iTouch enters Nigerian market

Mobile entertainment content provider, iTouch, has entered the nation’s telecommunications market by opening its office in Lagos, to boost it's offering in the West African region.

iTouch which specializes in mobile content entertainment and services, is coming from its regional base in South African, to open the Lagos office, was to expand its business on the continent.

With the United Kingdom-based iTouch Plc worth ₤130 million, as its parent company, the Nigerian office, would accommodate sales, customer support and marketing teams, along with the engineering staff to maintain the technical systems that give Nigerian customers the same fast, easy access to content and services enjoyed by iTouch customers around the world.

Managing Director of iTouch Nigeria, Mr. Samson Isa informed that the nation’s mobile market is one of the biggest in Africa with well over 19 million subscribers, and still growing with as much as three million new users every year.

iTouch, Mr. Isa said, sees this market as an incredible business opportunity for the company and its partners.

With the launch of iTouch, Isa noted, Nigerians should look forward to more excitement in telephony.

“Nigerians are now looking for more than just a voice connection from the network operators. They also want to take advantage of some of the lifestyle advantages that mobiles could deliver” he declared.

According to him, iTouch Nigeria would commence offer with three main product lines to consumers, such as ringtones, logos and entertainment via jokes, poems, among others.

He also listed the Short Messaging Service (SMS)-based information services such as news, sports results and stock exchange information; and competitions using SMS and voice response.

iTouch’s systems, he said, would provide a wealth of mobile services from e-banking to e-government to customer support tools.

Managing Director, iTouch South Africa, Mr. Greg Brophy said the main brands that will be available to Nigerian customers, would be Jippii, a successful Finnish subscription brand that has proved very successful in South Africa.

This, he said, would incorporate, Funky Fone, a brand oriented towards the ‘ghetto fabulous’ or ‘wafi culture’ of Nigeria and South Africa and Movilisto, a formidable European brand and Mobile Magic, an Eurocentric brand targeted at the urban youth.

“Nigeria has an incredible local entertainment industry for movies, TV, music and mobile telephony provides a new channel to market this content. iTouch has a policy of only using licensed content, which means local artists can benefit from new ways to earn a living from their craft, as well as find new audiences,” says Mr. Brophy.

Stressing that mobile entertainment is a really powerful way for South African and Nigerian audiences to start enjoying each other’s arts.