MTN Eyes 3G, Mobile Banking Launch In Nigeria

Posted 21 June 2006 @ 04:50 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

DAKAR (Reuters) - Africa's biggest cell phone operator MTN expects to apply for a licence to run 3G services in Nigeria by the end of the year and hopes to launch mobile banking there soon, a top executive said on Wednesday.

MTN Nigeria's Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Bola Akingbade also told Reuters the company could buy one of Nigeria's smaller private network operators, which are undercutting GSM companies with cheaper tariffs.

"It is an option that we are evaluating, and if it is worth our while we will look at that," Akingbade said in an interview on the sidelines of a mobile phone conference in Dakar.

Nigeria's mobile phone market is one of the world's fastest growing, leaping to more than 20 million users from around 500,000 in 1999, attracting South African, European and Middle Eastern firms hoping to crack into the continent's largely untapped markets.

MTN has seized around 50 percent of the market in Africa's most populous nation, making it the number one operator, a ranking Akingbade said it would fight hard to defend with the imminent arrival of Kuwaiti-owned Celtel in the market.

"We will be under pressure ... but MTN is ready," he said, adding the company would aggressively roll out new services in Nigeria, its second-biggest market after South Africa.

Celtel, owned by cash-flush MTC, has just bought a majority stake in Nigerian operator Vmobile, and is expected to revamp the network, boosting its ailing market share.

3G SERVICES

Akingbade said MTN Nigeria was working on an application for a third generation licence, but would not pay over the odds to roll out the new technology, which gives users faster access to the Internet on their mobile phones.

Nigeria's telecoms regulator said in April it would soon offer 3G licences, and Akingbade said MTN was working out how much it would pay, and would probably submit an application before the end of the year.

MTN, which has focused more on muscling into new markets in Africa and the Middle East than rolling out new technology, launched 3G services in South Africa last year.

Analysts are divided on whether there is a business case for the high-speed data service in Africa. Some note that very few customers in the world's poorest continent can afford it, while others say that in countries where fixed-line infrastructure is patchy, mobile Internet is desperately needed.

The company also plans on launching mobile banking in Nigeria by teaming up with local outfit United Bank for Africa and other institutions, but Akingbade declined to say when it would launch.

MTN and other companies launched mobile banking in South Africa last year, hoping it would be a big hit on a continent where mobile phone use is increasingly ubiquitous but banking is still a luxury.

Akingbade said he expected the Nigerian mobile market to swell to at least 24 million by the end of 2006 from 22 million now, and to puncture the 40 million mark by 2010.