MTN Edge Award Plaque
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has explained reasons why MTN Nigeria has remained over and above other networks in terms of growth and spread in Nigeria.
Speaking on the origin of mobile telecoms service in Nigeria under his watch as President at the launch of a book on ICT written by Mr. Dayo Oketola in Lagos, he acknowledged that the competition among operators such as MTN, Econet, and Globacom significantly shaped the sector.
According to him, “We achieved competition because the three of them were competing. And of course, the one who had the upper hand in terms of spread, I think, was MTN, followed by Glo and then there was Econet.”
He recalled that Nigerians faced considerable challenges with limited infrastructure, securing fewer than 500,000 phone lines despite extensive investments.
Obasanjo recalled that “The story of telecommunication, particularly mobile communication, was a very interesting one, because before mobile telecommunication, we’d done a lot of things. We spent a lot of money. We have had companies invited from America, from France, even from Britain, and we did not get more than 500,000 lines with all that we have done, and people have to queue at the telephone booths”.
“When the first three mobile telecom companies came in, they were offered licenses. The cost of one of these licenses was $280m, but soon, the same license was going to be offered for just $3m by some individuals in the previous government who wanted to give out these licenses to their friends for just $3m,” Obasanjo said.
He stated that although these investments have spurred significant progress, establishing the right conditions is still crucial for attracting future investments and maintaining growth in the sector, maintaining that “There are still opportunities today for Nigeria to attract investments, but the right conditions need to be created for that money to come in again.”
