It has been a year of transformation for MTN GlobalConnect Kenya. The company was acquired by MTN GlobalConnect early last year, allowing it to expand its digital wholesale and infrastructure services into the Kenyan market.
MTN GlobalConnect has focused investments on interconnecting African countries through the establishment of digital hubs and connecting landlocked countries to subsea cables, aligned to MTN Group’s “Ambition 2025” strategic ambitions to build the largest and most valuable platform business in Africa.
“Our Kenyan business has transformed from an enterprise business unit selling connectivity and ICT solutions to end user organisations into a business with a wholesale service model focus,” explains Sylvia Anampiu, Managing Director of MTN GlobalConnect Kenya. “MTN GlobalConnect Kenya is growing, which is a reflection of our hardworking employees who make up the organisation,” she shares, “you can see the fire and passion to get things done and they look forward to providing future fit solutions that will enable our purpose of a modern connect life for everyone.”
MTN GlobalConnect is a Pan-African digital wholesale and infrastructure services company. Founded in 2018, the company manages MTN’s international and national major wholesale activities while providing reliable wholesale and infrastructure solutions for fixed connectivity and wholesale mobility solutions that include international mobile services, Voice, SMS, signalling, roaming and interconnect. Most of all, it’s a single gateway to MTN GlobalConnect’s continent-wide network.
“As part of the larger MTN GlobalConnect, we are an entry point into the whole of Africa,” Anampiu says. “If a customer requires service in Uganda or South Africa, they can come to us and we can scale their business across Africa or the world dependent on their need. Customers need only one contract with us as their connectivity partner of choice to build their business in Africa.
Currently, MTN GlobalConnect Kenya offers IP Transit, Global MPLS, Dark Fiber, Dedicated Internet, National Private Leased Circuit and Wholesale Voice services. Learn more at www.mtnglobalconnect.co.ke
Keeping Connected
While MTN GlobalConnect Kenya provides a pathway to the global telecommunications network, maintaining those pathways is another job entirely.
“Fibre cuts are one of our biggest challenges right now,” Anampiu shares. “As Kenya continues to develop and grow, there are upgrades to roads and facilities which causes service disruption as a result of fibre cuts.”
To rectify this, together with other industry players. We’re lobbying the government to provide common service ducts with clear demarcations that can be used by all players, thus reducing service interruptions.
But while Anampiu pushes for larger-scale reforms, she also implements strategies to mitigate fibre cuts in the short term.
“We have put in place a number of redundancies to protect our routes so that interruptions are not obvious,” she says. “We work together with our partners on the ground to bring our services online when they go down and ensure tight turnaround times.”
Enabling Homegrown Leaders
“The heart of our activities is driven, first and foremost, by its people.” It is when talking about this that we really see Anampiu lighting up.
“As a company, we believe that the investment in our people is key to achieving our strategic ambitions and improving our competitive edge across the markets in which we operate. To deliver the best customer experience and improve our business performance, we recognise the importance of embracing our diversity. We have mentorship programmes that help build the leaders of the future. We are training people on the job, coaching future senior leaders so that they are prepared for those roles.”
In the area of development, MTN GlobalConnect Kenya’s staff have access to a range of online platforms that allow them to use online learning resources to upskill and grow in their careers and roles. She believes that through learning everyone gets a chance to develop themselves.
“Diversity is a priority, and we are intentional about ensuring female representation within the company. We have built a pipeline and talent pool to accelerate female executives,” she says. “There is the rising leaders programme to accelerate leadership paths for everyone, especially the women in the organisation. Finally, in recruitment, we promote as much as we can from within, whether male or female, to encourage staff to do better and do more.”
This is all part of a long-term vision for investing in Kenya and connecting it to the rest of the world. So far, the company has put in more than $9 million in the last year alone and this year there are plans to invest another $20 million into the company to continue building its terrestrial connectivity, pulling subsea capacity inland, and connecting to the other countries like Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and DRC.
“We also want to continue upscaling our digital transformational journey, improving how we serve both our internal and external customers,” says Anampiu. “Finally, we want to look at how we run our internal processes to ensure we are more efficient and productive in running our business.”
For feedback & enquiries to MTN GlobalConnect Kenya, send an email to: yello.ke@mtn.com
