Telecommunications giant MTN Ghana has presented a cheque for GHC34.6 million to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
 
The cheque covers the 2022 final dividend, which was paid in June 2023, of GHC24 million, and the interim 2023 dividend of GHC9.9 million, which was paid in September 2023.
 
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, the Chief Finance Officer of MTN Ghana, Antoinette Kwofie, who led a delegation, described SSNIT as a valuable partner and one of MTN’s top three shareholders since they were listed on the stock exchange in 2018.
 
"As our largest Ghanaian shareholder, SSNIT has been a beneficiary of dividends that we pay to our shareholders. Since listing, we’ve paid about GHC103.1 million to SSNIT which includes the GHC34.6 million we are going to present today," Ms. Kwofie noted.
 
She said that since listing, MTN Ghana has remained determined to improve revenue and margin growth, with a dividend payout above 60 percent.
 
"In actual fact, we have paid about 73 percent on an accumulative basis over the period," she disclosed.
 
She said that this had translated into a cumulative dividend payment of 51.9 Pesewas per share for SSNIT.
 
Ms Kwofie said that the share price was 0.70 Ghana Pesewas in 2018 but was now worth GHC1.45 Pesewas and added that MTN Ghana would be paying about 60 percent in terms of share pricing per capital growth.
 
She urged management of SSNIT not to sell their shares in order to achieve more capital gains
 
The Director-General of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang said that their aim was to make SSNIT the pension provider of choice.
 
He expressed gratitude to MTN Ghana for their performance over the years and assured them of continuous partnership saying "we took a decision in 2018 to invest in MTN and so far, we are not disappointed".
 
Dr Ofori-Tenkorang explained that while 11 percent was paid on increasing salaries over the years, SSNIT paid 37 and half percent on one’s highest salary after retirement. This, he said meant SSNIT as an insurer carried a lot of risk hence the need to ensure they worked hard to protect premiums.
 
"It is very important that we invest our monies prudently and all of us are stakeholders and all of us should be interested" he noted.
 
Dr Ofori-Tenkorang  added that they would continue their partnership with MTN not only as a shareholder, but for the development of the country and also ensure that workers retired with dignity.