Accra, Ghana//-Ghana’s Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has inaugurated MTN GlobalConnect in Accra, with a call on other investors to take advantage of the country’s friendly business environment to expand into the Ghanaian market.
The GlobalConnect, which is MTN Group’s wholesale infrastructure company, is set up in Accra, Ghana to provide world-class telecom and financial technology (fintech) services, among others to the country and across all the countries in the MTN Group.
The MTN GlobalConnect also offers the most complete backbone network in Africa by providing reliable solutions for fixed connectivity and international mobile services.
According to Dr Bawumia, digital transformation is at the heart of the government. So, the choice of Ghana as the home of the MTN GlobalConnect is in the right direction, he added.
The Vice President who is the champion of the country’s digitalisation noted that Ghana has been recognized as the only country in Africa to achieve 100% access to financial inclusion on the continent.
The honour he said was contained in this year’s State of Inclusive Instant Payment in Africa Report put together by AfricaNenda and launched at the recent Mobile World Congress Africa 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda.
This feat was achieved through the successful implementation of the Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI) system, which integrates all payments platforms across banks, fintechs and telcos, allowing every Ghanaian to make and receive instant payments.
Dr Bawumia attributed this significant achievement to MTN Group for supporting the government in the formation and implementation of the Mobile Money Interoperability.
He was emphatic that the Government’s Digitization agenda which began in 2017 to transform almost every aspect of national life, has started to yield the desired results.
In his words: “In fact, because of mobile money interoperability, where fintechs, banks and telcos have essentially payment platforms that enable every Ghanaian to access and receive payments, Ghana was the only country to score 100% on financial inclusion in Africa at the recent Mobile World Congress Africa 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda”.
He emphasized that the mobile money interoperability, national ID card; digital addresses, the paperless ports, universal QR code, Ghana Pay, among others are all laying a strong foundation in the country that would allow Ghanaians to fully participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The government according to him has already seeing the impact of these digitisation initiatives including efficient public service delivery by all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies on the Ghana.gov portal, combating corruption by removing the middlemen, and ghost names in many transactions, bringing more Ghanaians into the formal sector and driving domestic revenue mobilization, amongst others.
Digital technology has changed the way Africa’s financial service industry offers products and services to consumers. The new financial service business models based on digital technologies are enabling inclusive access to financial services across diverse product types for consumers.
So, countries that do not digitize would lose in global competitiveness, he stated.
Dr Bawumia therefore called for more collaboration between all players in the fintech ecosystem – banks, fintechs, telecom companies, governments, regulators, and consumers to position Africa as a fintech innovation hub.
The Group President and CEO of MTN Group, Ralph Mupita, in a remark, said Ghana is at the heart of the Africa’s largest mobile operator pan-African digital services agenda.
He emphasised that the Group is pulling out of the Middle East to concentrate on its pan-African strategy to contribute greatly towards the socio-economic development of the continent.
Mr Mupita also reiterated MTN’s commitment to deepening digital and financial inclusion as part of its Ambition 2025 strategic vision.
Mr Mupita assured that MTN’s Ambition 2025 strategy, which is anchored on building the largest and most valuable platform business with a clear focus on Africa, is on track despite the current global economic challenges.
“We will get out of the current global economic challenges-rising prices, among others”, Mr Mupita added.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN GlobalConnect, Frédéric Schepens noted that the state-of-the-art GlobalConnet infrastructure which operates under 15 sub-marine cables and connects 29 African countries, would offer uninterrupted telecom services to customers.
The CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh in his welcome address, was confident that the berth of GlobalConnect in Ghana is a game-changer in the provision of digital services in the West African country.
