Businesses asked to support communities

Accra, July 3, GNA - Dr. Benjamin Aggrey-Ntim, Minister of Communications, has called on corporate organizations in the country to up their game in the area of social responsibility and make more human, material and financial resources available to the communities in which they operate.

The Minister made the call at the close of the 21 days Yellow Care exercise, organized by Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN), Ghana as part of MTN Foundation social responsibility projects across all 21 countries in which MTN operates.

The exercise, dubbed: MTN Y'ello Care 2008, was between June 1 - 21, 2008 and it saw MTN staff and other partners engaging in activities such as directing road traffic, tree planting, painting of school buildings, pavements and zebra crossing, providing assistance in hospitals, visitation to prisons, donation to needy homes, blood donations and clean-up exercise.

Dr. Aggrey-Ntim noted that MTN commanded attention and had great influence, not only as leading telecom service provider in emerging markets, but also as a giant in the area of social responsibility. He said the influence of MTN was not only in its core business area of telecom activities but also in its support in moving football and music in Ghana and Africa unto the global arena, adding that, MTN also gave heavily to society.

"It is my hope that other corporate bodies will follow the steps of MTN and be responsive to the needs of society bearing in mind that government alone cannot provide the socio-economic needs of society because of its resource handicap," he said.

Dr. Aggrey-Ntim observed that information and communication technology (ICT) was at the heart of global advancement and called on African countries to accelerate their development efforts by effective integration of ICT into their business agenda. "This is where the core business of MTN becomes very relevant in lifting the African continent to higher heights - MTN through its business strategy has taken giant steps to place the African continent on the world telecom map," he said.

Ms. Mawuena Adjo Dumor, Corporate Service Executive of MTN, who coordinated the Y'ello Care exercise said through the exercise MTN had learnt more about the society in which it operated and therefore had a better understanding of how to serve the society better.

She said the exercise was the second edition since it was launched by the MTN Group CEO, saying that this year alone 806 staff participated in 16 different projects and 45 activities across the country. "This compares with 254 staff participants doing two projects and six activities within the MTN triangle last year," she said. Ms. Dumor said this year MTN had 20 partner organizations who donated their time, talent, expertise and money, to help uplift the image of communities and also to preserve lives.

Mr. Eben Albertyn, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of MTN said the competitiveness of today's business environment in the telecom industry in Ghana called for more commitment of employees to strategic objectives which focused on providing quality service as well as building relationships with communities through social upliftment programmes. He therefore urged employees of MTN to work hard to maintain MTN's position as a leader in the telecom industry and also as a socially responsible organization.

"We must demonstrate our core value in the execution of our duties so that our customers and the general public will appreciate the value we bring to them through our services and social work," he said. Certificates were presented to organizations and individuals who supported MTN in the Y'ello Care exercise.