MTN, Andah win Club 100, CIMG awards

MTN Ghana, the leading mobile telecommunications operator in the country, were proud winners of two Ghana Club 100 awards this year; Largest and Best ICT Company or the year 2008, a statement in Accra said. The statement said the two awards reaffirmed MTN's position as the number one telecom operator in the country, adding that the company had since its entrance into the industry invested some US$400million into the telecom sector. "The company has also shown commitment in investing in people through social interventions in health and education; having invested more than two million US dollars in corporate social responsibility projects and credit jobs for more than half a million Ghanaians," it said. The Ghana Club 100 awards was organised by the Ghana Investment Promotion Council, the state institution driving local and international investments in the country. In a related development, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of MTN Ghana, Mr George Andah also won the prestigious Best Marketing Practitioner of the year award at the recent Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) awards. Mr Andah, who has become the face of MTN since the company took over the operations of Scancom Limited in 2007 and re-branded Areeba to MTN, had been credited for taking the marketing efforts of Scancom through a number of milestones. The statement also credited Mr Andah for the success of the re-branding from Areeba to MTN, which saw the unprecedented "yellowing" of the streets of Ghana, and the launch of MTN Zone, which achieved 29 per cent increase in revenue. "Again, his remarkable leadership qualities contributed to the introduction of DSTV mobile TV service in Ghana, launch of the 3.5G network, the recent launch of MTN Mobile Money service and also the addition of the prefix 054 to MTN pool of numbers," it said. The statement noted that his contribution to the development of sports and the entertainment industry in the country could not be over emphasised, and that the strategic support for Local Premier League champions, Accra Hearts of Oak, the successful hosting of Ghana 2008 soccer tournament and the successful Ghana launch of the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup, were a few of his crowns. It said George Andah was also instrumental in the success of TV3 Music, Music and Bands Alive, Stars of the Future music reality show on GTV, Metro TV Sport Academy and Charterhouse's Ghana Music Awards and Night of a 1000 laughs, saying that his mark on the marketing industry in Ghana would remain indelible.