Nigerians who are observing the stay-at-home directive in lockdown areas should get ready for freebies from Telecom giant, MTN.
This is because the clarion call by the Minister of State, Labour, Mr. Festus Keyamo SAN FCIArb (UK) to telecommunication companies and Pay-TVs in Nigeria to come up with a social safety net programme for the masses to ease the Covid-19 pains has began to yield results.
In a statement signed by Keyamo’s Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Mr Tunde Moshood, it stated that MTN has promised her subscribers free 300 SMSs to all networks of their choice.
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment appealed to MTN, Airtel, Glo and other telecommunication companies to consider giving out free airtime and data to Nigerians, as the nation continues to battle the novel Coronavirus.
He also appealed to Dstv and Star Times to offer Nigerians at least one month free subscription.
Mr Keyamo made the appeal on Monday via a Twitter post.
The Minister had released torrents of messages from his Twitter handle urging Pay-TVs and telecommunication companies to gift free data, call credits and at least 1-month subscription for their numerous customers. This is in order to allow them stay in touch with the world and their relatives.
And in a swift reaction, the management of MTN, one of Nigeria’s telecommunication companies has responded to the Minister’s tweets by promising its subscribers free 300 sms to all networks of their choice.
“We understand how important it is to keep in touch with loved ones during this period. Now you can with 300 SMS to all networks. #staysafe#connected”, MTN’s response on its Twitter handle, @MTNNG.
As a way of appreciating their reaction to his tweets, the Minister thanked MTN management but not without begging for more, Thank you@MTNNG for responding to my plea, especially for the hard-hit workers this time. We really appreciate. But I believe you can still do more. Specifically, we politely ask for some token data and airtime. Nothing is too small. Other networks should kindly follow suit. The Minister pleaded.
