Mr. Adadevoh made these remarks at the 2024 Annual General Meeting of the company held in Accra. He said that management had remained focused on pursuing its Ambition 2025 goals. “Our service revenue for 2023 grew by 34.6 percent year-on-year (YoY), with a significant contribution from voice, data, and mobile money revenue,” he noted, attributing it to well-executed commercial strategies and focused investment.

Addressing the recent internet cuts, the CEO said that services had been re-routed  through other partners due to damage to their undersea cables.He noted that the disruption had  resulted in a significant reduction in their capacity. He said that services had now been restored while work was being done to repair the damage. He, however, said that the repairs could take anywhere from five to seven weeks, depending on the severity of the damage. He assured customers that MTN Ghana was operating at the same capacity as it was before the internet interruptions. He called for investments in undersea cables as a country to offer it a degree of redundancy in capacity and geographical location.

Mr. Adadevoh also spoke about the company’s investment in their capital expenditure to expand their network. He  disclosed that significant progress had been made by MTN Ghana in localising Scancom PLC and MobileMoney Limited. He said that MTN Ghana looked forward to partnering with other companies, such as Starlink, to develop data facilities in Ghana.

“Even though we know that 2024 will bring its own challenges, we are confident that with the same level of commitment and resilience and with the continued support of our board and partners, we will be able to deliver on our goals for the year,“ he added.

MTN Ghana’s board chairman, Mr. Israel Yamson, said that  2023  faced several challenges, such as elevated inflation and a tight monetary policy, which led to an increase in the domestic cost of capital. He noted that  headline inflation, which reached a peak of 54.1% in December 2022, decreased to 23.2% in December 2023  as a result of  a tighter monetary stance that had to be adopted by businesses. ………. He said that , the government had to respond by  initiating a three-year fiscal adjustment and reform programme supported by a USD 3.0 billion Extended Credit Facility arrangement from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

Despite these challenges, he noted that MTN Ghana had  demonstrated discipline in executing its strategic goals for 2023. He stated that the company’s financial report for 2023 showed a robust performance with strong total revenue growth, which was achieved through targeted business strategies.

Mr. Yamson said that based on the exceptional business performance and the strength of the cash flow position and projections, the Board of Directors recommended a final dividend payout of 17.5 Pesewas per share, which was approved by 87.93 percent of shareholders. The payment would be made on April 12, 2024. “The total dividend for the 2023 financial year would be 22.5 Pesewas per share, including the interim dividend of 5.0 Pesewas per share on September 20, 2023. The total dividend amount of GHS 3.0 billion is equivalent to 74.8 percent of the company’s profit after tax (GHS 4.0 billion) and represents a 37.2 percent increase in dividend payout per share," he added.

As part of creating share value, he emphasised MTN Ghana’s commitment to social and economic development by investing about GHS39.8 million towards projects related to healthcare, education, and economic empowerment in 2023.

He said that the company also completed the construction of a 60-bed facility at Keta Municipal Hospital and a STEM robotics lab, among others. He noted that while the outlook for 2024 was positive, there was a need to monitor risks and uncertainties, such as the upcoming 2024 election and the Bank of Ghana’s expectation to lower the policy rate.