Selorm Adadevoh
MTN GHANA has pledged to spend US$20 million this year in corporate social investments to expand its infrastructure in Ghana and create jobs.
Selorm Adadevoh, Chief Executive of MTN Ghana, who announced this at a media and stakeholders forum organised in Kumasi, said the US$20 million formed part of a US$1 billion investment commitment the telecoms operator made last year.
He said last year alone, MTN contributed GHȼ3.1 billion to different governmental institutions, paid different levies and about 4.4 per cent of taxes.
He said MTN Ghana was poised to continue doing its part to contribute towards national development.
The MTN CEO said his outfit was helping government, in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm, to design an Accra Innovation City Project.
“The whole idea is to build a technology area where all these companies – Twitter, Goggle, Microsoft – can come and set up so that they launch their regional businesses from Ghana, to create jobs, train people, build skills and also pay taxes in Ghana,” Mr. Adadevoh said.
So far, MTN Ghana, he said, has invested in 157 initiatives, 87 of which are in the education sector and the rest in the health sector and economic empowerment.
According to him, the telecoms giant has since inception created over 600,000 jobs in Ghana and helped to improve the quality of life as well as contributed to the fundamentals of economic growth.
He, however, expressed worry at the frequent fibre cuts, which interrupt its operations and affect the quality of service it offers.
The company, he said, has suffered over 900 fibre cuts, this year, and appealed to well-meaning Ghanaians particularly the media, to support the company in the fight against fibre cuts.
He warned customers who have not yet re-registered their SIM cards to do before July 31, 2022 to avoid disconnection, adding that, so far, 60 per cent of MTN subscribers have been linked and 40 per cent have done the bio capture.
FROM James Quansah, Kumasi