Why Visafone was sold to MTN- Jim Ovia

In January, MTN Nigeria completed the acquisition of Visafone from Zenith Bank , in a move to improve the quality of broadband services for its subscribers.

At Digital Africa conference and exhibition 2016 organised by Digital Africa Global Consult in Abuja, Mr. Jim Ovia, Chairman, Zenith Bank attributed the lack of efficient broadband required for speedy telecommunications service as one of the reasons Visafone was sold to MTN, South African telecommunications firm.

The acquisition of the CDMA network was in support of the National Broadband Plan, for the benefit of Nigerians. The purchase which sought to leverage resources for service enhancement, was also reflective of the company’s concerted efforts to deepen the growth and roll out of broadband services across the country, he said.

Ovia affirmed that without adequate technology infrastructure to power constant connectivity, Internet of Things (IoTs) would be difficult to achieve. “We have a lot of devices some of which will be dead equipment. Connectivity is very important and without it, internet of things or internet of everything cannot take place. I would not say that connectivity is the most important thing, but it is extremely very important. In some of this connectivity you need it by way of broadband or by way of fibre optics to give you the broadband or may be a wireless. Or may be the spectrum of between 700-800 MGHz that gives you the broadband speed that you need today, and so you can now understand why Visafone eventually sold its network to MTN.”

According to him, the reason there were so many complaints was because of the resource availability that Visafone had, which had to do with the broadband. Policymakers must ensure that Nigeria is not left behind in the technological development of the future, he advised.