Main One expands to Francophone West African countries

by Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh
NIGERIA’S Indigenous submarine fibre cable operator, Main One Cable Company says it is planning to partner with some francophone West African countries, to achieve its growth target.

Already, the company has extended its operations to Togo by virtue of an interconnection through Ghana.

Speaking during a Ghana-Nigeria Business Sector Conference at the weekend, Main One Country Director, Joseph Odoi, said the company was already engaging Onatel, the national exchange carrier of Burkina Faso and Sonatel, principal telecoms provider of Senegal, with a view to forging strategic alliances that would enable Main One leverage their existing terrestrial fibre backbones to move bandwidth capacity across the West Africa region.

“We are connected into West Africa’s Internet highway. Main One’s connection into Togo is via NCBC and MTN’s West African Terrestial networks. The challenge has been the francophone divide. We have built strong relationships with Togotel, Onatel and Sonatel.

“We are committed to building a regional network that would not only assist service providers, deliver higher quality services, but lower the cost of data and voice communications for enterprises and businesses with regional offices,” said Odoi.

He explained that the move would deepen the integration of regional markets as well as open up new business opportunities through the provision of cross-border connectivity.

According to Odoi, cheap and accessible bandwidth will allow access to both knowledge and opportunities, this will in turn help large numbers of West Africans increase their potential to succeed.

He also revealed that Main One had connected Internet Exchange Points in Ghana and Nigeria to encourage local peering, thereby allowing service providers to interconnect with one another from the two countries.

“This is very critical to reduction of communications cost. This is because there is no need for carrying local traffic to a distant handover point and back again. There is no charge for local traffic exchange,” Odoi said.

Speaking in the same vein, the Chief Executive Officer, Main One Cable Company, Funke Opeke, said, Nigeria and Ghana shared similar business models and offered similar opportunities that company was looking at tapping into.

This, she said, had informed Main One’s strategy of providing seamless integration of businesses with offices in Nigeria and Ghana, thereby promoting trade relations and boosting economic growth of the sub-region.

She said, “Nigeria and Ghana share similar business models and are leading economies in West Africa. West Africa’s real Gross Domestic Product growth was 6.2 per cent in 2011. The growth is largely driven by Ghana and Nigeria that share similar language, culture and practice.

“They have similar business opportunities with great potential for regional integration of businesses. So, we are creating awareness with our solution on how to harness these potentials for optimal growth”, she stated.

She said deepening broadband connectivity in the West Africa region would boost job creation and transform economies in the region.

Source: ItNewsGhana.net

 

Golden Tulip Casino embraces customer loyalty

The operators of the Millionaires Casino, located in the Golden Tulip Hotel say the facility is making frantic effort to build brand and customer loyalty to enable them serve their customers better.

The Shift Manageress of the Golden Tulip Casino, Mrs. Mary Leboko has revealed to the Business Chronicle on a visit to the leading facility in Accra.

She added that the management of the facility was building customer loyalty to enable them provide quality but affordable services to their numerous customers who throng the facility daily.

The Casino, Mrs. Leboko mentioned provides services such as roulette, blackjack, and poker at affordable prices to their customers mostly Ghanaians.

According to her, they have a training centre to train the business leaders as well as other customers on how to use the services of the facility, explaining that “people of all walks of life come to the Casino to relax, refresh their minds so we help them to achieve that by offering them good packages”.

Mrs. Leboko, therefore, used the opportunity to call on Ghanaians to patronize the services of the Golden Tulip Casino and assured of a mouth-watering deal as the Casino marks its seventh anniversary.

 

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