MTN Ghana Launches iFest 2014

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana Mr. Serame Taukobong? has revealed that the ‘iFest Festival which was launched with the idea of creating awareness on the essence of internet/ data usage has caused significant increase in? Data subscription and revenues for the communication company.

As a result,?the company has recorded close to 25, 000 new data subscriptions through the?iFest. Mr. Serame, made this remark at the Launch of?iFest? ?2014 MTN?in? Accra. “We are happy to say that Data contributed 17.4% of total revenue for MTN Ghana for the first half of 2014. MTN currently leads? Ghana’s data market with 50.54% share” he disclosed.

According to him, the trend of growth of internet /data usage in Ghana is not different from what is happening globally. He said according to Global Internet society’s ranking Ghana now places 145th in the global internet rankings with 12. 3 internet penetration .

He said the emergence of smart? devices? has contributed immensely to the increase in mobile data subscription on their network.” The number of smartphones users? with access to data on the network? increased? from 525 in Nov 2011 to 1.7 millions in June 2014.

This has been the result of our strategic partnerships with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) such as Tecno, Huawei and Nokia. These OEMs have developed highly affordable smart android enabled phones for our subscribers who cannot afford the high end devices.
This year, two of such phones were launched and we are happy with the response so far ” he noted. This he said, considering the benefits of data usage to the growth of GDP in the world’s economy, in terms of revenue contributions, it is essential to continue educating people to embrace technology more.

According to him MTN will continue to make strategic and systematic investments in their network to support growth and also improve customer experience. We currently have over 1, 137? 3G sites and more than 4,000 kilometers of fiber deployed across the country.

Mr. Serame , adding that, MTN Ghana, will ensure that customers realize the full benefits of the internet . This he said, a number of activities have been outlined for the month of September.These include: experiential? free browsing opportunities at selected MTN branches across the? country, data clinics, bonus on bundle offer , quizzes and many more.