The date, August 8, 2011 will ever remain symbolic in the annals of MTN Nigeria, and particularly Nigeria. This day, was witness to the 10th year anniversary of the company’s launch of commercial operation in Nigeria, for being the first telecoms company to make the first commercial call on a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology.

However, reminiscent of one of its old commercials in which a man painted the entire town yellow, including the river, MTN recently did same. The company’s head office, christened; Golden Plaza was adorned with yellow drapes and liveries.

From the facade of the building to the floors within it, the yellow brand was thick, not only in the air, but on the ground. Or is it the Guard of Honour mounted, that could be referred to as a detachment of Y’ello Soldiers.?  All adorned in yellow atop blue trousers, clutching swords in a salutary sign to staff that walked on the yellow carpet to the decorated reception.

Or is it at the reception, where stood, a set of smartly dressed young lady ushers who put garlands on the staff as they walked on the yellow carpet. Right from the ground floor, you could feel the brightness of yellow, with drapes hanging loosely on the rail of the staircases. For those that took the lifts, they were greeted by a large sized cake decorated in yellow colour.

Indeed, it was a Y’ello Day for MTN. A day the company chose to celebrate the company’s journey in the Nigerian market; a day set aside to specially say “thank you” to stakeholders for contributing to institutionalise MTN as a Nigerian brand, thereby making it a giant in the telecoms industry.

The company full of gratitude to its staff for their unflinching commitment and dedication; to shareholders, for taking the biggest risk to invest in an unfamiliar terrain; to customers for their loyalty in spite of occasional challenges in its services; to regulators for directing the industry to record enviable leaps that have made the telecoms industry the most remarkable achievement of Nigeria’s nascent democracy; to the media for their continuous projection of the industry and specifically MTN.

Taking a  glimse at the evolution of telecoms industry since 2001. Suffice to say that the telecom operators should not be the only one celebrating.  Indeed, the entire country should.  If by anything, the huge success recorded in the telecoms sector remains a significant milestone in Nigeria’s democracy.

Today, the industry has holistically impacted on Nigerians in no small way.   It has demystified the status symbol of the few rich who would brazenly flaunt the NITEL cellular phones for public attention.  Then, it was easier for needle to be picked in the midst of desert sand than for a beggar to own a telephone.

But today, all that is history.  That is why, all, including the government, people in banking, manufacturing, logistics, media, advertising, even academic institutions, should celebrate.  Today, most Nigerians live their lives on mobile phones daily.

This cuts across artisans, traders, service providers, professionals like journalists, bankers; indeed everybody now transacts about 50 percent of their daily business on telecoms platforms.  Commuting cost is reduced drastically as the communication gap is closing gradually.

Indeed, MTN and other operators in Nigeria have every reason to celebrate a decade of GSM, in the midst of fear of the unstable policy that characterised Nigeria’s polity. For this reason, MTN rolled out drums to celebrate 10 years. In this celebration, MTN’s  power of 10 concert took cities by storm.

Makurdi and Enugu states recently had top_rated Nigerian artistes rock the cities. Prior to the concert, the states witnessed a steady stream of television and radio commercials, particularly those playing the MTN @ 10 theme song, Thank You Nigeria, had created excitement ahead the concert train. Youths and music fans were in frenzy as they entertained with music along hilarious jokes.

With full blast of music _ from rap through reggae to hip_hop – in an experience the people will remember for a long time, was a roll call of Nigeria’s best music stars like; Ras Kimono,  9ice, Naeto C, Ikechukwu amongst others.

IDL expends N130m on customer forum, rewards loyalty International Distilleries Limited (IDL), brand owners of Tezeers, a cock tail drink, Derok café liqueur and others,  said it spent N130 million on its Customer Forum to reward customers for their performance in 2010.

The company said the reward was necessary to encourage customers because of their contribution to the growth of the company.

Speaking,  Peter Anegbe, Managing Director of IDL, said at the 2010 Forum of the company that the gathering was to afford the company opportunity to bring the customers together, as also, a way of building customer satisfaction.

Comparing the company’s performance in 2009, the Managing Director said that the company performed well in 2010 which prompted the award, while he stated that the Forum was divided into three parts; Lagos, Kaduna and Port Harcourt, was  to bring the Forum close to the customers domain.

Anegbe went  further to say that in the last two years, IDL had embarked on training of her distributors on how to better manage their business for profitability without compromising on their health , since the training, he observed that the distributors have improved as a result of the training.

On  faking, the Managing Director, said it has set up an anti- Adulteration Committee liaising with various government regulatory agencies to effect market raid on adulterators.

“We also  at our branding differentiation level, upgrading on brands to destabilize adulterators.” The Managing Director said.