PRESS RELEASE

• MTN Star Actu service enables fans to follow their favorite celebrities and receive regular voice messages from them
• Service is available across Côte d'Ivoire, to all MTN subscribers
• Nash, John Jay, Joel Jo'art, Chuken Pat, David Tayorault, Marabout D'Afrik and Kajeem amongst many stars active on MTN STAR ACTU

New Providence, New Jersey and Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, Tuesday, 23rd June, 2015: MTN Côte d'Ivoire today announced the launch of its celebrity social media service, MTN STAR ACTU, for its subscribers, in partnership with Kirusa. This service enables fans to follow their favorite stars and is powered by Kirusa’s robust InstaVoice platform. It is available to all MTN subscribers across Côte d'Ivoire on both smartphones and feature phones. Kirusa is the leader in voice messaging and social media mobile apps in emerging markets.

From Celeb-to-fans and fans-to-Celeb, the MTN STAR ACTU service provides a seamless flow of voice messages. Celebrities, using the unique voice microblogging feature of the service, express their emotions and share their joyous and challenging moments. Their fans can hear them, a better option than just reading their text on a blog or media outlet. These voice messages are delivered instantly to fans, creating a ‘Voice Twitter’ like experience. The service goes over and above the regular social networking platforms by creating a unique ‘connect’ using multiple channels of interactions, including one-on-one calls, meetings, merchandising, and events.

The MTN STAR ACTU service has attracted many movie stars and musicians from Côte d'Ivoire like Nash, Betika, Kedjevara, Papa Ministre, DJ Mix, Joel Jo'art, Chuken Pat, David Tayorault, Marabout D'Afrik, Kajeem and John Jay. Many more are expected to join shortly.

Speaking at the launch, Wim Vanhelleputte, CEO of MTN Côte d'Ivoire said, “The MTN STAR ACTU service, powered by Kirusa, has created a great excitement in fans to connect and interact with their favorite stars. We are very excited to partner with Kirusa and bring forth these engaging services to our customers in Côte d'Ivoire.”

Delighted with the service, Nash, a well-known Nouchi ambassador and rap artist, added, “There’s no better way to connect with our fans than through MTN STAR ACTU. It is an excellent platform to share our thoughts and stay in touch with our fans. It has helped me to connect more extensively with my fans. I love to use this service.”

Kirusa’s InstaVoice platform powers popular social media services like InstaVoice Celeb and InstaVoice Sports, which are growing very rapidly in Africa and Latin America. InstaVoice Celeb has over 4.5 million fans, and InstaVoice Sports has over 3 million fans across seven countries. Sharing his views on the launch, Barinderpal Mumick, Vice President, Operations, Kirusa, added, “Kirusa is at the forefront of facilitating a unique connect between fans and their cherished celebrities in Africa. We are confident MTN Côte d'Ivoire subscribers will be thrilled using the MTN STAR ACTU service, on Kirusa’s InstaVoice platform.”

About MTN Côte d'Ivoire

MTN CI is a global telecommunications operator of ‘mobile, fixed and Internet’ following the merger of companies AFNET (internet service provider) and AROBASE TELECOM (operator with a concession agreement). MTN CI offers innovative services and products and places customer satisfaction at the heart of its business strategy. Committed corporate citizen, MTN CI, has more than 65,000 sales outlets throughout the country. At March 31, 2015, the number of ‘mobile’ subscribers regularly identified was over 8, 386,425. To follow all the news from MTN CI and have exclusive information, please visit,
www.mtn.ci, www.mtnbusiness.ci, www.mtn.ci/MTNCI/fondationmtn, www.facebook.com/MTNCotedIvoire, www.facebook.com/FondationMtnCoteDIvoire, www.twitter.com/MTN_Cotedivoire, www.youtube.com/MTNcotedivoire

About Kirusa

Kirusa is the leader in voice messaging and social media mobile apps that enable mobile subscribers to “Have a Voice!” and share their stories with their family and friends across the globe. Kirusa’s solutions include InstaVoice®, InstaVoice Celeb™ and InstaVoice Sports™ apps. These are offered in partnership with more than thirty-five mobile carriers in Africa, India, LatAm, and Middle East as well as via the app stores. The services are used monthly by over 80 million mobile users in four continents. Kirusa solutions are built on its patented technology, and its highly reliable and scalable multimodal and cloud platforms, which process over one billion events a month. Kirusa was recognized as one of the top 20 most promising technology companies by Silicon India and one of the top 25 emerging technology companies by Smart Techie magazine. Headquartered in New Jersey and led by an experienced team of wireless telecom executives and technologists, Kirusa has offices in four continents. InstaVoice is a registered trademark of Kirusa, Inc. InstaVoice Celeb and InstaVoice Sports are trademarks of Kirusa, Inc. For more information, visit: www.kirusa.com

For further inquiries, please contact
For MTN Côte d'Ivoire

Laure BLEDOU Nicolay
Senior Manager Brand and communications
Tel: +226-46-46-23-89
Email: laure.bledou@mtn.ci

For Kirusa

Alchemy Corporate Communications
Anju Makin
Tel: +1-973-536-2652
E-mail： anju_makin@alchemycc.com