MTN
MTN Subscribers Can Now Make Payments Via WhatsApp
Sourced from TheTechieGuy (https://thetechieguy.com/) MTN has joined forces with Ozow so that subscribers can purchase data and airtime directly through WhatsApp – an industry-first in South Africa. “Giving customers the ability to transact seamlessly on WhatsApp is a gamechanger in South Africa. It provides a seamless way to stay connected, in touch and in tune, while being simple and secure. Most importantly it will help improve financial and digital inclusion and enhance access for consumers,” says Jacqui O’Sullivan, Executive of Corporate Affairs at MTN South Africa. The service is provided within the MTN Chat platform, which was launched in 2019, to enable customers to initiate the purchase of airtime and data bundles within their WhatsApp chat. Making actual payments via WhatsAp...
South Sudan to return 72 000 coronavirus vaccines to Covax
South Sudan will return 72 000 doses of donated Covid-19 vaccines after concluding it cannot administer the jabs before they expire, a health ministry official told AFP on Tuesday. The country received 132 000 doses of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine in late March from Covax, the global initiative to ensure lower-income countries receive jabs, but so far has administered less than 8 000 shots. The rollout has been hampered by vaccine hesitancy and major logistical hurdles in the vast and underdeveloped country of 12 million, which, apart from the pandemic, faces an emergency food crisis and widespread armed insecurity. “There’s a plan to deliver back 72 000 doses to Covax,” Angelo Goup Thon, the head of Covid-19 operations at the health ministry, told AFP. He said the decision was made late...
MTN Data Introduces New Pricing for EverydayGig Data Bundles
Sourced from TheTechieGuy (https://thetechieguy.com/) MTN South Africa is expanding its EverydayGigs data bundles as a convenient way for prepaid customers to stay connected by paying once and getting allocated with 1GB of data daily without the fuss of recharging or converting airtime to a bundle. Among the price decreases, the 7GB weekly offer price falls from R149 to R99, 14GB weekly from R199 to R179 and the 30GB monthly offer has been reduced from R499 to R349. Here’s a closer look at the MTN EverydayGigs offers: MTN Everyday Gigs Validity Total Data Allocation Daily Allocation Old Price New Price 1 Day 1GB 1GB R29 R29 2GB 2GB R49 R49 3 Day 3GB (New) 1GB – ...
Kaduna paralysed as NLC begins warning strike
Activities in Kaduna State have been paralysed as the five-day warning strike directed by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over irregular sacking of civil servants began on Monday. Checks revealed that schools, banks and other business premises had been closed. The National Union of Banks, Insurance and Finance Institutions Employees had directed its members to withdraw banking and insurance services in Kaduna state from Monday 17. The Zonal State Secretary of the union, Mr Adamu Danladi explained that the directive followed the NLC’s warning strike in response to what he described as Gov. El-Rufai’s “anti-workers policies”. He said that the withdrawal of services would continue until otherwise directed by the congress. Also, while some schools were closed, others were open but only a few...
NGX records N419 billion growth in April
The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock (NGX) recorded a growth of N419 billion in April due to impressive first quarter results declared by some companies. Specifically, the market capitalisation which closed trading in March at N20.428tn rose by N419bn to close at N20.847tn in April. Similarly, the All-Share Index inched higher by 789.29 points to close at 39,834.42 in contrast with 39,045.13 recorded in March. Royal Exchange Assurance emerged the best performing stock for April in percentage terms, growing by 89.29 per cent to close at 58k per share against 28k recorded in March. Linkage trailed with 41.87 per cent to close at 85k in contrast with 60k posted in the comparative month. Speaking on the performance of the stock market, Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Office...
MTN Ghana Promises $149 Million in Infrastructure Expansion
MTN Ghana has revealed its results for the quarter ended 31 March. The telco’s subscriberbase grew by 0.6 million to 25.0 million, as it improved its network and customerexperience. Continued demand for data and increased adoption of more digital payment services supported the active data subscribers’ growth of 0.4 million to reach 11.2 million and MoMo users growth of 0.1 million to reach 10.7 million. Most notably, MTN Ghana revealed that it would spend around $149 million in total CAPEX in the year to meet the heightened need for reliable and resilient voice, data and digital services. “We remain in line with our medium-term target to improve our margins and prudently manage our costs. EBITDA grew by 24.6%, with a corresponding margin expansion of 1.2 percentage points to 54.6%. Th...
MTN Bids for Ethiopian Telco Licence Alongside Vodacom and Safaricom
MTN Group has reportedly made a bid for an Ethiopian telecommunications licence alongside Vodacom Group and Safaricom. Finance ministry adviser, Brook Taye says that the consortium of bids is led by Safaricom. “We always wanted quality providers and this is what we have received,” adds Taye. “These are two African giants — the Safaricom-led consortium and MTN — either one or two of the operators will get a licence in Ethiopia.” Kenya’s geographical proximity to Ethiopia is expected to be one reason why Safaricom leads the consortium. “I think it will be a very good exposure to Safaricom from the perspective of geographical closeness on the one perspective, but also giving Safaricom additional exposure to more growth areas,” says Vodacom’s chief executive, Shameel Joosub. In an interview wi...
South Sudan to dispose of 60,000 expired coronavirus vaccines
South Sudan is looking to dispose of 60 000 expired doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, as rollout of the drugs is hampered by scepticism among the population, a health ministry official said Monday. The doses in question were donated by African telecommunications company MTN and the African Union late last month. “When it reached here we later discovered that the (remaining) lifespan of this vaccine is just … 14 days,” Richard Lako, Covid-19 incident manager at the health ministry, told AFP. He said that the drugs had since expired and were “already locked somewhere to be dealt with as soon as possible.” Lako said the health ministry and drug authority were working on plans to dispose of the vaccines. “The ministry is now engaging the African Union and the team with regards to that e...
Coronavirus: Nigeria has vaccinated over 1 million people – NPHCDA
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has announced that Nigeria had so far vaccinated over a million eligible people out of its target of 70 percent of the nation’s population. The NPHCDA disclosed this on its official Twitter handle, on Thursday. Newsmen report that for the country to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, it had set an ambitious goal of vaccinating 40 per cent of its over 200 million population before the end of 2021, and 70 per cent by the end of 2022. The country kicked off vaccination on March 5, 2021, commencing with healthcare workers who are mostly at risk to the infections, being the first responders. It noted that the vaccine roll-out would be in four phases, starting with health workers, frontline workers, COVID-19 rapid response team, l...
MTN Ranked as Best Mobile Network in South Africa
Sourced from TheTechieGuy (https://thetechieguy.com/) MTN has been ranked as the best mobile network in South Africa – ahead of Vodacom, rain, Telkom and Cell C – according to the latest MyBroadband Insights Mobile Network Quality Report. The report is based on 349,575 speed tests that were performed by thousands of users across the country. The research shows that South Africa had an average mobile download speed of 33.23Mbps and an average upload speed of 12.71Mbps. MTN had the highest average download speed at 64.29Mbps, followed by Vodacom on 32.76Mbps, Telkom on 27.83Mbps, Cell C on 20.82Mbps and Rain on 10.58Mbps. MTN’s exceptional performance is a result of a R50-billion infrastructure investment over the past five years to extend coverage, improve network quality, and increase...
MTN South Africa Appointed as Mobile Provider to Government
MTN South Africa has been appointed by the National Treasury as the new mobile provider to the Government. The contract allows for all entities of state to “utilise the contract for mobile communication services, which will further assist with cost containment”. The scale of the government’s requirements is expected to allow MTN to develop systems, innovative pricing and products that will not add value to South Africa and also significantly improve on existing mobile telecommunications service delivery. “We are both humbled and honoured by the faith National Treasury has shown in MTN with this critical partnership over a five-year term. A huge team at MTN spent months analysing the state’s requirements and then developing the very best solutions to not only meet those expectations, but to...
