MTN finalising listing plan - Wim
Mr Wim Vanhelleputte, the MTN chief executive officer. COURTESY PHOTO
What you need to know:
- The Uganda is Home campaign is part of activities, according to Mr Vanhelleputte, that would culminate into listing of the telecom.
MTN has said it is in the final stages of fulfilling the government’s requirement to list on the Uganda Securities Exchange.
Speaking during the launch of a campaign dubbed Uganda is Home in Entebbe, Wakiso District last week, Mr Wim Vanhelleputte, the MTN chief executive officer, said the company will list in a few months under a requirement by the government in which at least 20 per cent of the company shares will be sold to the public.
Uganda is Home campaign is part of activities, according to Mr Vanhelleputte, that would culminate into the listing of the telecom.
“In the National Telecom Operator License, there is a request that MTN lists on the stock exchange by June 2022, which is now around 10 months away. So, we are in full preparation to fulfill that obligation and go public,” he said, without giving more details.
In an earlier interview, Mr Vanhelleputte told Daily Monitor last year that there was a possibility of the telecom employing similar tools such as those used by MTN Nigeria, for example utilising technology such as mobile money, to acquire shares.
MTN will become the first telecom to list on the Uganda Security Exchange, which analysts have predicted could be good news for the not so active stock market. The move is expected to earn the Capital Markets Authority a non-tax revenue of about Shs1.1b.
Other telecoms are also by law expected to list on the exchange even as none has indicated when they will be floating shares.
Under Uganda is Home initiative, MTN will, together with other partners, seek to support the public push realisation of a number of important aspects as well as conducting sensitization on environmental challenges.
Mr Vanhelleputte said that through the campaign Uganda is Home, MTN will seek to deepen its roots in Uganda through a symbolic reforestation initiative, which will see 220 hectares of forest cover in five central forest reserves, restored.
The reforestation will be done in partnership with National Forestry Authority, which warned that the over reliance on forests for livelihoods, for example biomass fuels for cooking are detrimental to society.
“Uganda’s forest cover decreased from 54 percent in 1900. By 1990 this had decreased to 24 per cent, in 2017 this had decreased to 12.4 per cent meaning between 1990 and 2017, we lost 2.4 million hectares of forest. At this rate we project that if nothing is done, we risk losing all the forest cover in the country by 2040,”Mr Tom Obong Okello, the National Forestry Authority executive director, said.
Uganda is home
The Uganda is Home campaign seeks to restore Uganda’s forest cover, which, according to Mr Tom Obong Okello, the National Forestry Authority executive director, had decreased from 54 per cent in 1900 to 24 per cent by 1990, before decreasing further to 12.4 per cent by 2017.
This, he said, means that between 1990 and 2017, Uganda has lost 2.4 million hectares of forest, which given the rate, it is projected that if nothing is done, Uganda risks losing all its forest cover by 2040.
