MTN Ghana has announced plans to grow its customers on the MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) platform from the current 14 million users to 20 million users by 2021.

Consequently, the telecommunications company indicated that it had already started nationwide educational campaigns and promotions to encourage more people to register on the platform. “We will continue to promote the MoMo platform and make it available to everybody.

Once the service is available, customers will use it,” the General Manager (GM) of MTN Mobile Financial Services, Mr Eli Hini, told the media at the launch of the 10th anniversary celebrations of MTN MoMo at Madina, a suburb of Accra, at the weekend.

“MoMo has come to make life simple and comfortable for most people. It is not an exaggeration when I say that MoMo has impacted the lives of millions of Ghanaians across the country.”

Mr Hini said the MoMo service was officially launched on July 21, 2009 with Bruno Akpaka as its first General Manager.

“We hit the ground running with the catchy commercial which caught the attention of most people and the phrase ‘Minsa aka’ became associated with the service,” he said.

According to him, the beginning was very slow and extremely difficult because what we had introduced was not just a breakthrough in technology – it was also going to break the sociology of how money is used and exchanged.

Explaining further, he indicated that most people were not familiar with the process and so management of the telecommunication company had to use different approaches to get users and potential users to first understand the service, be confident about it and begin to use it.

A decade down the line, the MD said MoMo has become the foremost payment system in the country and management were proud of this achievement.

He said the MoMo service was launched with the money transfer and the purchase of airtime and over the years a host of services was added on the mobile money platform.

“As we speak now there are six major categories of financial transactions on the MoMo platform under which there are various other services.

“We are not only forging local partnerships, we receive transactions from international partners and have forged partnerships with Visa, Google, Western Union and Mastercard,” he said.

Going forward, Mr Hini said a decade in operations gave the company an opportunity to reflect and ponder over how far it had come and to plan and prepare for the future.

“As we are constantly working to improve our services, we are confident that the future will be brighter with more opportunities on our MoMo platform.

“We are looking forward to a future where MoMo will be an acceptable mode of receipt and payment of all government transactions and every form of financial transaction,” he said.

He added that the company launched the 10th anniversary of MoMo in the market because it wanted all traders to know that mobile money made life very simple so it should not be difficult for the vegetables, tubers, grains and the charcoal sellers to accept MoMo as the mode of receiving payments from their patrons.

[caption id="attachment_5151" align="alignnone" width="300"] Patricia Obo-Nai, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ghana[/caption]

Vodafone Ghana has launched a product designed to bring the spice back into the Ghanaian family all year round.

Known as 'Vodafone One Family”, it is the only unique converged prepaid service in Ghana for the entire family, providing broadband at home, voice minutes for your landline and mobile as well as SMS allocations for up to 4 mobile devices.

The service also allows customers to pair and share data from their broadband data at home with up to four (4) mobile devices depending on the type of package selected.

Vodafone believes that the lives of its customers are more connected now than ever before. Staying in touch with the family has now become an integral part of daily lives, either at home or on the go.

Vodafone One Family, therefore, brings all these together by giving the family one seamless connection across data, voice and fixed, in a convenient way.

Commenting, Patricia Obo-Nai, Chief Executive of Vodafone Ghana said "what we have done is in direct response to the specific needs of our customers who continue to push us to attain further heights of excellence in our offerings. This new product offers total convenience and flexibility, connecting the entire family at one go. There is no better time than now to get connected to your family every day. We are happy to be setting the pace once again in the industry"

Vodafone Customers can subscribe or upgrade their existing packages by using the self-care portal via https://fbb.vodafone.com.gh/planchange.php, MyVodafone App on Google Play and App store or by dialling *900# on any Vodafone mobile number.

New customers can apply for Vodafone One Family using the following touchpoints: walk into any Retail Shop nationwide, or apply online by visiting https://fbb.vodafone.com.gh/ or through any of our Sales Agents.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

[caption id="attachment_5651" align="alignnone" width="300"] AirtelTigo Leadership with NCR Executives-and-Members[/caption]

The Chief Executive Officer of AirtelTigo, Mitwa Kaemba Ng’ambi, says the company’s brand promise to its customers is to be the mobile technology partner that allows customers to benefit from innovative but simple solutions to live better.

With its tagline “Life is Simple”, Mrs Ng’ambi explained that: “We recognize that customers’ needs are changing with time. In this regard, we want to make life simple for our customers and businesses through our innovative products and services.”

She disclosed this during a courtesy call on the management of the company by the Network of Communication Reporters (NCR) at its headquarters in Accra.

Mrs. Ng’ambi shared with excitement the growth journey that the company is on, saying “the company is focusing on continued network expansion for improved customer experience, AirtelTigo Money also known as ‘ATM” and AirtelTigo Business which caters for small and large businesses.”

Mrs. Ng’ambi also cited examples of how AirtelTigo is living up to its brand promise. One such example is the first ever data bundle with no expiry in Ghana, “Big Time Data” which gives unbeatable value to customers. She committed that AirtelTigo will continue to offer such innovative products and services to demonstrate the brand’s promise.

Discussing some of the challenges faced by the company and industry, she said: “Good network experience is a key priority for us and as such the rise in the number of fibre cuts across the country is a major concern. We are experiencing 3 times the number of disruptions than we were experiencing this same time last year. This is significant.”

“When a fibre cut occurs it impacts the connection that our customers have to the network. We try as much as possible to restore service timeously, but the reality is that for every restoration that we undertake there’s a significant cost attached to this. From January up to today we have spent in the millions of Ghanaian cedis to repair our infrastructure that is damaged by third parties. Of course, it’s a concern to us because these are monies that could rather be reinvested in other areas of the network as opposed to the restoration of service.”

The Dean of the Network of Communication Reporters (NCR), Charles Benoni Okine, congratulated the CEO on her one-year anniversary, adding that the visit formed part of efforts by the NCR to engage key stakeholders in the telecom industry.

He explained that the NCR is a group of business and financial journalists who are more interested in writing business news focused on the telecommunications industry and that the interaction with the AirtelTigo leadership team gave NCR an opportunity to understand issues relating to its operations and plans to ensure better service for customers.

“Interaction such as this, is good for us because it allows us to better understand industry issues so that when we are reporting we do so from an informed standpoint. That’s one of the major reasons why we called on you.”

He also urged players in the telecommunications and financial services industry to continuously tighten their procedures and systems to help eliminate the growing incidence of cyber crime in the country. He pledged the commitment of the network to play its advocacy role to ensure that the sector contributed its quota in a much bigger way towards the development of the economy.

Source: AirtelTigo

African operator group MTN hit back at claims its major shareholder was looking for changes to the board, stating the original report carried unsubstantiated rumours and inaccuracies.

Bloomberg reported South Africa’s Public Investment Corp (PIC), which owns 26 per cent of MTN, wanted change following regulatory, legal and political disputes which have impacted the company’s operations, particularly in Nigeria.

Among its requests was the replacement of chairman Phuthuma Nhleko and a reorganisation of the board.

However, MTN said that “contrary to what the story alleges”, PIC requested it extended Nhleko’s term longer than originally intended, until 15 December, to ensure an orderly hand-over to designated successor Mcebisi Jonas.

Also under debate was the role of MTN’s International Advisory Board (IAB), which Bloomberg described as a “council of wise old men, who can directly contact lawmakers and decision makers in the countries where MTN operates”.

In a statement, MTN said the primary purpose of the group is “to provide general global and/or sector specific perspectives that may enrich the perspectives of the operating company’s board as it strives to contribute to certain areas of development in the countries in which it operates”.

The group was “conceptualised” before PIC increased its shareholding in MTN, it stated.

MTN previously said the IAB “is a non-statutory entity comprised of selected members” which doesn’t perform any “fiduciary duties nor does it assume any accountability for the publicly quoted entity”.

“IAB will not opine on any matters that have to do with the operations of the business.”

It is headed by Thabo Mbeki, former president of South Africa.

Source: mobileworldlive