George Andah, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of MTN (Areeba) has said that the company would support traditional authorities in the north to celebrate their festivals and also help them to preserve their cultures. He said this would become fully accomplished when MTN foundation was launched in the country before the end of the year to concentrate also on education, health, economic empowerment and arts and culture especially in the northern sector. He said the measure was to help strengthen business tides and to promote and increase subscription of Areeba, which would soon be re-branding to MTN, the largest communication market in Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Andah, who said this in Tamale when he paid a courtesy call on the regent of Tamale, Alhaji Abdulai Ziblim said Areeba had already supported vocational education in the Northern Region and would build on it for further improvement. The purpose of the visit was to introduce to the regent, CMO of Areeba and to brief the regent about MTN and its plans for the entire Northern Region and the country as a whole. Mr. Andah, who earlier paid similar visits to the Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr. Mohammed Amin Adam and Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister said MTN, sponsors of CAN 2008 would collaborate with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly and traditional authorities to ensure that Tamale hosted the event successfully. Mr Andah said areas of collaboration would include decoration of roads from the Tamale Airport to the games venue, some major roads and identifiable roundabouts to ensure that visitors and investors appreciated the beauty of Tamale and the country. He said MTN was also committed to expanding the network to all rural communities of the country, including those in the Northern Region and that the company would be able to discern a steady improvement in overall network quality. He said MTN was devoted to bringing the highest standards of global communications services to the country and that the Company was interested in collaborating with chiefs to ensure success. Mr. Andah said MTN was operating in 21 countries in Africa and in the Middle East and had recorded over 44 million subscribers as at March this year, while about 150 million dollars was invested in its network improvement. Alhaji Ziblim, the regent commended MTN (Areeba) for the intention and pledged his full support to their activities into the region. He said Tamale was now a haven of investment and that MTN presence in the region would encourage other investors to focus attention in the Northern Region for investment so as to proof skeptics wrong. Mr. Andah, earlier presented a cheque for 41.1 million cedis to the Northern Regional Coordinating Council as MTN (Areeba) contribution to the Tamale Disaster Fund to help resettle people displaced by the recent flooding. Source: GNA