Accra, Ghana//-Selorm Adadevoh, the outgoing CEO of MTN Ghana on Monday, January 29, 2024, bade farewell to key stakeholders including journalists, editors and media practitioners.
Mr Adadevoh, a Ghanaian, has been promoted to MTN Group, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), following the expiration of his contract on 31st March 2024.
He takes over from Jens Schulte-Bockum who steps down as Group Chief Operating Officer at the end of his contract term in March 2024.
He will become a member of the MTN Group Executive Committee. Mr Schulte-Bockum will step down from his executive role on 31 March 2024.
Mr Adadevoh will be replaced by Stephen Blewett as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN Ghana.
When news broke about the appointment of Mr Adadevoh as the CEO of MTN Ghana in June 2018, there were scintillas of joy inside and outside the company.
His predecessor then Ebenezer Asante had been promoted to a regional position based on his exemplary success in Ghana. Now, Mr Asante is the Senior Vice President for Markets at the MTN Group.
Mr Adadevoh who was not new to the telecoms sector, set in motion with precision and hard work to consolidate the gains or surpass the achievements of his predecessors.
The first major task he supervised as the CEO of the largest telecoms in the country was the Initial Public Officer (IPO).
Mr Adadevoh spearheaded the activities of the company’s IPO which happened to be the biggest ever done in the country, to a successful conclusion.
Indeed, the IPO was one of the most eagerly anticipated IPOs in over a quarter of a century of the Ghana Stock Exchange’s (GSE’s) existence.
Commenced in the last week of May 2018, the IPO attracted the attention of the investing public, institutional investors, and individuals right through to its closure at the end of July 2018.
To meet a regulatory requirement, MTN Ghana offered 4.64 billion shares to sell GHC3.48 billion in equity ownership to investors both Ghanaians and foreigners, which was 35% of the entire company.
It would be recalled that when, in November 2015, MTN successfully bid for a 4G license, the National Communications Authority (NCA) awarded it on the condition that the company was listed on the GSE.
To be sure, this is consistent with MTN Ghana’s philosophy of making provision for substantial local stakeholder participation, but it still marks a major sacrifice for its parent company, which is giving up more than a third of its equity stake in one of its most profitable subsidiaries and indeed one that ranks among the most profitable companies in Ghana.
The management of GSE had been yearning for a telecoms issue for years and it didn’t come better than MTN’s. The company is a key player in an industry whose growth, worldwide is unparalleled by any other sector.
Unique Leadership
Furthermore, under his dynamic leadership, the telecom company’s mobile voice subscriptions continue to grow while its competitors are struggling.
Mr Adadevoh’s sterling leadership record has been rewarded with four times growth in revenue and six times growth in profitability. This made him the only CEO of MTN Ghana to have achieved such an enviable feat.
From its headquarters in Accra to Zuarungu
Indeed, MTN Ghana is a leading telco operator in Ghana. From its headquarters in Accra to Zuarungu in the Upper East Region, it offers voice, data, mobile financial and other digital services to its over 21 million customers across the length and breadth of the country.
Speaking at an event dubbed ‘Time With Selorm’ to celebrate the five years and nine months of the outgoing CEO, he generously attributed the successes chalked under his rein to his hard-working team.
He added that the team gave him all their best to enable him to continue the growth trajectory and transformation of the leading telecoms giant in Ghana.
Mr Adadevoh who has always positioned himself as a transformational person, saw the need to speed up the growth of the telecom giant.
In his words: “Maybe because of my IT background I saw the opportunity to move the business forward”.
Challenging COVID-19 Time
On challenges emanating from the deadly COVID-19 time in 2020 which claimed several lives, and maimed and destroyed several businesses, the respected transformational business leader said they at MTN Ghana focused more on securing the network of the company whilst adopting the hybrid working system.
Mr Adadevoh was quick to add: “If you secure your network you could do a lot on the commercial side”.
Advice to other telecom firms
Advising CEOs of the other telecoms players on the declaration of MTN’s significant market power (SMP) status, he observed that his competitors could not take advantage to double their investments in the telecoms sector.
In June 2020, the Ghanaian government through the regulator of the telecoms industry-National Communications Authority (NCA) declared SMP status on MTN Ghana.
The NCA declared the status of MTN Ghana because is the dominant player with over 70% market share including SMS, voice, data, revenue, and mobile money.
To this end, the regulator started to implement various draconian measures meant to curtail the growth of MTN Ghana, while supporting the smaller players in the Ghanaian market to take advantage of the SMP to overtake MTN Ghana.
However, according to industry experts, the SMP status of MTN Ghana has failed to achieve the desired results. It has rather led to the strong growth of MTN in all segments of the industry.
More Opportunities
He, however, said there were still very huge opportunities in home internet, private networks and even financial services, Meditech, and Edutech, among others.
Internet to the home is very low which is about 7% of the market being used, while the remaining 93% is untapped.
“This is an area where the smaller telcos can tap into and boost their revenue and profits without waiting for some SMP policies to deliver gains for them”.
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The event which was meant to celebrate his achievements and to say farewell was themed: ‘Five Years of Impact; Celebrating Leadership, and Digital Transformation for Progress in Ghana’ and was attended by key media personalities in the country and they congratulated Mr Adadevoh for a good job done.
