This is even as the telecommunications firm has claimed to hit the 60 million-subscriber marks by December 2014.
Speaking in Lagos, Wednesday at the launch of a new value proposition tagged: ‘Better Me 2015’, a mobile app, MTN Nigeria’s General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Funmi Onajide said mobile phones users needed to be to educated and advised adequately on some things that are contributing to their data losses.
Statistically, today, Nigeria is home to 184 million connected lines, out of which 134 million are active and about 75 million Nigerians are on the Internet connected by the Mobile Network Operators on a narrow band. The country is said to be home to 12 million smartphone, which the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah said was abysmally low for the largest telecommunications market in Africa.
Indeed, Onajide, who said the Nigerian market was gradually moving from voice to data, noted that some applications that comes with smartphones consumes data arbitrarily, which most times the owners of the device may not be aware.
“I had the same challenge. When I got a new smartphone, I discovered that my data account was running out very fast. Until I called on a colleague who, after checking discovered that most of the applications that comes with the phone run on their own by so doing consuming data credit arbitrarily. So people must be educated and know that whatever application that they are not using should be removed and they should also be conversant with their devices”, she stated.
Speaking on the new proposition, ‘BetterMe 2015’ app, the MTN Corporate Affairs General Manager said is a new data package built around software that allows subscribers to navigate the Internet adequately and get whatever information they are seeking.
“The new campaign signals a fundamental paradigm shift not only for MTN but the entire Nigerian ICT/Telecommunications industry. It signals a move towards maturity in the local ICT industry as we are fast approaching the kinds of landmarks, which promote the variety of data based products and services that we see in developed markets”, she stated.
According to her, the focus is gradually shifting from voice, where the country has been able to connect over 100 million active subscribers, of which MTN has 60 million subscribers as at the end of 2014.
Onajide said the dispensation of voice was known as Telco 1.5, “but we are now moving to Telco 2.0, which is characterized by full scale focus on data and digital services leveraging the power of the Internet.
“That is why on January 1, 2015, we launched a thematic campaign called Better Me and you would have seen many adverts in the newspapers and other media. The Better Me campaign will show how ordinary Nigerians can use the power of the Internet to do extraordinary things in ways that make for a better life in all sorts of ways. As you know, Nigerians are very innovative and millions of people, especially our youth are already very familiar with the Internet”, she stated.
Onajide informed that the Better Me campaign will build on that and expose Nigerians from all walks of life to how they can use the Internet to do all sorts of things that are relevant to their peculiar circumstance and show them how various digital and data products and services can make their lives better.
Speaking also, MTN Nigeria’s Chief Marketing Officer, Bayo Adekanmbi the new initiative will introduce to Nigerians Internet content that they may not be aware of including local content websites like pidgin-based websites; local language news and a variety of useful information, which should help people to see the positive value in the Internet.
Adekanmbi the app is integrated into MTN services, which kind of provides up to date insights and reminders to whomever subscribe to it, adding that through the application, subscribers could also visit job sites; search destinations and do so many things.
Snr. Manager, Segment Management, MTN, Mrs. Saidat Lawal-Mohammed explained that the package comes in forms including BetterMe Daily, which offers 20mins+15MB+35SMS; BetterMe Monthly Data, which comes with 2015MB and BetterMe Monthly Bundle, which comes with 100SMS+300MB+100mins.
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