COVID-19: MTN provides customers free services to help communication- Official

MTN Nigeria says it has provided its customers with a range of free services to help make communication easier during the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Its Company Secretary, Uto Ukpanah, also said the company has provided an update on the utilisation so far of its network initiatives to provide its customers and partners with connectivity.

Ukpanah said in a statement on Friday that these were in addition to the MTN’s direct contributions to support the fight against COVID-19.

He listed some of the supports to include: donations to CACOVID (N1 billion), Federal and State Governments (Communications support) and the NCDC (Devices, airtime, SMS channel and data) MTN.

According to him, as at May 15, 2020, our network has provided: more than 2 Billion free SMS sent by over 40 million subscribers.

“About 3,000 Terrabytes of free data utilised to access zero-rated health websites, and access to Ayoba, our partner messaging app;

“Over 1.7 million free money transfers by about 100,000 people using the MoMo Agent Network (offer ended May 1).

On the update, the company Chief Executive Officer, Ferdi Moolman said: “Since we began providing 300 free SMS’s per month to our subscribers more than two billion SMS have been sent by more than 44 million subscribers.

“It demonstrates the universal appeal and accessibility of SMS as a communications service.

“We are proud to have been able to reach so many people and are committed to continuing to provide this service.

“As we continue to navigate this pandemic, we are focusing our efforts on trying to ensure no one is left behind.”