MTN Namibia launches Partner Programme
MTN Business Namibia has launched its Partner Programme, an initiative that will enable local and global ICT service providers to become part of the telecommunications company’s products and solutions offering.
The programme, which is already operational in other markets, will allow selected companies to leverage on the group’s expertise, while it rides on their know-how of the local market to fill any capacity or expertise gap currently existing in the business and complement what is already there.
The move comes barely a month after Profile Investment Holdings, acquired a 30% stake in MTN Business Namibia, a local arm of the MTN Group which operates in 24 countries.
MTN Business Namibia Manager: Sales, Business Development and Partnerships, Keith Handura, said the partnership programme has been designed with the customer in mind.
“All the partners that we are targeting have their core competencies and we have ours, and the whole idea with partnerships, is about us trying to marry the two. At the core of this, is the end customer. We want to add more value to the customer. The customer is at the heart of everything that we do,” he said.
“A partnership is better for us because we are not trying to reinvent the wheel, but partner with existing Namibian businesses already operating in these sectors. We are going into these partnerships with the best intentions,” he added.
MTN Business Namibia, which is focused on the business-to-business segment, is targeting channel, technology, and capability partners, with the South African headquartered MTN Group playing a strategic role.
“In the Namibian context, it’s very clear MTN Namibia has been a B2B player and continued to provide value added services to customers, but for us to take the leap into the future, there was no other way, but to partner up with key strategic partners locally to enhance our customer experience and our capabilities,” said Ralph Vraagom General Manager for Partnerships for MTN Group.
For a channel partner, MTN Business Namibia is targeting businesses that have an existing local distribution footprint.
“The channel partner is a partner that will help us sell our products in the market because they have capabilities we do not have. They have a footprint we don’t have, they have got people on the ground with a really large bouquet of services that I believe the MTN services can only add value to and allow our customers to reach our products easily,” Vraagom said.
According to Vraagom, capability partners will allow MTN Namibia to deliver its product and services better to the local market.
“When you talk about capability, it can be a wide range of things, even the guy that does the printing in an office that does it better than us, we will go learn, so it’s a specific capability, but it’s not technology,” he added.
Meanwhile, MTN Namibia believes that the partnerships will enhance value of its service offering, which will be offered at competitive prices on the market.
“Namibia is a very important market for us. The sooner we get these partnerships up and running, the sooner our customers will start enjoying the benefits,” Vraagom said.
Caption: MTN Business Namibia Manager: Sales, Business Development and Partnerships, Keith Handura
