Friday, 3rd June, 20221

Page 10
The United Nations
Development
Programme (UNDP)
and Societe Generale
Ghana PLC (SG Ghana)
have signed a Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU)
to encourage and support
innovators, especially small
MTN Ghana has
held its 4th
Annual General
Meeting since
listing on the
Ghana Stock Exchange in 2018.
The meeting saw the
approval of the Audited Financial
Statements for the year ended
December 31, 2021, and the
declaration of a final dividend.
After studying the full-year
performance of the company in
2021, the total dividend for the
year was 11.5 pesewas per share,
representing 70.6% of profit
after tax and a 43.8% increase in
dividend per share payout in 2021
over 2020.
Board Chairman of MTN
Ghana, Dr. Ishmael Yamson,
attributed the significant growth
in the company’s revenue to
strong growth in Data Service,
Mobile Money, and Voice Service.
During the period, the
company recorded 56.3% growth
in data revenue, 38.2% growth in
Mobile Money revenue supported
by some 4.9% growth in voice
revenue.
He stressed that the past
year ended successfully and
assured shareholders that MTN
Ghana will always endeavor to
make sure the company is wellmanaged
with best interests of
shareholders in mind.
“We had a successful Annual
General Meeting. The results
were very good. Shareholders
approved the payment of very
decent dividends. We assure
shareholders that our focus
is a very robust governance
culture that will ensure that the
company is well managed, well
catered for and continues to
operate in an ethical manner,” Dr.
Business
DAILY ANALYST Friday, 3rd June, 2022
UNDP and Societe Generale partner to promote
innovations, inclusive entrepreneurship in Ghana
businesses led by youth,
women, and persons with
disabilities (PWDs) to scale up
innovations towards sustainable
development.
The partnership aims to
leverage the expertise and
resources of both institutions to
provide a tailored programme
including capacity building,
mentorship, business to
business matching, and pitching
master classes to enable easy
access to investors and markets
for products and services.
“Partnership plays a
critical role in accelerating the
achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) by
2030 and UNDP is committed to
working with the Private Sector
and all actors to unlock SDG
aligned investments for greater
impact.”
“This partnership is very
important as Société Générale
joins forces with UNDP to
support national actions
to expand employment
opportunities for youth, women,
and People with Disabilities
for shared prosperity”, noted
Angela Lusigi, UNDP Resident
Representative in Ghana.
As part of the partnership,
the UNDP Accelerator Lab, SG
Innov8 Hub and SG Home of
Business will be leading efforts
to co-create opportunities for
innovators to thrive and scaleup
to penetrate markets beyond
MTN shareholders to receive
dividend representing 70.6% of profit
Yamson indicated.
Speaking at the event, Chief
Executive Officer of MTN Ghana,
Selorm Adadevoh, explained that
during the period in review, 4G
network coverage was improved
to over 90 percent with an
addition of 1,446 sites to reach an
extra 1.7 million people.
Additionally, the company
added on 131 2G sites, 130 3G
sites, while some 1,200 sites were
modernized to improve customer
experience.
Mr. Adadevoh expressed
optimism for the 2022 financial
year stating that the company
forecasts revenue growth in the
high teens.
“We forecast service
revenue growth in the high
teens (in percentage terms)
over the medium-term from
the previous guidance of 13%
to 15%. In addition, we will
progress the execution of the
expense efficiency programme
and our prudent approach to
managing costs to deliver on
our commitment of margin
expansion,” he said.
Scancom PLC (MTN Ghana)
held its first AGM in May 2019
after it listed on the Ghana Stock
Exchange (GSE) on 5 September
2018. It remains the company
with the largest number of
Ghanaian shareholders following
its Initial Public Offering (IPO)
which raised GHS 1,146,589,464.75
from 128,152 applicants. The IPO
of MTN Ghana made history as
the largest primary share offer
in the history of the GSE. Most
importantly, it enabled many
Ghanaians to own shares in one
of Ghana’s largest, most visible
and well-respected companies.
the shores of Ghana.
“This partnership with the
UNDP Accelerator Lab which has
the unique expertise in working
with grassroots innovators will
not only broaden the Bank’s
reach but also its ability to
support new initiatives, SMEs,
young people, persons with
disabilities and innovative
startups”, said the Managing
Director of SG Ghana PLC, Hakim
Ouzzani.
The partnership will leverage
UNDP’s expertise in working
with grassroots innovators,
and SG Ghana’s expertise in
supporting businesses and
entrepreneurs.
Under the agreement,
UNDP through its Accelerator
Lab, and SG Ghana through its
The Association of
Ghana Industries has
stated the inability of
its members to access
credit facilities due to
the recent hike in the monetary
policy rate.
The bank of Ghana’s
Monetary policy committee
noted that because of the
current rise in the inflation rate
it has become necessary for
the committee to increase the
Monetary policy rate.
However, Chief Executive of
the AGI, Seth Twum Akwaboah,
has noted that this has increased
the cost of lending and the
production cost per unit of most
manufacturing firms.
Speaking to a cross-section
of the media at the Arab-African
Economy Summit, He stated
that the move by the BoG even
though a means for inflation to
reduce, is hampering the growth
and activities of local businesses.
“We understand the policy
rate is to slow down inflation,
but the bottom line is that when
Innov8 Hub and the SG Home of
Business, will run the Inclusive
Entrepreneurship partnership,
taking a pipeline of innovators
through capacity building,
free use of SG Ghana’s Home
of Business and Innov8 Hub
services.
Participating entrepreneurs
will include a selection of the
22 grassroot innovators who
received funding and technical
support through the UNDP
Accelerator Lab COVID-19
Innovation Challenge and other
innovators and entrepreneurs
selected by UNDP.
It is expected that at least
50% of innovators supported will
gain increased traction to scale
up their innovations.
Our members can’t
access credit due to policy
rate increment – AGI
such measures are taken the
implication is clear as interest
rate goes up highly. And it gets
to a point where banks are
even interested in investing in
government bonds and treasury
bills and all that. It means it
is crowding out private sector
access to financing”, he said.
The AGI’s CEO however
noted that this high policy rate
should not be retained for a long
time since it will force local
businesses out of operation due
to high-interest rates and the
cost of borrowing.
“If we don’t have a choice,
but to have a policy of this
nature and if it goes on for too
long it will have a great impact
on businesses and the economy
“, he lamented.
“We have to look at the
immediate and the longterm
impact. We have been
engaging the Bank of Ghana
and will continue to do that. If
we continue to engage, we will
amicably solve this”, he added.