Grace Ashiru
People who have strong connections to others ultimately have more power. Therefore, ensuring that traditionally underserved populations, such as those living in villages and senior citizens, young people, and women, have access to digital technologies is essential to broaden socio-economic growth.
Motivated to achieve its well -thought goal which is to be the leading provider of digital solutions in Africa’s progress by the year 2025, they’re well aware of the importance of ensuring that all market participants have equal access to the advantages associated with living a connected life in the modern era. As a result, the company has developed a comprehensive strategy for MTN and refers to this as a “CHASE.” The first thing that needs to be done is to expand the broadband connection (the ‘c’ in CHASE).
“Having a good broadband connection is important, but it’s not enough,” says Enzo Scarcella Group MTN, Consumer Executive. “There are many other things which need to be done to ensure we leave nobody at the back.
There are several things that people need to enjoy mobile internet, affordable data,3G-enabled phones, education, and other relevant service offerings,” He added.
When all of these things are on the ground, mass adoption goes up sharply. The results of research in Zambia, in which MTN’s partner AMN is assisting in linking more rural populations to broadband, back this up.
The study compared the effects of several interventions carried out in six interior villages to those carried out in another set of 6 villages, all of which had access to 3G networks.
It discovered that it was possible to achieve the desired results by carrying out the interventions – all of which are in line with the components of MTN’s CHASE framework.
More people made use of the internet, and consequently, the amount of data they used went up by three times what control villages saw.
Researches like these support us to continue following our CHASE template,” says Scarcella, adding that the Team was making advancements on what they achieved last year. The details are:
Coverage: To ensure there is enough coverage in the rural areas, we added new partnership models and rollout partners in nine hundred and twelve rural sites in 2021. This means that the number of people covered in the rural areas is above 23 million, in contrast to 2020 when only 8. 5 million were covered.
By the end of last year, 83% of people would be covered by MTN’s broadband service. MTN Global Connect was the channel through which we built the infrastructure that links countries in Africa to one another and the world.
We put in above 15,000 kilometres of terrestrial fibre, bringing our total footprint to 100,000 kilometres.
Handsets: To make devices that needed data more affordable and easy to get, we gave our clients 3. million 3G also 4G devices in 2021. We ensured that customers could get service after the sale by increasing the number of sellers we buy phones and contracts. We also sold devices approved by MTN that were 20% less expensive than a similar phone. As a result of the M-KOPA partnership, we helped people in Ghana and Uganda get financing for devices. This year, we will add Zambia and Nigeria to this list.
Service bundling: To give customers easy, meaningful and helpful services, we will provide diverse customer channels with different offers in 2021. These included social media bundles, Micro bundles, and XtraBytes, allowing customers to borrow data immediately when theirs is exhausted. We also made YouTube bundles for streaming for people who are just starting.
Affordability: We cut our reduced data tariff by 15.3 per cent in 2021 to make data services more affordable. We compared the prices of MTN data across operations to see if they were affordable according to UN and ECOWAS rules. We found that eleven MTN market prices for data were within the range the UN says is reasonable.
Education and access: To improve digital enlightenment and make it easier to get to data, we tutored million people within 12 markets where we provide MTN Data-Smart” digital literacy program in 2021.
This free program helps people understand the basics of the app and mobile internet better.
CHASE makes it clear what we should do and for all at MTN to stay on track, says Scarcella. He also noted that expanding financial inclusion and digital across Africa helps the group’s strategic priority, creating shared value. “Nobody should be left behind, no matter how old they are, how much they have, and where they live,
