Benin allows MTN boss to return

MTN’s CEO for Benin, Stephen Blewett, has been allowed to return to his post after being essentially exiled from the West African country for half a year.

MTN’s CEO for Benin, Stephen Blewett, has been allowed to return to his post after being essentially exiled from the West African country for half a year.

The government of Benin “has allowed Blewett to return … following the recent agreement over frequency fees”, an MTN representative, who asked not to be named, told Business Day.

“Blewett has returned to his original position as CEO of MTN Benin … MTN is pleased that a resolution of this matter has been possible,” the person said.

In November 2017, Blewett was told to leave the country after MTN refused to meet the government’s demands that it pay frequency fees for 2016 and 2017 worth $213m.

After months of negotiations, MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter said in early May the company had agreed to pay fees of $126m while also extending its licence by five years.

The group has had to appease regulators in other regional markets.

Following a sizeable fine in Nigeria, MTN plans to list its business there in 2018.

Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) CEO Oscar Onyema told Business Day on Monday that MTN’s listing had the potential to bring a new class of participants into the market.

“We have not received an application yet from them [MTN] but we engaged with them and we are having conversations,” said Onyema. “I think it will be very impactful, especially considering that they have millions and millions of subscribers. It could be a very transformational listing if it is done the right way.”

Onyema, also president of the African Securities Exchanges Association, was speaking from South Korea’s second city, Busan, the site of 2018’s annual meeting of the African Development Bank’s board of governors.

Onyema described the NSE as a multiproduct exchange that dealt in equities, bonds and exchange-traded funds. He estimated capitalisation on the equities side at $42bn.

Stock markets on the continent have often been seen as offering inadequate safeguards for investors. But Onyema said the NSE recently implemented major reforms, including the introduction of minimum operating standards for the brokerdealer community.

“In Nigeria in the last five years we have done a significant amount of work to up the standards and regulation, and if you look at the rule book, for example, it has grown significantly, and it is now electronic as well and organised to international standards,” he said.

MTN’s net debt rose to R57bn in 2017 from R52bn in 2016.