Telecommunications Company, MTN, has denied reports that it had engaged Nigerian entertainer and businessman, Dapo Oyebanjo, popularly known as D’banj, as brand ambassador.
Speculation that the 36-year-old former Globacom ambassador had moved to a rival company followed disclosure that his DKM Media – with the support of the Bank of Industry (BoI) – had launched The Cream Platform on the MTN network to promote the work of people in the creative industry.
The deal was reportedly signed at the Johannesburg headquarters of the company.
Although there was no official statement from DKM or MTN, a lot of media channels reported that the ‘Oliver Twist’ singer had become the latter’s ambassador by virtue of the deal.
Qed.ng was, however, reliably informed that the marketing department of MTN sent out an internal email on Wednesday stating “We woke up this morning to receive this news concerning D’banj signing unto MTN.
“We are rather surprised at this news as no such agreement exists.”
A source within MTN also told this online newspaper that “D’banj’s company is carrying out VAS (caller tunes especially) with MTN. That is a business partnership and not endorsement as blown up in the media.
“We have no ambassadorship deal whatsoever with D’banj. Like other artistes, he is using our platform to promote his business.”
A manager with DKM had earlier explained that “The platform is to attend to the yearning desires of the underground creative talents in Nigeria.
“This is strictly for the creative industry only (music, arts, fashion, showcase, talent management, legal, PR, promotions and marketing).”
D’banj announced on Tuesday that 32, 262 entries were received on the platform on Monday alone.
A photo posted by D’banj D Kokomaster (@iambangalee) on
