MTN celebrates Ethiopian national football team

By Eskedar Kifle

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) announced the launch of its campaign called “Celebrate 31 on 831 with MTN Ethiopia” on the 28th of November 2012. After the four- week SMS based quiz competition, five winners will be selected to go on an all-expenses paid trip to South Africa to attend  the African Nations Cup finals.

“We are very excited to be launching this campaign as we are great supporters of football. Ethiopians are really passionate about football as well, therefore, we are doing this in celebration of the Ethiopian National Team making it to the Cup after 31 years,” said Happy-Girl Buthelezi, country director of MTN.

The SMS competition features questions about Ethiopia’s history in football. It was stated, at a press conference held at the Hilton Hotel, that the aim of the competition was also to educate people on the history of football in the country.

“The relationship between South Africa and Ethiopia is getting stronger. We had a business delegation come in from South Africa back in September and it was a big step for both countries. It is important not to lose that momentum,” said Happy-Girl.

MTN was the major sponsor of the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa. It established its office in Ethiopia in March 2012. Since then it has been working with the Ministry of CIT and other private organizations in different areas. “We are working on providing value added services; we have been discussing some potential services that can be modified for the Ethiopian consumer,” said Happy-Girl.

The company got its Value Added Service (VAS) license from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and is in the process of finalizing its work to give services under that license.

One of the services MTN is planning to launch is a service called M-Agriculture which enables consumers to receive information on agriculture products. “We are working with ECX and the Ministry of Agriculture on launching this new service,” the country director stated.

MTN will be donating a percentage of the money that it earned from the SMS campaign to the Ethiopian Football Federation. “We haven’t discussed it with the Federation but we do want to collaborate with them on possible areas of partnership,” said Happy-Girl.

MTN is a company based in South Africa which operates in 23 countries in Africa and the Middle East, with 180 million subscribers.

Source: CapitalEthiopia.com