exit packages for long-term staff, employee relations practices, and alleged abuse of expatriate quota, amongst others.

    It accused MTN of disregarding its employees in the country, saying such an action was contrary to the core values preached by the organisation.

    “MTN practices an unwholesome, insensitive, and discriminatory structure in the emoluments of some categories of workers.

    “Workers on the same job level earn disproportionately. In many cases, members of a team earn more than their team leads and even more than their direct managers,” the union alleged.

    It added, “Non-payment of severance benefits at the point of departure of employees after long years of dedicated and uninterrupted services to the company has become a deep frustrating practice to the live long guarantees for workers in MTN.

    “The company claims it has not been paying exiting employees severance benefits, hence, it cannot be a matter for negotiation with the union despite the fact that social dialogue demands that all matters without exception concerning workers in the workplace are subject to negotiation.

    “The rate at which companies in the telecommunications sector import excessive manpower to the country to do jobs Nigerians are not lacking in competence is alarming. It is becoming pervasive in MTN Nigeria as well.

    “We have several expatriates in the company who do exactly what Nigerians do. Most of these expatriates are trained by Nigerians and we still wonder how the permits for these individuals were approved.”

    The union warned that if the company fails to yield to its demands or source for another alternative to satisfy their business interests, its proposed strike would be wide and compelling with deep implications for the company’s businesses.

    “Once again, we reinstate that if our demands are not fully and appropriately complied with by MTN Nigeria Telecommunications Limited on or before the next 14 days from today, we shall withdraw every guarantee of industrial peace within MTN Nigeria. Services may be disrupted across the nation throughout the network from the midnight of the 24th day of August 2020,” it said.

    In his reaction, MTN’s Chief Corporate Services Officer, Tobechukwu Okigbo, stated that the allegations made by the labour union were totally untrue and without any merit.