MTN Nigeria is telling the general public that the ongoing fuel scarcity in the country could hamper service delivery. It made this announcement via its official Twitter account.
Diesel scarcity jeopardizes MTN operations pic.twitter.com/CfglElvngm
— MTN Nigeria (@MTNNG) May 23, 2015
The statement warned of imminent network degradation if it does not manage to procure diesel supplies within the the next 24 hours.”MTN’s available reserves of diesel are running low and the company must source for a significant quantity of diesel in the near future to prevent a shut down of services across Nigeria”, the statement read.
A 2014 slide-deck presented to foreign investors revealed that MTN Nigeria spends at least 70 percent of operating expenditure on diesel, with average monthly consumption in excess of ten million litres.
70% of open on diesel. "@BenedictEvans: The joy of running a mobile network in Nigeria pic.twitter.com/QEVdMvsh2S"
— Ory Okolloh Mwangi (@kenyanpundit) January 24, 2015
The fuel crisis is forcing businesses to close their doors across the country. The Beat FM just released a similar announcement, to the effect that they would stop broadcasting from 8:30pm because of a lack of fuel to run operations overnight.
If MTN’s grim forecast comes to pass, not only voice and calls will be affected, but also internet services for a large part of the country and population. MTN currently has just over 50 percent marketshare for telecommunications services in Nigeria. No other telcos have issued a similar announcement, but it is plausible to imagine that they are in similar fuel straits.
The text of the statement from MTN:
The management of MTN states that the current diesel scarcity in most parts of Nigeria is posing a significant threat to quality of service and the ability to optimally operate the network.
According to the Corporate Services Executive Akinwale Goodluck, “most of our base stations and switches are powered round-the-clock by Diesel Generators and the current fuel shortage has drastically reduced the availability of diesel fuel supply to key locations”
MTN’s available reserves of diesel are running low and the company must source for a significant quantity of diesel in the near future to prevent a shut down of services across Nigeria. If diesel supplies are not received in the next 24 hours, the network will be seriously degraded and customers will feel the impact.
MTN is working with all stakeholders to ensure that services remain. MTN sincerely apologizes for any outages and inconvenience that may occur and seeks the understanding of customers at this time.
