Vanessa Obioha
Over 37 festivals across the country will be painted Y’ello when MTN Nigeria’s KultureFest hits their communities this year.
In the past 10 years, the leading ICT brand, has kept to its promise of going everywhere to celebrate cultural festivals in the country. Through its initiative KultureFest, the ICT brand has sponsored popular festivals such as Ofala Nnewi, Argungun and Anioma, Osun Osogbo festival.
It has become a norm to see the bold yellow banner of the company flying high at such events. Interestingly, the brand has had such a huge presence on these events that their absence sometimes spells uncertainty of the festival holding that year. In each of these festivals, the communication brand seeks ways to promote the cultural heritage as well as the growth and development of the communities where the ceremonies are held.
“The initiative is borne out of the desire to preserve and project the country as one with a rich cultural heritage. It puts various cultural festivals in the country on the international pedestal and also galvanises their potentials to generate revenue for the communities and engenders community bonding,” said Adekunle Adebiyi, the company’s Sales and Distribution Executive.
Adebiyi further revealed that selection is done annually through the company’s regional teams who go into communities to find festivals with proper structures and impressive foot traffic. Often times, the communities reach out to them for support. Despite its large spread, the ultimate goal of the annual event is to promote the cultural festivals to international tourist standard.
He said, “Some of the festivals they have in the developed countries, the Notting Hill Festival for instance enjoy massive attraction. It is that kind of attraction that we are targeting. We want people to be able to bring their resources into Nigeria. KultureFest is a starting point, the fact that MTN is behind a lot of these festivals is beginning to attract a lot more growth around forex and it’s going to continue to grow.”
