MTN donates $10m towards Ebola fight

Johannesburg - Mobile phone giant MTN has donated $10m towards the fight against Ebola and the company is inviting its customers to also give at least $1 to the campaign by buying music from its digital store.

An appeal from the African Union (AU) has spurred on MTN and companies on the continent to commit logistical support and in kind contributions.

According to MTN, the companies have also agreed to help drive citizen action around a “United Against Ebola” campaign.

And the mobile operator says it is working with African musicians to produce a song for digital download on its MTN Play store. All proceeds from sales, post publishing rights and subscription payments, are planned to be donated to the AU campaign, says MTN.

The campaign starts 1 December and is planned to last for three months.

“Assisting in efforts to curb the spread of Ebola is important for MTN because we recognise ourselves as a Pan African mobile operator which is strongly invested in the communities in which we operate," Chris Maroleng, Executive for MTN Group Corporate Affairs, told Fin24.
 
"Our efforts to curb the spread of Ebola are in line with our commitment to work with communities  in the countries where we operate, to create an enabling environment for the socio-economic development of the African continent,” he added.

MTN has operations across Africa and the Middle East with 219 million customers.

The mobile network operates therefore in countries such as Liberia, which has been the worst hit by the Ebola outbreak with over 2 800 deaths according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Other ICT companies such as IBM have also joined the fight against Ebola by developing SMS tools that help track the outbreak in countries such as Sierra Leone.

The WHO this week has said the death toll of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has surpassed 5 000.

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