MTC PREMIERSHIP REWARDS AMONGST BEST IN AFRICA

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Windhoek – 10 February 2014 - When MTC announced its new sponsorship deal with the NPL a year ago, it essentially positioned the MTC Namibia Premier League amongst the best in Africa when it comes to prize monies and total sponsored amount to the league, said Tim Ekandjo, Chief Human Capital & Corporate Affairs Officer of MTC. MTC’s annual sponsorship to the MTC NPL amounts to N$ 13.5 million and a total of N$ 40.5 million over 3 years while the prize monies for the league winners are N$ 1 million. In addition to being league sponsors, MTC further invest a total of N$ 750,000 in monthly grants to assist with the administration of their clubs.

MTC’s total investment in the NPL effectively makes it the 3rd best paid league in Africa when taking all aspects into consideration. Ekandjo said this is according to a comparative study done, by himself, comparing the MTC NPL to other leagues in Africa.

The best sponsored league in Africa is the South African Premier Soccer League whose main sponsor Absa invest N$ 1 billion over a period of 5 years by making an investment of N$ 200 million per annum, whereby the league winners walk away with a cool N$ 10 million. This is by far the best paying and sponsored league in Africa followed by the Nigerian Glo Premier League sponsored with a total investment of N$ 131 million over a 3 year period, with N$ 43 million per annum and the league winners walking away with a total of N$ 687,000 which is about N$ 300,000 less than what the MTC Premiership offers its league winners.

In fourth position is the Botswana Premier League whose main sponsor gives the league 8 million Pula per annum and the winners walk away with 1 million Pula. While their prize monies is slightly more than what the MTC NPL currently offers, primarily because the Pula currency is stronger than the Namibian dollar , they do not support the teams with monthly grants and the total investment in the league is much lesser than that of the MTC Premiership.

The MTN Super League in Zambia’s total league sponsorship amounts to N$ 11,282,170 per annum and the league winners receives an amount of N$ 564,006. The MTN Premier League of Swaziland total investment in the league totals N$ 1.5 million and the league winners receive N$ 600,000. Zimbabwe’s Castle Premier Soccer League’s total sponsorship amount totals N$ 6.7 million and the league winners receives N$ 789,614. Other leagues such as the Cote d’ Ivoire Ligue 1 from Ivory Coast sponsors the league N$ 11 million and the league winners receives N$ 564,000. The Super League in the DRC sponsorship amounts to N$ 5.6 million per annum and the league winners receives N$ 1 million.

The TNM Super League in Malawi sponsors the league with a total of N$ 1.4 million per annum. Interesting to note is that the Premier League in Angola is fully funded by the government, although the full amount is however not disclosed but what we have confirmation that the league winners only walk away with a trophy and no monetary rewards. The Kenyan league is sponsored by Tusker DSTV KPLC and the league winners walk away with N$ 970,000, or 7.5 million Kenyan shillings. In Uganda, the league is sponsored by Nile with a total investment of N$ 680,000 or 150 million Ugandan shillings. The Tanzanian Premier league is sponsored by Vodacom with a total investment of N$ 22 million with the league winners walking away with N$ 690,000.

What is emerging from the study is that most of the African domestic leagues have a total of 16 teams with a few exceptions like Nigeria where they have 20 teams, Madagascar 24 teams with only the Seychelles and Mauritius with 10 teams. The other notable finding is that the two top leagues in terms of sponsorship being the South African Premier league and the Glo Premier League in Nigeria has the backing of massive billion dollar deals between their leagues and Supersport TV who bought the TV rights of the Premier league games, something that is unheard-of in Namibian sports and broadcasting circles.

The South African Premier League also has various cup competitions sponsored by the banks and the telecommunications companies with the MTN Cup winners receiving N$ 8 million, Cup winners N$ 4 million, and winners walking away with N$ 7 million. The MTC Premiership is however very desiccated when it comes to Cup competitions with the Bidvest Cup being the only cup competition where the winners walk away with only N$ 600,000. Notably, Namibia’s corporate sector is almost absent when it comes to Cup sponsorships, Ekandjo said.

Johnny Doeseb, Chairman of the MTC Namibia Premier League thanked MTC for embarking on the study. Although the study does not include all the African countries, it at least gives us a very good idea as to how we compare to other leagues in Africa because people are inclined to complaining without knowing how well we are doing compared to the rest of Africa. We are not even a semi- professional league and we are this competitive when it comes to the total investment in the league and prize monies for the league winners, and after seeing this results I feel much better, he boasted.

The study was done on the following countries, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, DRC, Malawi, Swaziland, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Seychelles, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia while the rest of the African countries were not available at the time of going to press.

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ABOUT MTC:

MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Limited) was established in 1995 as a joint venture between Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings (NPTH), Telia and Swedfund. During May 2004, NPTH concluded a deal that saw it hold 100 per cent of the shares in MTC by acquiring the 49 per cent held by Telia Overseas AB and Swedfund International AB. During 2006 the sale of 34% of MTC shares to Portugal Telecom was concluded for N$1.34 billion while the Namibian government retains the remainder of the stake through NPTH.

MTC currently covers 98 per cent of the population of nearly 2 million citizens with more than 650 base stations and repeaters and offers a dual band 900/1800MHZ. The company also expanded its cellular coverage to all major towns in Namibia, including the major arterial roads. MTC was the second Mobile Operator in Africa to introduce 4GLTE in May 2012. The Company’s 3G HSDPA+ Network allows for a download speed of up 7.2 Mbps in Namibia’s major towns. It further runs two modern MSC’s (mobile switching centre) in Windhoek and Oshakati with capacity to accommodate rapidly rising number of customers of over 2 million active users. In May 2012, the company also launched its 4G technology – making it the second mobile operator on the continent to have 4G technologies.

MTC operates the only full service customer contact centre in Namibia dealing with service queries ranging from telephony, sms, fax, GPRS, data, voicemail and 3G/HSDPA. A staff compliment of 421 persons serves a diverse market of both pre- and postpaid subscribers