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ABOUT MTN
SA
Since its inception in 1994, MTN has established
itself as a global communications partner and
world-class cellular network, which as at September 2009
boasts a subscriber base of over 17 million.
As part of the increased focus on improving capacity to
deliver on the business strategy,
MTN South
Africa
has been
restructured into a functional organisational design.
This has resulted in revised sales and service,
marketing, and strategy and business development
departments being implemented. This structure has been
supported by a number of senior appointments.
MTN
South Africa
has also
entered into an information system outsourcing contract
to gain access to a broader pool of skills.
The South African mobile communications market is a
highly competitive and rapidly changing environment.
Included in the range of new competitors are four
broadband suppliers and the imminent entry of two
fixed-line operators. Following its acquisition of
Verizon SA in March last year, the new unit (trading as
MTN Business) compliments MTN’s
existing investment in MTN Network Solutions and expands
on the telco’s ability to deliver mobile and
internet-based data services to multi-national corporate
clients across the continent.
In the Summer of 2009, MTN celebrated its 15th
year of connecting people by launching the Ayoba
campaign. The Ayoba message is a positive one that
reflects the delight and excitement South Africans have
in all the good things that happen. MTN is committed to
bringing the spirit of Ayoba-ness to its customers by
continuing to develop solutions that cater for the
unique needs of its customers.
MTN PRE-PAID AND POST-PAID FLAGSHIPS
MTN Zone
A world first in mobile
innovation - offering customers discounts of up to 95%
on MTN to MTN calls, any network as well as on SMSs.
MTN Zone has proven to be MTN’s most successful price
plan, it features a dynamic pricing model that
optimises network utilisation by offering discounts
to customers in areas that have network capacity
available. This stimulates increased usage at different
times of the day other than off-peak times. Different
discounts are offered depending on the caller’s location
and the time of day. MTN Zone is an evolving solution as
is testament to the recent MTN Mahala offering that
gives customers up to 100% free calls during non-peak
times.
MTN AnyTime
MTN Anytime
offers simplicity, flexibility and choice, replacing the
customary complicated assortment of cell phone packages
with a simple proposition to pick the phone, pick the
airtime, pick the extras, MTN AnyTime offers inclusive
airtime value (opposed to minutes), one rate and per
second billing on all packages, across all networks,
anytime.
This user-friendly proposition allows customers to pick
the package that is in line with their monthly spend and
the time that they mostly use their cell phone.
MTN SOUTH
AFRICA CORPORATE SOCIAL INVESTMENT
MTN SA
Foundation
The
community development programme
MTN SA Foundation’s new social investment strategy is
underpinned by a commitment to making a meaningful,
measurable and sustainable impact in the country’s most
impoverished communities. Its holistic community
development programme addresses Educational, Health,
Arts and Culture and Entrepreneurial Development needs
over a three-year period.
The focus area that has been adopted during 2008 will
see all the initiatives within the MTN SA Foundation
strategically guiding its social investment activities
to ensure greater sustainability and long-term impact.
While the Foundation will continue to invest in
education, entrepreneurial development, health, arts and
culture, it has reorganised the four areas into four
distinct focus areas that will interlink with the
Foundation’s new holistic community development
programme.
An integrated development approach
South Africa’s rural and historically disadvantaged
communities face multiple challenges, and research has
shown that community-level CSI interventions work best
when they address more than one community need. MTN SA
Foundation’s holistic and integrated approach is
informed by the company’s policy of bringing about a
meaningful, measurable and sustainable change that will
uplift disadvantaged communities.
Still in the initial start-up phase, the community
development programme will implement educational,
entrepreneurial, health, and arts and culture
interventions using a cluster approach in rural
communities, thereby meeting multiple needs.
Capacity-building and empowerment are two important
hallmarks of the Foundation’s strategy and each of the
programmes implemented will aim to build local skills,
create sustainable opportunities and provide holistic
education on a number of issues that will benefit
community members in the long-term.
Conducting baseline assessments
In the four provinces of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West
and the Free State, the Foundation is focusing on
communities that typically fall outside the focus of
mainstream government and corporate social development
programmes.
In order to ensure that its community development
programme is sustainable and measurable, the Foundation
has made a considerable investment in conducting
research that will be used to establish a baseline
against which the programme can be measured. Recognising
that each community faces different challenges and that
any intervention therefore needs to be tailored, it has
also conducted a per-cluster needs analysis.
It has committed itself to spending three years in each
cluster; time which it believes is significant to
implement projects, overcome initial challenges and
build enough capacity to ensure that the projects
continue to benefit the local community after MTN’s
exit. Two new provinces will be added to the programme
in the second year of operation, followed by an
additional two provinces in the third year.
Education as a platform
Education accounts for the most significant portion of
the Foundation’s focus, and will form the central
platform of the community development programme.
Comprising many different elements and benefiting 15
schools per cluster, this component seeks to increase
school connectivity; build teacher capacity and improve
learner performance by providing access to technology;
set up science and multi-media centres at community
schools; and link educators with content experts,
educational institutions and each other by means of an
interactive satellite-based tele-teaching platform.
The education intervention will use schools as an entry
point for the other focus areas in the programme, with
the health, arts and culture and entrepreneurial
development portfolios leveraging off the community
access and relationships established through the
educational programme.
Building entrepreneurial capacity
The entrepreneurial development (ED) part of the
programme is a prime example of how this interlinked and
synergistic approach will work. The Foundation plans to
use local talent to develop the infrastructure necessary
for the roll-out of various aspects of the education
intervention. With a strong focus on training and skills
development, it will identify and build capacity in
existing small businesses and emerging start-up
enterprises across a range of industries, including
construction, electrical supplies, ICT, public
relations, marketing catering and events management.
These enterprises will benefit from the immediate work
involved in establishing and launching the multi-media
centres, and tele-teaching platforms, while their
increased capacity and skills will enable them to take
advantage of future business opportunities that may
arise. Once identified and trained, they will also be
added to MTN’s own procurement enterprise development
database.
The entrepreneurial development programme will include
the identification and refurbishment of existing
community payphone ‘container-businesses’, and an
institutional development component that will focus on
providing small businesses, NGOs and community
organisations with training on governance issues. The ED
will also build Business Hubs to support selected local
SMMEs to manage and sustain their businesses.
Promoting Healthy communities
The health programme will focus on educating both
learners and community members about HIV and Aids, TB,
life skills and lifestyle diseases, while a tele-medicine
technology platform will link rural clinics with
specialist doctors based in urban hospitals and thereby
facilitate quicker diagnosis, treatment and medicine
prescription for rural patients.
Incorporating Arts and culture
The Arts and culture programmes will build on
relationships with the schools to reach all community
members. Arts and culture is now recognised as an
important learning area in schools, and this aspect of
the programme will build educator capacity on the
subject and expose learners to visual arts. In addition
to providing art materials to beneficiary schools and
continuing its support of the Messages and Meaning
travelling art exhibition, the Foundation will establish
a School Art Award and deliver its sponsored
publication, Art Talk, to educators and learners.
Measuring impact
The MTNSA Foundation strongly believes that its social
investment projects should be measured in order to
determine how well the company is meeting its objective
of delivering meaningful, relevant and sustainable
impact. Using the baseline established through current
research, it will conduct impact assessments at various
stages throughout the three-year intervention in each
community.
MTN SA
SPONSORSHIP PROFILE
Sponsorship
MTN SA sponsors a number of key events, which include
the categories of sport and music. MTN’s sponsorship
strategy focuses on three key areas:
Football
MTN SA sponsors local teams Golden Arrow, Ajax Cape Town
and Black Leopards. With MTN the only African sponsor
for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, MTN SA entrenches MTN as a
keen supporter of the beautiful game.
Cricket
MTN is bowled over by local cricketing talent. The
telecommunications operator is proud to play a key role
in supporting this sport both nationally and
provincially and develop the game at a grassroots level.
MTN teamed up with the Proteas in 1998 and the
relationship has grown from strength to strength.
For this reason, MTN decided in 2006
to become even more involved in cricket and became the
official event sponsor for all one-day international (ODI)
series (the MTN ODI Series) hosted in South Africa. In
addition, to develop the future of future cricket
champions, MTN has donated cricketing equipment to
organisations which in turn coach previously
disadvantaged youths and helps them discover this
exciting and fun sport.
Last season, MTN celebrated its tenth year of
involvement in cricket in the country with several
exciting initiatives including a cricketing world first
that gave fans the opportunity to bowl the opening
delivery for their favourite franchise at any of the
televised MTN Domestic Championship cricket matches. The
operator has continued with this, and introduced many
other new initiatives, at the start of the new domestic
season last month with the exciting MTN40 championship.
Music
MTN is the title sponsor of the annual MTN South African
Music Awards. This year, 2010 marks the seventh year of
MTN’s sponsorship of the MTN SA Music Awards and the 16th
year of the SAMAS. MTN has always been a proud supporter
and champion of local music and recognises that when
music has local significance and relevance, it resonates
that much more with audiences. In its continued support
of South African music, MTN has over the past few years
been taking local music to the people, staging live
music concerts across the country. The free, live music
concerts have not been limited to any particular genre,
but rather focused on the development of South African
music.
ABOUT THE
MTN GROUP
Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a multinational
telecommunications group, operating in 21 countries in
Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is
listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa
under the share code: "MTN". As at the end of 30
September 2009, MTN recorded 108 million subscribers
across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana,
Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau,
Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of
Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan,
Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. The MTN
Group is a global sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
South Africa™ and has exclusive mobile content rights
for Africa and the Middle East. Visit
www.mtn.com
and
www.mtnfootball.com. |
