MTN Ghana has said it ‘continues to make progress’ in fulfilling an agreement with the government to increase to 30% the local ownership of both arms of its operation, namely Scancom and MobileMoney. Although the initial localisation requirement for Scancom was 25%, MTN has offered to raise this to 30% for ease of implementation and as evidence of its willingness to extend local shareholding in its ownership mix, the company’s full-year 2021 financial results revealed. Consultations with the government, the central bank and other relevant stakeholders continue positively, MTN said.
MTN Ghana also reported that it has so far fully implemented three of the seven remedies imposed following its Significant Market Power (SMP) designation in June 2020, while it has also made ‘significant progress’ in discussions with the National Communications Authority (NCA) to implement national roaming. Having engaged in bilateral discussions with rival operators and completed technical tests, the company said it is now close to an agreement with at least one telco. The three SMP remedies which have already been implemented are the application of a 30% asymmetrical interconnect rate reduction for two years, the review and approval of all MTN pricing by the NCA, and implementation of on-net/off-net price parity for default tariffs affecting data and promotional offers as well. MTN said it will provide an update on the implementation of the remaining directives as discussions with the regulator progress.