MTN Ethiopia to Sponsor SMS Campaign Winners to South Africa

MTN, the South Africa-based telecom operator, which officially enters Ethiopian telecom market to provide value added services two weeks ago,  launches the first quiz-based SMS campaign in Ethiopia to invite five winners to South Africa in the coming January for the African football tournament.

The campaign, “celebrate 31 on 831 with MTN Ethiopia’’, aims to celebrate Ethiopia’s qualification for the African Cup of nations after 31 years while supporting Ethiopian Football Federation financially. “...We will contribute a portion of the income from this campaign to Ethiopian Football Federation in support of the national team,” said Ms. Happy-Girl Buthelezi, MTN Ethiopia Country Director who launched the campaign at the Hilton Addis this morning (November 28, 2012).

The company invited anyone in Ethiopia with a mobile phone to entertain the quiz, which will be launched on December 7, 2012 and stay till January 7, 2013. The five winners of the competition will be fully sponsored including a round trip air ticket, accommodations for three days and tickets to watch the games.

How to Join the Competition 
Mobile phone users can start the competition through SMS by sending the key word “OK” to 831 to answer the questions that mainly focus on Ethiopian football. To confirm their entry the participants will receive a lottery ticket. By answering a series of multiple choice questions, they will receive a lottery ticket for each entry per response answer sent whether the answer is right or wrong.

Then the lottery tickets are stored in the database pool for the weekly random draw – one winner every week. In addition, on the last day of the campaign, the system will select the fifth winner on the highest score of correct answers during the entire campaign month. The participant of the completion will be charged two birr (around 0.12 US dollars) for each SMS response.

Briefing on the focus areas of the quiz, Abebaw Degefu, Managing Partner from Credoks said: “While entertaining we want to educate people about the country’s football”.  The host nations’ representative from the South African Embassy in Addis on his part also noted that his country has been working hard to welcome its guests during the upcoming 2013 African Cup of Nations.

The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations will be the 29th Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Primarily it was scheduled to be hosted by Libya, however due to the crisis in the country CAF moved it to South Africa.

Established in South Africa in 1993, MTN Group Limited is currently operating in 24 countries including MTN Ethiopia, which has finalized license registration two weeks ago to be engaged customized value added services. With over 180 million mobile subscribers, the group mainly operates in the Middle East and Africa.

According to the country manager, before acquiring the Value Added Services (VAS) license from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, MTN has been in discussions  with the Ethio Telecom - the state-monopoly telecom service provider in the country, on possible collaboration areas.