MTN CEO Predicts More Mergers Among Smaller Telcos

The Vice President of Southern and East Africa for MTN, and Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Ebenezer Asante is predicting more mergers among smaller telcos in the country.

According to him, the telecom industry in Ghana is too small for the current number of telcos in the country.

Reacting to a question on the Airtel Tigo merger at press conference organized to publish the financial performance of the company, Mr. Asante predicted that the industry should expect more mergers.

“The external partnership you talked about. For me, it is good. It is something that we predicted four years ago. Is that the end of consolidations?, not at all. We will see one or two more”.

“The NCA is here, I read somewhere that they have issued a letter. It is a sign of something to come and I will not be surprised in a year or two, another letter will follow. It is very clear looking at the economics of this market. The market cannot take more than 3.4 operators, who will be the point four?,” he queried.

Mr. Asante was of the view that the competition in Ghana is so intense, such that smaller telcos will have no option but to come together to have a little impact after the market leader takes the majority of the industry share.

He stated that he wasn’t surprised after the merger of Tigo and Airtel since it had been envisaged long ago.

Financial performance

Meanwhile, MTN Ghana announced 24 percent increase in its 2017 performance.

The figure translates into 3.4 billion cedis.

The company also disclosed that it paid about one billion cedis in taxes to the government of Ghana, representing 3 percent of total tax collected in 2017.

Mr. Asante also stated that MTN will invest in fibre to expand internet to households in 2018.

Source: Citibusinessnews