Outgoing CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh recently revealed that for the five years plus that he has been here, MTN Ghana has recorded four times its revenue and six times its profits, in spite of the regulatory constraints placed on the company under his watch.
Selorm made the claim during an interaction with stakeholders as he prepares to leave Ghana and take on a new responsibility as MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer.
But a closer look at the numbers from MTN Ghana over the last five years under Selorm’s watch would indicate that them man achieved way more than he gives himself credit for.
For three out of the five years Selorm Adadevoh has been CEO of MTN Ghana, the company had been constrained under regulatory measures relative to the its declaration in June 2020 as a significant market power (SMP).
As part of the constraints, MTN was denied over GHS86.6 million of interconnect fees other telcos were supposed to pay to MTN. In spite of that denial, MTN continued to invest about GHS2 billion every year under Selorm’s watch and that delivered the impressive top line performance Selorm alluded to.
Indeed, in their 2023 full year report, released just weeks ago, MTN reported investing over GHS4 billion in the network that year alone, which delivered an impressive GHS13.45 billion plus in total revenue and about GHS4 billion in profit after tax.
So even though, Selorm Adadevoh reported making four times the revenue and six time the profits over the five-year period, the numbers would show that his claim was probably modest. Our calculations, based on MTN’s annual financial reports over the period, reveal that cumulatively, the company made way more money under Selorm’s five-year leadership than he takes credit for.
In 2017, the year before Selorm took the MTN Ghana top job, the company recorded a full year revenue of GHS3.42 billion, while profit after tax stood at GHS714.77 million.
So, using 2017 as the benchmark, Table 1 above shows that under Selorm’s five-year leadership, MTN Ghana made a cumulative revenue of GHS46.47 billion and a cumulative profit of GHS12.97 billion.
But the focus of this write up is on the incremental revenue and profits for every year, compared to the 2017 numbers.
The cumulative incremental revenue for the five year period comes to a total of GHS25.86 billion, which is 7.56 times that of 2017; while the total incremental profit after tax over the period comes to GHS8.74 billion, representing 12.23 times that of 2017.
It is therefore no surprise that Selorm Adadevoh has been described as “The Transformer”, an accolade he earned as CEO of Digicel in Haiti, where he left and joined MTN Ghana. Indeed, Techfocus24 gathered that when he left Digicel, his team members there had wanted to mount a statue of him on the company’s premises because of the remarkable transformation he brought to that company, similar to what he has done at MTN Ghana.
The Tigo miss
But before Selorm went to Digicel and came to MTN Ghana, he first went to the defunct Tigo Ghana. His stay at Tigo was rather very brief because, according to him, some people at Tigo refused to give him a chance to lead because they did not think a Ghanaian could run the company. What a miss!
It is rather unfortunate that some ‘dinosaurs’ at Tigo would think that a Ghanaian could not run the company. MTN Ghana has had two Ghanaians at the helm of affairs since their entry into Ghana. The first was Ebenezer Twum Asante. Selorm is the second. One of the former non-Ghanaian CEOs, Michael Ikpoki recently admitted that the what Eben and Selorm have done at MTN Ghana is remarkably outstanding; and the evidence is there to show. Eben is today Senior Vice President; Markets at the MTN Group and Selorm is also moving on to take up a top job at the group level. You can’t say the same for the other previous MTN Ghana CEOs.
Having stayed at the MTN Ghana top job for over five years, Selorm goes down in history as the longest-serving MTN Ghana CEO since the company first came to Ghana. It was under his leadership that the Group President and CEO, Ralph Tendai Mupita described MTN Ghana as “the jewel in the crown of the MTN Group”. The description speaks for itself, and the numbers are there to show.
Speaking of numbers, the records would also show, that Selorm took the MTN Ghana top job when the company had over 17.83 million subscribers with a market share of approximately 55.09% as at December 2017. But at the end of 2023, it reported 26.8 million subscribers, after having lost a reported 4.5 million subscribers to SIM registration. That is almost nine million (50%) additional subscribers in five years. And this happened at a time other telcos were losing subscribers and market share.
Meanwhile, Tigo, the company they said Selorm could not run, has since been forced to merge with Airtel into AT Ghana, with government as the 100% owner. The merged company has been struggling to keep its head above the waters for years now. Recently, government secured a partner who is gearing up to invest a reported US$150 million into the company, in the hope that it survives competition going forward.
More numbers
Over the five years of Selorm’s leadership, MTN invested billions of Ghana cedis in the network, paid huge taxes and did some remarkable social investments as well.
Capex
Per their annual reports over the period, the company made capital investment (Capex) as follows:
2018 – GHS825 million
2019 – GH¢1.112 billion
2020 – GH¢1.489 billion
2021 – GHS1.5 billion
2022 – GHS2.1 billion (MTN also committed to invest US$1 billion over the next 5 years)
2023 – GHS4.1 billion
Social Investment (CSI)
MTN Ghana has always invested at least one percent of its annual profit after tax into corporate social projects in the areas of education, health and economic empowerment. Under Selorm’s leadership the company did even then 1% in some of the years, particular during the COVID-19 outbreak and also on the Ghana ICT Hub project. Let’s look at some of the numbers.
2018 – GHS7.55 million (1% of profit after tax, as reported by MTN)
2019 – GHS9.8 million
2020 – US$25 million (mainly for the Covid-19 fight, in addition to saving Ghanaians GHS110 million on free MoMo transfers)
2021 – GHS14.3 million (In additional to saving customer GHS165 million on zero-rated MoMo transfers of GHS100 per day)
2022 – GHS28.3 million
2023 – GHS30.3 million
Taxes – 18 times
MTN Ghana has for a long time been the biggest total tax payer in Ghana, and for every year under Selorm’s leadership, that record was maintained. Total tax paid by MTN Ghana comprise of communication service tax (CST), corporate tax, pay as you earn (PAYE), withholding taxes on suppliers and dividends, national fiscal stabilization levy as well as value added tax (VAT), levies and duties. Here are the numbers:
2018 – GHS1.48 billion
2019 – GHS2.08 billion
2020- GHS2.6 billion
2021 – GHS3.14 billion
2022 – GHS4 billion plus
2023 – GHS5.9 billion
Total – GHS19.2 billion
In 2017, the year before Selorm took over, MTN Ghana paid a total tax of GHS1.06 billion. So in the five years under Selorm, MTN Ghana paid not less than 18 times the last taxes paid before he took over.
275 Awards
In 2018 alone, Selorm’s first year, MTN Ghana received 66 awards, including the prestigious Company of the Year 2018 by GIPC’s Ghana Club 100 Awards. But under his watch, MTN Ghana went on to received a total of 275 awards.
Some of his personal awards over the period include the following:
2023
- Overall Best Private Sector CEO of The Year 2022 at the 7th Ghana CEO Awards
- CEO of the Year, MTN Group Leadership Award
- Telecom CEO of the Year, Ghana CEO Vision and Awards
2022
- Top 30 Transformational Technology Leaders in Africa – 4th Annual National Communications Awards 2022
2021
- Top 30 Transformational Technology Leaders in Africa – 3rd Annual National Communications Awards 2022
- CEO of the Year, Ghana Information Technology and Telecoms (GITTA) Awards
- SSI Exemplary Leadership Award – Sustainability and Social Investment Awards
- FIN Exceptional Leadership Award, FIN Award for Africa Cashless Conference
2020
- Industry Personality of the Year, Ghana Information Technology and Telecom Awards (GITTA)
2020
- Telecoms CEO of the Year, Ghana Information Technology and Telecoms Awards
Selorm is now moving to the MTN Group as the Chief Commercial Officer, where he will be driving commerce/sales/marketing across all markets, working closely with his predecessor, Ebenezer Twum Asante, who is currently the Senior Vice President, Markets for the MTN Group.
The outgoing MTN Ghana CEO has once been adjudged Best CEO in the MTN Group, and industry watchers have said that he is most likely to rise to the CEO and President of the MTN Group in the cause of his career at MTN. When it happens, we will tell you.
In case the name Selorm Adadevoh is a mouth full for you, just call him The Transformer.
