MTN Ghana plans to increase local ownership in the company to 25 percent by the close of this year. Currently, the company has local participation of 16.9 percent.

Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, announced this at the virtual Annual General Meeting of the company on Tuesday.

He said the MTN Group remained committed to its agreement with the Government to increase other shareholdings in Scancom PLC to 25 percent, with a focus on local shareholding.

Also, in line with the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 MobileMoney Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scancom PLC, is required to achieve 30 percent localisation of its shareholding as part of Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) license requirements.

Mr Adadevoh said the BoG had extended the deadline to meet the requirement, to 15th January 2022.

On the issue of the significant market power (SMP) declaration, Mr Adadevoh said a series of engagements with the regulator and other key stakeholders was ongoing to resolve the issue in an amicable manner.

He said from October 2020, MTN Ghana implemented the National Communication Authority’s directive to apply a 30 percent asymmetrical interconnect rate reduction for two years.

He said engagements and discussions with relevant stakeholders were ongoing after a brief suspension in the lead up to the national elections in December 2020.

"We are optimistic that these discussions will result in a positive outcome for MTN Ghana and the long-term sustainability of the Ghana Telecommunications industry.

"We remain grateful to the NCA, the Ministry of Communications and key stakeholders for their commitment to engage with the view to resolve the issues amicably," he said.

The business reported a profit after tax of GH¢1.4 billion which represents a 38.4 percent increase year on year.

Shareholders approved a final dividend of 5 pesewas per share, bringing the total dividend for the 2020 year to 8 pesewas per share.

This represents 70.5% of profit after tax and a 33.3% increase in dividend per share over 2019.