Gov’t could have handled the SMP directive differently – Out going MTN CEO
Outgoing Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN, Selorm Adadevor, has indicated that the Super Market Power (SMP) declaration on MTN could have been handled differently by the authorities.
He is of the view that the economic potential on the entire country could have been enhanced through technology if the process had been approached differently.
If I look at health-tech, med-tech, and agric-tech, etc, these are technology and specialist based areas that can transform the economy, and none of them is working today because we are confined to the technology space and we [regulators] are saying that we need to limit the investment so that the industry get a certain balance which in one hand is very true, but in the other hand you’re giving up on the economic potential of the entire country that could be enhanced through technology if you [regulators] approached it in a different way,” he emphasized.
Adadevor was speaking during an interaction with stakeholders of MTN on Monday January 29, 2024, to bid farewell after having been in the helm of affairs of MTN Ghana for the past five years and nine months, which makes him the longest-serving CEO in the history of MTN.
The meeting was themed: Five Years of Impact; Celebrating Leadership, and Digital Transformation for Progress in Ghana.
The out going CEO emphasized that there are too many untapped opportunities in the telecommunications sector and that policies should be steered towards taking advantage of making Ghana a sophisticated country from a technological standpoint.
With this, he said, “Ghana becomes more competitive and more attractive to investments we are seeking to drive other sectors of the economy.”
How do we get the country to become that special beacon within the Sub-region and how can technology be the fulcrum or the driver of that beacon? He asked.
“And for me that’s still an opportunity that we have in front of us,” he noted.
The declaration of MTN Ghana as a Significant Market Power (SMP) in the country’s telecommunications sector meant, among many other things, to set a level playing field to limit the ability of the company to “manipulate” its tariffs, control its profit margin and possibly its ability to increase obstacles to potential new entrants or smaller players in the market.
MTN dominance
Given its size and dominance in the telecoms market in the country, the NCA declared MTN Ghana as an SMP.
Subsequently, on August 1, 2021, the telecommunication giant implemented the directive from the NCA on phase-1 of the on-net/off-net price differential removal on default tariffs for voice, data and SMS.
On-net/off-net differentials
The implementation of the SMP, among other things in part, required the removal of on-net and off-net price differentials.
For instance, it meant that there should not be any difference in call and SMS rates between an MTN-to-MTN communication and a call/SMS from an MTN number to any number on other networks.
Selorm took MTN Ghana’s top job in 2018 as the first ever “non-MTNer” to have held that position, coming from Digicel in Haiti. Prior to him, all other MTN Ghana CEOs were drawn from within the MTN Group.
