MTN retains Iyanya, Saka, Praiz, Chidinma as ambassadors

•Kcee, Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Harrysong not listed

There are indications that telecommunications company, MTN, may have terminated the services of some of Nigeria’s music superstars’ ambassadorial deals with the company as information reaching R suggested that no fewer than seven A’list musicians did not make the list of the 2016-2017 ambassadors.

Although, the company did not state the names of the artistes whose names may have been dropped, it was gathered that some popular celebrities, who were mainly musician have had their one year contracts with MTN terminated.

R gathered that MTN retained the services of  Iyanya, Praiz and Chidinma who were winners and participants of its Project Fame music reality TV show.

Announcing the new set of ambassadors for 2016/2017 in a release made available to R and signed MTN’s General Manager Consumer Marketing, Richard Iweanoge, the company stated it would  in order to continue to support the development  of the entertainment industry by financially empowering Nigerian artistes and musicians through the promotion of content on its various digital platforms.

Iweanoge added that, “With the significant investment made so far in Nigeria’s music industry, MTN remains and will continue to be one of the biggest supporters of the music industry. We have a track record of consistently providing the stage for some of Nigeria’s biggest artistes to shine and express themselves”.

According to the statement, music ambassadors for 2016/2017 are: Praiz (Praise Adejo); Iyanya (Iyanya Mbuk); Chidinma (Chidinma Ekile); Falz (Folarin Falana);Tekno Miles (Augustine Kelechi) and Skales(Raoul Njeng-Njeng). Four other ambassadors include Saka,(Hafiz Oyetoro);Nedu (Steve Onu);Osuofia(NkemOwoh) and Adamu Zango.

Also speaking, MTN Executive, Amina Oyagbola said, “MTN remains proud to be associated with the growth and development of the careers of all our ambassadors, past and present. We specially thank all our former ambassadors for their immense contributions to building our brand and making us the network of choice in Nigeria. We will definitely continue to maintain the strong and mutually beneficial relationship with them through the monetisation of their content on all our digital platforms – MTN Music+, CRBT and VAS.”

It was, however, surprising that popular names such as Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Kcee, Davido, Harrysong did not make the list even as efforts to reach some of them through their social media platforms and mobile phones as of the time of filing this report proved abortive. Messages sent to Kcee and Davido were not replied.