WINDHOEK – In a first for Opuwo, Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) opened a brand-new shop to serve the town’s clientele, making it the 36th MTC store in the country. The investment of approximately N$800 000 has established MTC as the first operator with a permanent physical presence in the vast Kunene Region since the introduction of the mobile market in Namibia in 1994.
Previously in the absence of a permanent MTC retail shop, the region was served by a serviced outreach program called Mobile Home on Wheels (M-HOW) on a bi-weekly basis when MTC staffers would travel to the region.
In between M- HOW being inactive, Opuwo residents and those in their surroundings either had to trek to the towns Outapi, Oshakati or Otjiwarongo to access mobile homes, which was an average distance of nearly 270 kilometres in each direction.
The success of the outreach was in part what motivated the decision to start the necessary groundwork of finding space to set up a shop in the town to serve the region.
“Had it not been for the challenges we encountered in finding suitable premises, it would have been a reality longtime ago in 2017. We are however glad to state that the residents of Kunene and Opuwo are now indeed part of the 081 family with their own shop,” said MTC’s chief human capital and corporate affairs officer Tim Ekandjo. “Our customer philosophy and promise is to make sure that we provide quality telecommunication services to all our customers, wherever they are, through continuous and innovative thinking underpinned by excellent service – and the commissioning of the Opuwo mobile home is a testimony to that objective” said Ekandjo.
MTC’s decision to invest in the Opuwo mobile home rests directly in the company’s newest strategic outlook as underwritten by its 081Every1 project, which seeks to ensure 100 percent population settlement coverage during the next three years. “Having this new addition to our family we believe that we have done justice,” added Ekandjo.
Further motivation for the establishment of the shop was the significant customer growth MTC has witnessed, not only in Opuwo, but also in the region and from the surrounding constituencies.
Besides its own network of mobile homes, MTC also relies on around 60 main dealers and over 3 000 small retailers who sell a diverse variety of MTC-related services and products to a customer base of about 2.5 million people.