MTN Nigeria Communication Plc has raised the alarm over the rising incidents of vandalization of its sites, infrastructure, and national assets, particularly in the South Eastern region, and other parts of the country.
The telecom operator’s General Manager of Regional Operations in the East, Callima Inino, expressed the company’s concern while speaking with journalists during the inaugural Anambra Investment Summit 2023, titled ‘Role of Corporate Governance in Building Sustainable Businesses,’ on Tuesday in Awka, Anambra State.
Inino, who spoke on major challenges being faced by his company and other telcos, specifically decried the damages to the company’s fiber-optic cables during construction activities as well damages to signal boosters in the market area of the state capital.
He lamented: “We also confront issues related to signal boosters within the market area, which adversely affect network quality.
“These are part of the uncontrollable variables, which we keep addressing so that our esteemed customers are not denied their services, especially during emergencies, as they get value for their money.
“This is one of the reasons we’re here to leverage on government partnership to ensure protection of our infrastructure, as well as guarantee quality and efficient service delivery to the people”, the regional manager added.
Despite the challenges, Inino maintained that the telecom operator still controlled over 50% of the subscriber base in Anambra State with a network of over 7,000 agents and 300 merchants, covering towns, local councils, and villages throughout the state.
He explained all these demonstrated MTN’s commitment to delivering high-quality and efficient services to its customers nationwide.
The regional manager described Anambra State, with a population of over eight million, as a good market which the telco “needs the partnership and support of the government and other stakeholders to grow to meet up with the vision.”