Global financial crisis hasn’t spared us, says MTN chief
Global financial crisis hasn’t spared us, says MTN chiefWritten by Fridah Zinyama
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 2:35:23 PM
MTN Zambia Limited chief executive officer Per Christer Eriksson has said the global financial crisis has not spared the mobile industry, as people have reduced their spending on airtime.
And MTN Zambia Ltd chief sales and marketing manager Fred Mokoena said his company has come up with a promotion meant to help increase the call duration of its subscribers.
During the launch of the MTN ‘Talk4Mahala’ promotion at Southern Sun Ridgeway hotel in Lusaka yesterday, Eriksson said the global financial crisis had affected his company like other industries and hence the decision to put in place measures that would increase the subscriber’s chances of making calls.
“There is competition for the money in people’s pockets in the mobile industry,” he said.
Eriksson said apart from the credit crunch, the depreciation of the local currency had also affected the company’s operation costs as they had to spend more on importing equipment into the country.
“Our investment costs are going up but this is not correlating with an increase in tariffs,” he said.
Eriksson however added that despite the challenges the company was experiencing, it had no intentions of downsizing its workforce.
“We are on a growth path as a company and cutting down jobs is not an option for us,” said Eriksson.
And Mokoena said the MTN ‘Talk4Mahala’ promotion was meant to encourage subscribers to talk for a longer period than was currently happening.
“All our clients have to do is talk for 90 seconds and then the next 15 minutes are free,” he said. “This promotion is meant to benefit our clients who are on the pre-paid system but our post paid clients are also free to change to the pre-paid system if they want to enjoy the benefits.”
Mokoena said over the past few months, call duration had significantly reduced and MTN had devised ways of encouraging its clients to speak more whilst spending less money.
Labels: FRED MOKOENA, GREAT DEPRESSION II, ITC, MTN, PER CHRISTER ERIKSSON
posted by MrK @ 2:35 PM
1 Comments:
Don't really understand how a mobile phone operator can be affected by the crisis. Sure people call a lot less which means less profit but they make money out of thin air. They charge for minutes which are something you make out of thin air. The equipment can't cost that much that it would spend all the profits and the workforce will have to do with lower wages. But it's nice that they try and do something about the lowering profits, the new plans and programs look pretty promising.
Take care, Elli
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