MTN Group has made senior leadership appointments to operating companies in Nigeria, Iran and Sudan, all of them internal candidates, as it focuses on executing on its strategy to drive growth, de-leverage faster and reveal value in our fintech and fibre businesses.

The appointments are effective 1 April 2022. “A vital enabler of our strategy is having the best talent, culture and future-fit skills,” says MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita. “Today’s announcement demonstrates the depth of talent within the Group, as well as the strength of our succession planning.” 

Following the recent appointment of MTN Nigeria Chief Operating Officer Mazen Mroue as MTN Group Chief Information and Technology Officer, Hassan Jaber assumes the COO role at MTN Nigeria. He moves from MTN Irancell, where he serves as COO, bringing with him some 25 years of telecoms and digital experience within the MTN Group.

 Jaber’s track record of building and scaling-up telecom operations and developing digital businesses through the power of mobile technology will be instrumental to MTN Nigeria as it plays its part in delivering on the Group’s strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress. He has served MTN in numerous markets, including Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen.

 Malik Melamu, with over 28 years of managerial and executive experience, will assume the position of MTN Irancell COO, joining from MTN Sudan where he has been  CEO over the last five years. Among other roles at MTN, he previously served as MTN Benin CEO and as Executive for Sales and Distribution and Customer Experience at MTN Group.

 Stepping into the CEO role at MTN Sudan is Ziad Sabah, whose career within MTN spans more than a decade, most recently as MTN Syria CEO and before that as the Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Syria. Ziad is a seasoned business leader and will play a pivotal role in strengthening MTN Sudan’s market position through initiatives to advance digital and financial inclusion. 

 “These appointments demonstrate the depth of leadership bench-strength within the MTN Group, and we remain focused on delivering sustainable growth to our stakeholders. Nigeria, Iran and Sudan are markets with attractive demographics and tremendous potential growth opportunities for digital and financial inclusion,” concludes Mupita.

Leading telecommunications services provider, Airtel Nigeria, has unveiled a new self-care portal to empower business customers on its network to gain total control of their service accounts as well as fulfil various requests instantly, regardless of location and time. 

The Airtel Self-Care portal is laden with features that ensure business customers are able to navigate the platform effortlessly so that they can fulfil basic requests and independently manage their business accounts effectively without recourse to third parties. 

With the new portal, business customers can now view their business account details including outstanding and overdue bills; access line level details to identify which accounts are active and inactive as well as view products and usage patterns.

 Customers can also fulfil several service requests including bill payments, airtime purchase, account statement status, and account user management. In addition, service provisioning requests such as SIM swap, billing issues, line activation/deactivation, CUG (Closed User Group) activation and related requests can be resolved via the portal easily.

Commenting on the Self-Care portal, director, Airtel Business, Ogo Ofomata, said the portal is designed to make life simple, better and more enjoyable for all its business customers, noting that with the initiative, customers can now get things done on the go with instant results, thereby improving productivity and business outcomes.

“Airtel is constantly innovating to improve the service experience for our esteemed business customers and we believe that the Self-Care portal will not just put our customers in the drivers’ seats but will significantly enhance their performance as well as enable them enjoy an amazing experience on our network,” she said.

Out There Media (OTM), a global leader in mobile advertising and data monetization, today announced that it has successfully launched its proprietary mobile advertising technology Mobucks™ with leading mobile operator, MTN Nigeria.

OTM’s technology, combined with its network of brands and brand agencies, will strengthen the mobile operator’s digital advertising strategy, driving advertiser interaction and engagement with its 65 million subscribers, nearly two times the reach of Facebook in Nigeria.

Several brand partners have already launched mobile campaigns via Mobucks™ platform, including First Bank Nigeria, BETKing, CARS45, Oraimo, Smoov Chapman, Old Mutual, FordFoundation, Tangerine and Wella Health. The initial campaigns have already seen impressive results; for example, the campaign for First Bank Nigeria insurance products achieved an average Click Through Rate of (CTR) of 7%, with CTR reaching up to 12% in some instances. This is a whopping 70 to 120 times better than industry benchmarks on digital advertising. Other launch partners include some of the country’s leading media agencies, such as Media Fuse, PHD Nigeria, and Starcom Media Perspective.

“As a part of our Good Together ethos, we are always on the lookout for innovative ways for Nigerians to stay connected with the people and brands they love,” said Srinivas Rao, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at MTN Nigeria. “We recognise how powerful reach can be—and with that reach, how important it is to have the right partner and technology that would allow us to deliver the best campaigns. When it comes to mobile advertising and data monetization, OTM’s technology and services provide the perfect solution to help us drive a digital revolution in the country.”

OTM’s Mobucks™ technology enables MTN Nigeria to bring subscribers targeted, interactive messaging, rich media experiences, and programmatic advertising campaigns from its chosen brand and agency partners. OTM’s access to MTN’s first-party deterministic telco data allows the Mobucks™ technology to combine precise targeting and personalization with reach, to enable “micro-targeting at scale” for its brand clients.

“With the pandemic and its aftermath, it has been a challenging time for brands and subscribers alike; it’s important that we take the right steps to stay connected and keep moving forward,” said Lynda Saint-Nwafor, the Chief Enterprise Business Officer (CEBO) at MTN Nigeria. “Our partnership with OTM will keep Nigerians connected and engaged with their favourite brands. We are truly excited to bring the very best of mobile advertising to both parties – our subscribers and brand partners.”

“Reach combined with targeting is always a key challenge for brands and advertisers when trying to engage their audiences,” said Donald Mokgale, CEO Sub-Saharan Africa at OTM. “That’s why mobile operators prove to be such powerful partners for us to enable our brand and agency clients as well as small businesses to use mobile advertising to boost their reach and deliver targeted campaigns to the right audiences, at the right time, via our Mobucks™ platform. The results from the initial campaigns that we have run here in Nigeria speak for themselves and prove that consumers are whole-heartedly embracing this form of targeted brand engagement. We are extremely excited to be working with MTN Nigeria as our first mobile operator partner in Nigeria and to be at the forefront of the digital revolution in the country.”

The launch in Nigeria is part of OTM’s Mobucks™ technology roll out across the African continent.