The Chief Executive of MTN Ghana, Ebenezer Asante has urged public relations practitioners in the country to use ICT tools to disseminate their P.R and advertising messages across the country.
According to him, using value-added service (VAS) and other ICT tools would have greater and positive impacts on their work than the traditional channels of communications.
Mr Asante made the call in an encounter with members of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR) at the plush MTN House in Accra, over the weekend.
The evening encounter afforded Mr Asante the opportunity to share information on MTN’s Business operations in the West African country.
He predicted the consolidation of telcos in Ghana and even consolidation of telcos and 4G LTE players in the country within the next few years. This Mr Asante believes the market is too small to sustain these many players.
Ghana with a population of 25 million people has six voice/data operators – namely MTN, Vodafone, Airtel, Tigo, Glo, and Expresso for the small market. While the licensed 4G LTE operators are-Surfline, Blu, and Busy but Goldkey which has deployed equipment but not yet started commercial operations in the West African country.
Mr Asante said that MTN Ghana which recently acquired a 4G LTE licence would launch commercial operation in the middle of this year to provide customers with faster data speed.
To end, MTN Ghana has already started test-runs for the successful commercial roll out of the 4G LTE after paying amount $67.5million to the National Communications Authority (NCA) for the license.
As of to date about 69 sites for the 4G LTE are operational. Out of these, 27, 23, 8, and 9 of them are located in the Greater Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, and Tarkwa and Obuasi respectively.
While the mobile company is expected to deploy the sites in the Central, Volta, Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions in the course of this year.
Mr Asante was quick to enumerate the benefits of the 4G LTE to the Ghanaian economy, saying it will lead to the creation of new services, mobile commerce (mobile banking), new revenue streams for government, new jobs for the youth, and increased business productivity and efficiency leading to improved margins.
The other benefits of the LTE on innovative services and social impacts, he mentioned include- surveillance and live traffic reports, location based services, Mobile TV/VOD, improved communication and access to information within the shortest possible time, improved networking across communities, institutions and agencies, and enhanced entertainment (music, video, streaming, downloads and uploads).
On MTN’s tax obligation to the Ghanaian government, the MTN Ghana CEO stated that for very GH¢1 spent by a customer, a total of 34.5% of it goes into the payment of taxes, such as the Value Added Tax (VAT), National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL), National Communications Authority (NCA), and other forms of taxes.
In 2015 alone MTN Ghana had paid a whopping GHC675.6 million to the government as taxes as against GHC605 million in 2014.
While the MTN Ghana Foundation, the CRS wing of the telecom firm has over the years spent over millions of Ghana cedis on numerous projects in health, education and economic empowerment across the country.
In MTN’s effort to transform the Ghanaian society, the network operator has also introduced ‘MTN Heroes of Change’ programme, aimed at rewarding ordinary people who have played significant roles in transforming lives and communities.
The President of IPR Ghana, Madam Elaine Sam who led the delegation to the evening encounter thanked the MTN Ghana CEO and his team for opening the telecom giant to her members.
African Eye Report
