MTN Group Increases Stake in MTN Nigeria

By Eddyson Lugangwa Posted 06 October 2006 @ 07:05 am EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

Lagos (IBTimes.com) - MTN Group, the South African cell phone operator, has announced its acquisition of an extra 6.98 per cent interest in its subsidiary, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited (MTN Nigeria).

MTN's spokesperson, Pearl Majola disclosed that MTN made the acquisition from minority shareholders at the cost of $348.9 million, or about R2.6 billion.

It is stated that the purchase would be funded through a cash payment of $287.8 million (about R2.2 billion) and an issue of about six million ordinary shares in MTN.

Majola said the purchase, to be effected through MTN International, would bring the MTN Group's shareholding in MTN Nigeria to 81,87 per cent.

MTN Nigeria, the leading cellular operator in the country, launched its network in 2001. With a subscriber base of over 9.6 million, Majola said MTN Nigeria provided access to 73 per cent of Nigeria's population.

MTN Nigeria as part of the MTN Group, Africa's leading cellular telecommunications company, became the first GSM network to make a call on May 16, 2001, following the globally lauded Nigerian GSM auction conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission earlier in that year. Thereafter the company launched full commercial operations beginning with Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

MTN paid $285 million for one of the four GSM licenses in Nigeria in January 2001. Having launched in August 2001, MTN has steadily deployed its services across Nigeria. It now provides services in 223 cities and towns, more than 10,000 villages and communities and a growing number of highways across the country, spanning the 36 states of the Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Many of these villages and communities were connected to the world of telecommunications for the first time ever.

The company's digital microwave transmission backbone, the 3,400 kilometre Y'elloBahn was commissioned by President Olusegun Obasanjo in January 2003 and is reputed to be the most extensive digital microwave transmission infrastructure in all of Africa.

MTN Nigeria also recently expanded its network capacity to include a new numbering range with the prefix 0806, making MTN the first GSM network in Nigeria to have adopted an additional numbering system, having exhausted its initial subscriber numbering range - 0803.

In its resolve to enhance quality customer service, MTN Nigeria has also introduced a self-help toll-free 181 customer-care line through which subscribers can resolve their frequently asked questions free of charge.

MTN's states that its mission is to be a catalyst for Nigeria's economic growth and development, helping to unleash Nigeria's strong developmental potential not only through the provision of world class communications but also through innovative and sustainable corporate social responsibility initiatives.