Accra, Ghana//-President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo today launched the 25th anniversary celebrations of MTN Ghana, parent company of Scancom PLC with a call on the leading telecoms firm to invest in the promotion of start-ups in the country.
This he noted would help these start-ups and other small businesses to benefit from the evolution of the digital economy.
While thanking the company and its management, Mr Akufo-Addo was emphatic that digital platforms, systems and technology spearheaded by MTN Ghana and the government would play crucial roles in the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
He urged MTN and all players in the industry to continue to collaborate with government, “as we roll out further initiatives to deepen digitalisation in a more sustainable way”.
Digital tech to stimulate the growth
“Government is employing the application of digital technology to stimulate the growth and transformation of the Ghanaian economy, and, thereby, help ensure that every Ghanaian derives maximum benefit from this process”.
To this end, since the assumption office in 2017, Mr Akufo-Addo said his government had taken decisions that had provided the necessary drive to stimulate the economy on several levels.
In his own words: “We recognized that having a national database was one of the critical elements of a digital economy, and instituted that as a matter of priority by implementing the National Identification programme, and completing the first phase of the National Digital Property Addressing System, to support geolocation and the issuance of postal codes”.
Ambitious national broadband infrastructure
He told the well-attended gathering of senior government officials, business leaders, MTN management and staff, among others that the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation is also embarking on an ambitious national broadband infrastructure development programme for the ICT Sector, with a special focus on providing total connectivity to the unserved and underserved communities across the country.
The Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project is currently being rolled out, and construction of 2,016 solar powered cell sites across the country has begun in earnest, to provide voice and data connectivity to millions of rural dwellers and facilitate national roaming too.
Common Monitoring Platform set up
The President added that his government has set up a Common Monitoring Platform (CMP), which monitors communication traffic and provides real-time verification of transactions in the telecommunications sector.
The purpose of the setting the platform according to him is a measure of transparency and accountability, build trust and improve the working relationship between government and telecoms operators in the country.
The Minister of Communications Digitalisation, Mrs UrsulaOwusu Ekufu used the occasion to thank MTN for its invaluable contributions towards evolution of the country’s telecoms sector.
Brief history of Scancom PLC
Tracing the history of the company, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh said the company that is now Scancom PLC was registered in 1994 and started commercial operations in 1996 with network coverage in Accra and Tema, both in the Greater Accra Ghana.
“The MTN journey started from humble beginnings in an office on Graphic road, with 20 employees of which only one of the six Ghanaians is still with us – Cynthia Addoquaye.
In that journey, this company has evolved through different brand names: from Spacefon (the first GSM mobile service provider in Ghana with only a postpaid service), to Spacefon Areeba, then to Areeba and then finally, to MTN”.
With these brand name evolutions our tag lines have also evolved from “Communication for the nation” to “the heart of your world” and finally to “everywhere you go”.
By the year 2006 (our 10th anniversary), the company had acquired 2.6million subscribers making it the largest mobile phone community in the country. It was at this point that the business was acquired by MTN Group, Mr Adadevoh explained.
“Today, after 25 years, we have employed over 2,500 Ghanaians and created over half a million jobs (including hundreds of thousands of airtime resellers, mobile money agents and mobile money merchants); also, we currently serve about 25 million subscribers, and have gone from a post-paid voice only service to Prepaid voice democratising telecoms for everyone’s access, to Data, Mobile Money, Enterprise Solutions, Digital and more recently, new Platform services to guide us into the future as we seek to remain relevant in a fast changing world and in the new normal.
We look back at our journey with pride, humility and appreciation, counting our many blessings along the way and recognizing our contributions to the lives of many Ghanaians, many businesses and to our country, Ghana”.
A Bold Investor – MTN
“… but it has not been without struggles and challenges. MTN has always seen Ghana as a market to invest in because of the confidence we have in the governance and political stability, policy predictability and consistent economic growth over the years and in recent time.
This appetite has driven our investment decisions to invest over six billion US dollars in infrastructure since inception. We have also had to take various commercial risks such as sustaining investments in mobile money for over six years despite the lack of profitability, when others exited or did not invest at all. Investing in 3G at a time when 3G devices were not available in the country and if they were, they were not affordable. A similar situation for 4G more recently”.
Turned challenges into opportunity
In our travels, we have turned our challenges into opportunity through belief, innovation, commitment and hard work, and the achievements we celebrate today, are grounded on these very principles, he said.
Achievements
“We look at our achievements over the period through many different lenses. Firstly, we have helped and ensured that families and loved ones stay connected; we have supported businesses to grow leaps and bounds while making health, education and commerce accessible to many Ghanaians; we have enabled productivity and economic growth by giving SMEs and the informal sector the tools to build new businesses and grow existing ones; we have inspired many Ghanaians to innovate by leveraging the power of technology and believing that it is possible based on our own success”.
Most importantly though, we have impacted the lives of Ghanaians in many ways over two and a half decades including our social interventions in communities around the country through the MTN Foundation and our financial inclusion efforts bringing banking services to many who knew otherwise, a transformation that rolled off our lips like no other with the popular chant “men saakaaooohh”.
Mr Adadevoh quoted a famous reggae musician, Bob Marley: “The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively”.
Stakeholder Appreciation
As MTN Ghana celebrates this milestone, the CEO acknowledged with humility that this success is a collective one and thanked the government, people of Ghana, customers, regulators, board, management, staff, media, suppliers, among others for their support.
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