MTN propels Ghana’s Stock Exchange into Prominence

MTN Ghana, the leading telecoms operator in the West African nation has become the main driver of growth and propelled Ghana’s Stock Exchange into global prominences at a time when many listed companies across the globe struggle to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Shares of Ghana’s unit of MTN Group Ltd. have almost doubled this year, helping the nation’s main stock index to become Africa’s best-performing equity benchmark. Scancom Plc, MTN’s parent company accounts for about a quarter of the Composite Index, has surged about 95%, the most since its 2018 listing and powering a 42% advance in the Accra market’s key gauge. That’s the sixth-best globally among 92 benchmarks tracked internationally in local currency terms.

Scancom’s stock may have further scope for more growth and gains given the mobile phone company’s shares remain among the cheapest wireless stocks in the region. They trade at about 11. times earnings, compared with peers like MTN Nigeria;
14 times and 37 times for Vodacom Tanzania Ltd.

Besides the gains, MTN’s financials have always pointed to a company operating profitably, although they listed on Ghana’s bourse at a time the entire market was not doing well, a situation that adversely affected that stock and its valuation. As markets recover and improve in the post-pandemic era good stocks of the ilk of Scancom will rise with high buy ratings from analysts and more room for share price gains

MTN Ghana’s Revenue was in excess of 6 billion Cedis in 2020 up from the 5.2 billion Cedis in 2019 and profit before tax advanced 36.7% to 1.97 billion cedis in 2020, while profit after tax was 1.4 billion cedis against a 1 billion cedis over the period.
In the same year company’s subscriber base increased by 23.4% to 24.4 million with active data, subscribers increased by 32.4% to 10.8 million. Its mobile e-money users also grew by 16.3% to 10.6 million.

The continent’s telecom giant also celebrates a silver jubilee of existence in Ghana and passes as a blue-chip company in Africa after years of consistent investments pay off.  The industry leader has created arguably the most jobs both directly and indirectly in Ghana especially as its mobile money agents and other agents run into hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country and counting; a phenomenon that has widened the reach and seems to be in tandem with MTN’s mantra everywhere-you-go.

MTN’s astronomic growth was also supported by partnering strategic agents of development, notable among them being Journalist for Business Advocacy (JBA) a group of leading local and international business and financial journalists who use the medium of journalism to educate readers and their clients through analysis and reports about the business environment and investment opportunities in the West African nation.

MTN Ghana continues to be the first in innovation and an industry pacesetter; First to introduce GSM technology in Ghana; first to commercially launch all the generations of technologies: 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE and 4G+ and soon to be first to roll out the 5G technology.

“We have always seen Ghana as a market to invest in because of the confidence we have in the nation’s governance and political stability amid consistent economic growth over the years,’’ Selorm Adadevoh, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana said at the launch of the company’s 25th-anniversary celebrations. The company has invested over $6 billion to improve infrastructure, products, and service, network upgrades thus, making it the leader in the industry.

By Komoozai JBA

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