MTN Group has confirmed that it is participating with equity partners in a bid for a telecoms license in Ethiopia.
According to MTN, the bid is in line with its strategy, Ambition 2025. This strategy focused on capturing growth from digital acceleration across the continent. MTN revealed that Silk Road Fund from China is one of its participating partners. Adding that it will disclose the other partners on a successful bid outcome. Ethiopia Ethiopia
“Ethiopia provides the largest telecommunication and digital services growth opportunity in Africa over the medium term and fits into our Pan-Africa focus and platform strategy. We are being guided by our capital allocation framework in our assessment of this opportunity”.
MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita
Meanwhile, MTN has a long history of building and operating market-leading operations across Africa and the Middle East. This included the establishment of greenfield operations. At the end of 2020, MTN Group had 280 million subscribers across 21 markets.
MTN 2020 Reports
Moreover, MTN Group published its suite of 2020 reports last week. This included the Integrated, Sustainability, Transparency and Tax Reports. The reports covered the Group’s performance in 2020 and how “we delivered on our commitments to stakeholders”.
The reports detailed the impact of COVID-19 on MTN’s markets & business and the Group’s support to stakeholders in these challenging times. They also covered the Group’s work on managing the risks of the pandemic and plans to make the most of the opportunities.
According to MTN, these factors played a part in shaping its repositioned strategy, Ambition 2025. MTN Group’s 2020 Integrated Report tells the MTN value-creation story clearly and concisely, reflecting integrated thinking. The report covered a thorough discussion on the new strategy, as well as dedicated sections on COVID-19. It also touched on the Group’s outlook and other key issues.
Furthermore, one of the Group’s four priorities under the new strategy is to ‘create shared value’. At the core are environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles.
As a result, Ralph Mupita highlighted that COVID-19 has exacerbated underlying economic and social inequalities. According to him, the pandemic is unfolding at the same time as a mounting climate crisis. Therefore, he indicated that instilling sound ESG principles is fundamental to building resilience. This will also ensure that MTN is future-fit and plays its role in building sustainable societies.
“Diversity and inclusion are important aspects of future sustainable societies. Although we have made good progress with greater representation of women at senior levels in the company, there is still a lot of work to do”.
Ralph Mupita.
MTN’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2040
Furthermore, the Sustainability Report details MTN’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2040. In 2020, MTN Group advanced digital and financial inclusion by reducing communication costs. Also, it enabled over $152 billion of transactions through extending Mobile Money services for customers and small and medium enterprises.
Besides, MTN stated that it has impacted 23.8 million people, of whom 10.5 million were youth. The Group provided them with ICT skills and opportunities to help them become economically active.
Additionally, the Transparency Report provides an understanding of MTN’s operating environment, risks and approach to digital human rights. MTN indicated that it is one of the largest taxpayers in most of the countries that the Group operates.
Consequently, MTN stated that this comes with the responsibility to report thoroughly and transparently on its tax affairs. MTN Group’s 2020 Tax Report spells out its total tax contribution. In 2020, MTN Group’s total tax contribution was R35,1 billion, up from R30,5 billion in 2019.
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