Etisalat Nigeria is redefining and redirecting its current marketing and operational strategies towards providing better customer services and strengthening its grip on the youths which constitute Nigeria’s largest consumer group. By doing this, the company believes it will overtake two of its rivals within the next four years.

The roles of about 80 million Nigerian youths in the success of the telecoms sector cannot be underestimated since they form 60 percent of the nation’s population of 167 million, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In line with these figures, experts believe every telecoms company should have youths-focused strategies and the capacity to spend more on goods and services, including telecoms services.

Already, a large percentage of telecoms adverts and promotional campaigns are targeted at the young demography.

In an interview with BusinessDay on Wednesday, experts stated that Etisalat should stop offering mundane data services if it plans to overtake Globacom and India’s Bharti Airtel in the next four years.

The UAE mobile telecommunication company reported net revenue of $8.4 billion and currently has 13.3 million customers, up from 9.8 million at the end of 2011. As at March 2012, Globacom and Airtel have recorded 20.8 million and 18.6 million active subscriptions respectively.

In less than four years, Etisalat Nigeria have managed to capture 10 percent market share of Nigeria’s highly lucrative telecoms market despite arriving later than its rivals and analysts are confident in the ability of the company to meet its set target.