While Nigerian and other Africans' businesses in South Africa are being threatened by xenophobic attacks, South Africa is lording it over other business interests in Nigeria. A good example is MTN Nigeria, officially the dominant player in the Nigerian telecommunications industry.
MTN Nigeria is about to increase its behemoth status by the acquisition of a major CDMA operator, Visafone Nigeria, which runs a 800 MHz spectrum band that provides 4G LTE services. If pulled through, as it is very likely given that Visafone Nigeria owner, Jim Ovia, has reportedly decided to quit the telecommunications business in view of the impending change of government in Nigeria, the acquisition will place MTN Nigeria in the enviable position of being the only GSM operator with access to this spectrum band and thereby increasing its monopoly not only on the industry, but also the Nigerian economy. With its tentacles spread across diverse aspects, MTN prides itself as the ICT backbone of Nigeria, having impact in virtually every aspect of the Nigerian socio-economic life.
Last year, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, declared MTN Nigeria as the dominant operator in the mobile voice segment of the market following a survey. But the company is not content with that and is pushing further to extend its lead into data services, which will allow it to remain the dominant player in Nigeria for many years to come. And if the price is a few tens of billions of Naira to take out Visafone, then it is eager to do that.
