MTN Ghana has launched its Initial Public Offer (IPO) for subscribers and stakeholders in Western Region at Takoradi.
“We are listing our shares to meet conditions agreed in 2015 when we acquired the right for the 4G license,” Mr Eli Hini, MTN Ghana General Manager of Mobile Money has said.
According to him, the company has made a history as the first Telecom to be listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange at the conclusion of this exercise.
“As we entrench our position as the leader in Ghana, we are hopeful that this transaction will have a positive impact on our local market, including this region, expanding the frontiers of inclusion,” he said.
Currently, he said MTN has over 17 million subscribers with about 1.8 coming from the Western Region.
“Specifically, in this region, we had 201 3G sites and 62 4G sites at the end of last year. This year, an additional 46 3G sites and four 4G sites are being deployed, further underlining how important the region is and indeed our quest to make our customers lives a whole lot brighter” he added.
Mr Hini. mentioned that MTN has over 200,000 retailers and that the Mobile Money service, has contributed significantly to employment creation with jobs for over 100,000 merchants.
These merchants, he said are across the country who received a total of about 50 million USD (GHS226m) as commission in 2017.
“In discharging our honest responsibility to the state, MTN paid a total of GH?1.059billion as taxes for the year 2017. Out of our profits the MTN Ghana Foundation is well resourced to continue to invest in the areas of Health, Education and Economic Empowerment” Mr Hini pointed out.
“I am very delighted to say that we are also allowing shares to be bought through Mobile Money. Our checks from GSMA confirms that this is the first time that Mobile Money will be used to buy shares in an IPO (and subsequently trade them) anywhere in Africa or the world over” he concluded.
Mr Nasiru Braimah, Insurance Advisor to the IPO Project encouraged all MTN subscribers to take advantage of the opportunity offered to buy shares that will have a positive influence on the local economy.
He encouraged subscribers to also use the MTN Mobile Money wallet which is the easiest in buying the shares.
Source: af.reuters.com
