Kudos to Cricket Namibia from MTC, Namibia's leading benefactor of sports

Issued by MTC
Windhoek, 09 Feb 2010

MTC congratulates Cricket Namibia on its continued success as winners in the 2009 Pepsi ICC Africa Development Awards.

Cricket Namibia won in the regional categories, Best Spirit of Cricket Initiate and Best Overall Cricket Development Programme. The organisation also produced the winner for the volunteer of the year - which went to Mr Wynand Louw.

The wins in 2009 mark persistent achievement for Cricket Namibia, which also took home the awards for Best Overall Cricket Development Programme and Best Junior Cricket Initiate in 2008 at the same awards occasion.

MTC is proud to be associated with Cricket Namibia and applauds their accomplishments both locally and regionally. “By supporting sports in Namibia through commercial sponsorships, we at MTC have committed ourselves to the development of cricket in the country, by making available funding for participation in the code, across all levels. It is the achievement of awards such as these that gives one the appreciation that sponsorship monies are not being thrown down a bottomless pit,” said Isack Hamata, MTC's Sponsorship and Promotions Manager.

He added that much still needed to be done in terms of getting cricket to all the corners of Namibia and to make sure that the sport becomes accessible in terms of affordability.

He was nevertheless heartened by the efforts being made by Cricket Namibia, which has employed a full-time development management as well as recruited and trained volunteers to ensure that the game of cricket is taught at grassroots level. Besides cricket, MTC also sponsors the Namibia Premier League, Namibia Rugby Union and the Namibia Professional Golfers Association. The company spends in excess of N$10 million on social responsibility causes per annum.

MTC Namibia

MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Limited) was established in 1995 as a joint venture between Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings (NPTH), Telia and Swedfund. During May 2004, NPTH concluded a deal that saw it hold 100% of the shares in MTC by acquiring the 49% held by Telia Overseas AB and Swedfund International AB. During 2006, the sale of 34% of MTC shares to Portugal Telecom was concluded for N$1.34 billion, while the Namibian government retains the remainder of the stake through NPTH.

MTC currently covers 98% of the population of nearly 2 million citizens, with more than 650 base stations and repeaters and offers a dual band 900/1800MHZ. The company also expanded its cellular coverage to all major towns in Namibia, including the major arterial roads. It further runs two modern MSC's (mobile switching centre) in Windhoek and Oshakati, with capacity to accommodate rapidly rising number of customers of over 1.3 million active users. MTC also operates the only full service customer contact centre in Namibia dealing with service queries ranging from telephony, SMS, fax, GPRS, data, voicemail and 3G/HSDPA. A staff complement of 367 persons serves a diverse market of both pre- and post-paid subscribers. http//:www.mtc.com.na

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