THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MTN’S INVOLVEMENT

The motive for this research was to provide clarityon the increasinglydivergent opinions on the role and behaviour of SouthAfrican companies inthe rest of the African continent. The key questionthat can be asked is: “AreSouth African investments, saviour or villain ofAfrican Development”(Thomas, 2007)? Are they “exporting Apartheid”(Mkhabela, 2007) or are thefears raised against South African companies unfounded?The primary research objective of this study is toassess MTN-C’s contributionto the economic development of Cameroon. The specificresearch questionsaddressed in this study are:1. What are the possible areas of economic impact?2. How can the effects of MTN-C’s presence inCameroon be measured—both qualitatively andquantitatively?3. What recommendations can be made to MTN-C?To answer these questions, the researcher takes amulti-dimensional view of the economic impact acrosseight areas, viz., inflow of foreign direct capital,interaction with government, training and developmentof local staff, employment creation, localprocurement, spread of local shareholding, thelocal mobile communications sector and corporatesocial investment initiatives.