MTN reaches 5.3 million more people in Ghana – CEO
MTN Ghana extended its network coverage to 5.3 million Ghanaians in 2021 through network expansion, Mr Selorm Adadevoh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the telecommunication giant, has announced.
He said the company had approximately 400 rural telephony sites and was partnering the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC) to extend coverage to more Ghanaians under the National Rural Telephony Project.
Speaking at the 2022 editors and stakeholders’ forum in Kumasi, Mr Adadevoh said the company had covered all regions and district capitals with 4G, adding that about 8,800 kilometers of fibre had been installed to provide quality service to subscribers.
With over 4,000 cell sites nationwide, MTN is taking steps to share its infrastructure with other operators to improve connectivity across the country.
The CEO said MTN had already partnered Vodafone to explore the initiative and was engaging other operators to create more access for Ghanaians beyond the MTN customer.
“We are willing to share this infrastructure that has given us this level of population with all the other operators in the market. What this means is that as a country, we grow faster in terms of our information technology enablement and get more access to people in all parts of the country,” he explained.
He said MTN had contributed significantly to the fundamental economic growth of the country by creating over 600,000 jobs which continued to support families while inspiring hope.
“In addition to that, we contributed GHC3.1 billion last year alone to different governmental institutions, including tax and different levies as part of our contribution to Ghana’s development,” he indicated.
MTN is also building an ICT hub for the government where different digital services from training, supporting small and medium enterprises, and educating the youth on digital skills would be offered, the CEO hinted.
He said the company was also helping the government to put together the Accra Innovation City Project.
“The whole idea is to build a technology area where companies such as Twitter, Google and Microsoft can come and set up and launch their regional businesses from Ghana, creating jobs, training our people, building skills and also paying taxes here in Ghana,” he said.
The contribution of MTN to taxes alone constituted 4.4 per cent of the total taxes received by the government, according to Mr Adadevoh.
He said it was extremely important to develop the local supply chain, saying that 78 per cent of vendors of MTN were locals, but stressed the need to scale up local production of certain components that were not sophisticated to cut down on the importation of equipment by the telecommunication industry.
“If you want to compete in the global purchasing environment, then your standard should be global, because you cannot expect to compete just because you are a Ghanaian,” he advised local manufacturers.
Source: GNA