MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita has made a three-day visit to Ghana and launched major projects that the operator aims to achieve by 2022, Ecofin reported.
It intends to improve and expand network infrastructure to bring quality telecom services to rural areas and supporting Ghana’s QR code project and other digital initiatives such as combating cyber-attacks and developing women’s participation in ICT, he said.
Mupita also revealed MTN’s intention to build an ICT centre in Ghana and finalise the opening of 30% of MTN Ghana’s capital to local investors by the end of the year.
MTN plans to open up 30% of the capital MobileMoney by January 2022, too. Since March, the company has initiated a strategic repositioning to attract third-party capital in the mid-term in its various markets. Through “Ambition 2025,” the company aims to become a provider that addresses the opportunities and challenges facing Africa.
In Ghana, the strategic actions announced by MTN Group will contribute to its compliance with the country’s regulations, including the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019.
They will also support revenue growth to benefit the group’s financial health, including debt reduction.
MTN Continues Expansion into Other African Markets
Yesterday, Mupita revealed that MTN is considering bidding for a second Ethiopian operating license after initially losing it to Safaricom.
“We took an approach that the opportunity, as strategic as it was, needed to meet our capital allocation framework and the hurdles that we saw given the licence conditions. We were particularly focused on the lack of mobile money in the licencing regime, and there were some issues around how the telco constructs would be accommodated within Ethiopia. We certainly priced for those things and near-term risks that we saw, and we felt that the financial bid there was appropriate.”
He says that although it was disappointing that they did not win the initial bid, they may take another shot at it.
Edited by Luis Monzon
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