She noted that sales agents that are registering SIM cards before selling them are breaking the law, and that customers should assist MTN to fight the crime by alerting the mobile communication company on agents doing that.

“We have put certain business rules in place to pick up on some of these things, so that depending on the way the registration is, the systems are able to tell us that this can’t be credible, and we immediately block it and deal with the perpetrators”, she added.

Cynthia Lumor spoke to Citi News at Elmina on Wednesday, during the Central Regional Media and Stakeholder Forum by MTN Ghana, to interact with its stakeholders on the achievements, packages, challenges and the short and long-term plans of the mobile telecommunication company.

Stakeholders consisting of journalists, officials of the Ghana Highway Authority and other state and private agencies enumerated some of the challenges subscribers have using the network, with prominence on mobile money subscription and unregistered SIM cards.

Reacting to concerns about the recent spate of mobile money frauds, Cynthia Lumor said though the company is vigorously doing a lot to “sift out recalcitrant mobile money agents, and that users should insist on not giving (their) pin numbers to anybody.”

She further stated that “When somebody calls you to tell you I just sent you an X amount of money and asks you to send it back, check your balance. Make sure that indeed some money has just come to you that you were not expecting.”

Taxes, other payments and corporate social responsibility

In 2016, MTN Ghana paid taxes totaling GHS 1.1 billion to the government of Ghana.

They include a corporate tax of GHS 713 million to the Ghana Revenue Authority, and over GHS 51 million to the National Communication Authority (NCA), and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC).

Other components are a GHS 258 million payment to the NCA for its 4G LTE, and a Standardization and Innovation Information Technology (SIIT) payment of GHS 85 million.

While the communication giant boasts of one hundred and forty-two projects nationwide, the Central Region has had fourteen out of the number, costing close to two million Ghana  Cedis.

Some of the projects in the Region are the construction of the maternity ward for the Twifo Praso Government Hospital and a dormitory block for Apam Senior High School.

By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah