Etisalat, the 15 million subscriber strong operator in Nigeria, has restated its commitment to the promotion of local contents in mobile apps development.
Speaking to HumanIPO in an exclusive interview, the United Arab Emirates-based company’s value added services specialist, Doubrapade Koroye, said they have locally sourced apps for some of its projects including the Nigerian Idol.
“The first thing that comes to mind is the Nigerian Idol app. It was made by a local company,” Koroye said.
“We tend to work with local companies, we are open to that. Obviously there are international companies that have local presence which is always advantageous because we get to talk on issues base-to-base.”
He added that in addition to contracting local app developers, the company is also involved in their training and exposure to international players which he said culminated in the company’s partnership and sponsorship of Mobile Web West Africa 2013.
Koroye said: “We also support local content developers by sponsoring them to events such as the Mobile Web West Africa 2013.
“We support startups that the public has not heard of. But when we see that the vision is something that the public can benefit from, Etisalat will support such start ups.”
On the company’s strength, he said Etisalat offers the best data services and seemed hopeful they would benefit from the start of mobile number portability (MNP).
He added: “Etisalat is unique for its better services especially in data. We are strong in the youths’ segment that’s why in spite of the MNP, a lot of Etisalat subscribers want to keep their lines.
“Now people know that you can get better service and your calls won’t drop, such people would come to port their numbers. We look to be big gainers in this MNP and we are excited about it because we are building a capacity to have more customers.”
