MTN Nigeria is training 10,000 locally-owned small businesses and empowering them with sales and digital marketing skills as part of its ongoing The Revv Programme.
The programme aims to reach and support 10,000 small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) across Nigeria, using a four-pronged approach including masterclasses, access to market, productivity tools support and advisory initiatives.
A total of nine masterclass sessions will be delivered by MTN executives and industry experts in the ongoing training.
Thereafter, 200 SMEs will be selected to join MTN’s Y’ello 200 accelerator programme, giving them exclusive access to a broad range of technology-driven tools and services.
At the last edition of the Revv Programme masterclass themed: “Smart Marketing & Sales – Your Customers are out there” held virtually on September 9, industry experts teach the SME owners how to navigate the murky waters of effective sales and marketing in the digital era.
Panellists included the Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Nigeria, Rahul De; Chief Sales & Distribution Officer, MTN Nigeria, Adekunle Adebiyi; Founder of BTDTHUB, Dipo Awojide; Founder of Trainquarters, Stephanie Obi; Founder and CEO of Terragon Group, Elochukwu Umeh and Country Sales Director of JCDecaux, Opeoluwa Filani.
Sharing his wealth of marketing knowledge with participants, Rahul De said that building trust is key to business success, noting that every product must fill a gap if they want to achieve that cutting edge marketing they require.
“As SMEs, we need to understand the gap areas we are filing. Once this is identified, the SME owner can proceed to build trust with customers”, Rahul said.
Also speaking at the masterclass, Adebiyi said the most important thing to look at is the product and the ease of accessing it.
He noted: “Apart from coming up with innovative ideas to make the product better, you need to expand your base by taking the product to where the customers are.”
While moderating the masterclass, Josephine Sarouk, the General Manager, Regional Operations, Lagos & South West at MTN Nigeria hinted that MTN has partnered with Facebook to offer Digital Marketing training sessions to the small business owners participating in the Revv Programme masterclasses.
“We are also partnering with Facebook and we will be offering Revv Programme Digital Marketing training sessions and invites will be shared with all participants”, Josephine added.
According to the leading African telecom company, MTN’s Revv Program was created to help small business owners rethink and retool their operations to enable them withstand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It will be recalled that MTN, in 2018, also launched the “Man In The Box” campaign to support small businesses with technology solutions and create awareness for them by showcasing their businesses in MTN LED “Boxes” for 24 hours to the entire world.
