Ensuring success for local businesses in all spheres

By Kagiso Moncho, General Manager: Northern Region, MTN Business

face of persistent loadshedding. The MTN network is at the heart of all our ICT solutions, enabling organisations of all sizes and from all sectors to continue growing. Augmented by the ongoing rollout of our 5G network, our comprehensive solution stack helped public and private sector organisations enhance their operations over the past year, and 2023 has already seen local companies using technology to find new ways to do things to accommodate for the challenges they are facing in their industries.

Network improvements

The improvements we are making to our network – and through those, to all of our offerings – are the latest step towards achieving MTN’s Ambition 2025: To provide leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress. As an important region that is part of the six that make up MTN South Africa’s focus areas, Limpopo is front and centre of how we are approaching the digital future.

When it comes to South Africa’s economic growth, most people don’t think of the Northern Region. However, Limpopo is home to some of the country’s most vital industries. From mining to manufacturing, agriculture and our power infrastructure, Limpopo helps keep the country running effectively while producing around 7.3% of our GDP.

Unfortunately, our region has its fair share of challenges, but MTN is proud to be able to say that we are actively investing in solutions that we hope will help overcome some of them. In addition to expanding our network, MTNSA is investing R1.5billion to ensure availability and resilience in the

As MTN’s 5G network and IoT ecosystem grow, this province will come to be a technology leader. Already, local mines and farms are looking at different ways that sensor-connected systems can help make them more efficient, and we are leveraging our capabilities and partnerships to help them create roadmaps to achieve their goals.

SMMEs, which are the bedrock of South Africa’s economic growth, are also turning to technology to stay competitive. We believe that SMMEs should have access to the same kind of support that large organisations do and MTN is proud to be assisting local SMMEs with their technology requirements, whether that is access to affordable connectivity solutions, cloud services like Microsoft Teams and Office 365, or access to digital financial services.

MTN has been helping facilitate payments in Limpopo for many years, providing small businesses with an easy way to send and receive money. Mobile Money continues to grow, with millions of people in the region using it on a daily basis.

When the going gets tough, the tough get our support

MTN has long been the supplier of choice for the public sector in the Limpopo Province, and our focus will remain on helping government agencies improve their service delivery in 2023. We already have existing long-term relationships with the Department of Education and the Department of Health, along with many municipalities, and are looking forward to growing those partnerships in the future.

We have implemented plans to enable better access to connectivity in rural areas, further assisting service delivery mandates in the Limpopo Province – not to mention helping more people access the tools they need for modern connected life. To that end, we have ramped up investment into preventative measures to ensure the resilience of the network.

In addition to loadshedding, the MTN network has to contend with the threats of vandalism and copper theft. We have therefore taken a holistic approach to improving network availability.

This includes investment into, and deployment of, additional backup battery and generator capacity, as well as power contingencies such as 24x7x365 monitoring and response to ensure there is no downtime. MTN has also implemented software-defined power-saving features on base stations during higher stages of loadshedding to ensure 100% availability.

MTN is also embarking on strategic and tactical plans to reduce reliance on the Eskom power grid so that future bouts of loadshedding won’t impact service availability. These plans include the implementation of bespoke solutions that are less reliant on traditional network topologies, collaboration with strategic partners to offer additional resilience and increased network capacity to cater for the increase in demand during loadshedding periods. We are also accelerating fibre distribution and optimising existing fibre routes.

As local businesses continue to deal with the impact of loadshedding, not to mention having to find solutions to help them stay ahead in a challenging economic environment, MTN is proud to be able to provide the support and relief they need to remain competitive. Limpopo will continue to be a strong focus area for us in the year ahead, and a long time to come.

This is why our local team, led by Norman Tshikovhele, is dedicated to enabling Limpopo’s business community in the face of ever-changing consumer and market trends.

Meet Norman Tshikovhele

With years of marketing and sales experience gained across local and multinational corporates, Norman Tshikovhele looks after a team that includes international mining houses, public sector organisations and SMMEs. His previous multinational client portfolio includes Anglo American PLC, RAM, DSV, Dimension Data, Exxaro and Ericsson.

With extensive experience in the development and implementation of account sales strategies, retentions and acquisitions, Norman is a seasoned leader. He studied Business Development Management at the Gordon Business School as well as Internet of Things (IoT) at NWU, CCNA Routing and Switching, CCNA Voice, CCNP and CCVP at Torque IT.

Norman has 19 years’ experience in the telecommunication industry. He started his career in 2007 at MTN as an account manager with a focus on international mining customers. He left MTN in 2016 and joined Telkom/BCX for a year before joining Vodafone. At Vodafone he was responsible for international public sector accounts such as the United Nations and its 22 agencies, providing first-level support and crossselling converged technologies. ■

Email: Norman.Tshikovhele@mtn.com