Telecoms giant, MTN Ghana says it plans to increase local ownership in the company to 25% by the close of this year.
Currrently, the company has local participation of 16.9%.
Selorm Adadevoh, chief executive officer of MTN Ghana, announced this at the virtual annual general meeting of the company on Tuesday (25 May).
He said the MTN Group remained committed to its agreement with the government to increase other shareholdings in Scancom PLC to 25%, with a focus on local shareholding.
Also, in line with the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 Mobile Money Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scancom PLC, is required to achieve 30% localisation of its shareholding as part of Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) license requirements.
Adadevoh said the BoG had extended the deadline to meet the requirement, to 15 January 2022.
Significant market power (SMP)
On the issue of the significant market power (SMP) declaration, Adadevoh said a series of engagements with the regulator and other key stakeholders was ongoing to resolve the issue in an amicable manner.
He said from October 2020, MTN Ghana implemented the National Communication Authority’s directive to apply a 30% asymmetrical interconnect rate reduction for two years.
He said engagements and discussions with relevant stakeholders were ongoing after a brief suspension in the lead up to the national elections in December 2020.
“We are optimistic that these discussions will result in a positive outcome for MTN Ghana and the long-term sustainability of Ghana telecommunications industry.
“We remain grateful to the NCA, the Ministry of Communications and key stakeholders for their commitment to engage with the view to resolve the issues amicably,” he said.
The business reported a profit after tax of GHC1.4 billion which represents a 38.4% increase year on year.
Shareholders approved a final dividend of five pesewas per share, bringing the total dividend for the 2020 year to eight pesewas per share.
This represents 70.5% of profit after tax and a 33.3% increase in dividend per share over 2019.
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