ELEVEN YEARS ON. MTN STILL SEES POTENTIAL GROWTH IN NIGERIA

The South African based multinational telecommunications group, MTN, has a presence across sub-Saharan Africa and still sees potential for growth in some African countries it has been established in for years. In a recent KPMG Africa conversation series, Khumo Shuenyane – the group’s chief for strategy, mergers and acquisitions – said that the growth potential in Nigeria is still significant.
 By May 2012, Nigeria contributed 25.1% of the MTN Group’s total subscribers with over 45 million in the country. “We are obviously a very large player in Nigeria and we have pretty extensive coverage but there is still scope to grow in a number of the rural areas in particular… and increase the growth potential in some of the urban areas as well,” said Shuenyane.

“So our view is that there continues to be very significant growth potential. It is the largest market in Africa. It will very soon be the largest economy in Africa… I suspect. It’s definitely a very important market for us and one that we focus on very strongly.”

MTN expanded into Nigeria in 2001. So what has MTN learnt from doing business in Nigeria? “It’s very important to come to Nigeria, get to understand the environment, get to understand the market, and then apply policies and procedures and a way of operating that is relevant for that market. I think that is probably the biggest lesson,” said Shuenyane. “It is probably the biggest lesson throughout our operations, which is that there isn’t a cut and paste [business model]. There isn’t a South African model that you simply roll out across the rest of the operations. It’s very important to look at each of the countries on their own merits and apply ways of working that are specific to that country.”