The MTN Confidence on Nigeria
I have a client – a European. We worked on a report for his business in Nigeria. He liked it. In a presentation today, I shared this photo with him. My thesis was this photo shows that for all the ills we read/hear about Nigeria from CNN, BBC and New York Times, a nation lives.
MTN was fined N330 billion (final number) – about $1.5 billion when it happened. It did not pack out of Nigeria. It stayed. Why? It believes after paying N330 billion that it could make money. I explained that MTN must dig itself out of N330 before it could make money.
This money could give MTN at least ten bank licenses [you need N25b to get one]. Yes, MTN gave away ten (new) banks because it was confident it could make money in future.
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Indeed, there is something big about Nigeria that MTN cares. That thing must be strong for it to stay around. I am happy it is here.
Have the mindset of MTN – do not quit on Nigeria.
When you see a treasure down there, quitting is no longer part of the options; you have to persevere until you get your hand on it.
The major thing is to have clarity about how to live and benefit in Nigeria, once you figure it out; it doesn't matter what others are saying, you will definitely stay put.
Yes, Nigeria is very tough, but it has 'codes', and once you 'decode' them, you don't complain anymore!