(Ecofin Agency) - MTN Uganda, whose license will expire in October 2018, should list its capital locally. This is one of the requirements set by the Ugandan government before the 10 year license renewal. With this requirement, the government wants to provide local investors an opportunity to take advantage of the telecommunication company’s demonstrated financial dynamism and growth prospects in the coming years in view of its technological development.

On August 15, 2018, commenting on this requirement, Godfrey Mutabazi (photo), director of the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC), declared that it was perfectly justified. “MTN is an investor here and they have been here for 20 years...to go beyond, I would argue that they have been here long enough to be identified as Ugandans and the only way to do that is to list their company locally so that Ugandans can have a stake in that company”, he said.

The telecommunication company is also required to share telecoms infrastructure like poles and base stations with other operators to ensure better network coverage for every operator to guarantee 4G network in urban areas and 3G in rural areas.

Let’s remind that MTN Uganda is actually leader of the local telecommunications market with 10,856,000 subscribers in H1, 2018, representing 55% of this market. Its revenues have however dropped by 2.6% on a year-on-year basis to stand at UGX2.44 billion ($164,655,569).

It is also worth reminding that Uganda is the third country requiring the local subsidiary of MTN Group to list part of its shares on the local stock exchange. In Ghana and Nigeria, the group has already initiated administrative procedures for that purpose.

Muriel Edjo