Ndukwe divulges secret of MTN’s dominance of Nigeria’s telecoms space
The former Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Ernest Ndukwe has revealed why foremost telecommunications services provider, MTN, has continued to dominate the Nigerian telecom space like a colossus.
Ndukwe, speaking as a guest at the Virtual Digital Africa VIP Leadership Series powered by Digital Africa, organisers of the annual Digital Africa Conference & Exhibitions, revealed that three factors – strong financial position, good management and discipline in terms of managing resources, separate MTN from the rest of the pack.
“I think it is important to say that MTN is a particularly disciplined company right from its roots; it has always been a well-run organization. It has not had the board squabbles of its competitions. Since the first board of MTN (Nigeria), some of the board members just retired last year (2019). Meanwhile, their competitions have had various owners, various quarrels, and various issues,” he stressed.
Ndukwe, who is the Chairman of MTN Nigeria Board, opined that nobody can be blamed for this position as the way organisations manage their affairs translates to the kind of position they occupy in the business environment.
“One thing that people don’t know also is that for the first five years of existence of MTN in Nigeria, it did not pay dividends to its shareholders. They recognized the importance of scale and were pumping in all the earnings, all the profits into building networks. They started building their own microwave links; they started building their own fibre optic links all across the country because it’s a matter of planning.
“Let it be said that technology changes, the best company today might not be the best company tomorrow. A few years ago, Facebook was not on the reckoning but today, is a much bigger company. People might not make it in terms of telecommunications service delivery because in certain countries, there is actually a certain number after which the market gets saturated. There are opportunities in the technology space; all that is needed is for operators to discover them and leverage.
“When Zoom started, no person knew it was going to scale to the level it has now reached; thanks to Coronavirus. People should continue to look for opportunities and niche markets and go there because that’s where they can scale. There are many companies that are doing very well in the financial technology space in the country too,” he elucidated.
