When MTN started trading shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) Wednesday, it didn’t expect its market value to swell to a four percent increase in equity, while adding to GSE’s total value at GH¢65 billion.

In July, MTN allowed the public to apply for an initial public offer (IPO). Since then, the multinational telecommunications company has gained approximately 128,000 new MTN Ghana shareholders, of them, more than 90% are Ghanaian. Speaking on the Super Morning Show Thursday, MTN’s CEO Selorm Adadevoh told Joy FM’s Daniel Dadzie that the shares were allotted based on those who applied.

“Everyone who applied for shares got what they asked for,” he said.

MTN CEO Selorm Adadevoh 

He explained that his enthusiasm to open IPOs stemmed from his self-obliged decision to inform Ghanaians on the power of investing. The average Ghanaian has limited financial options, but with the new IPO, he/she has been given the chance to educate and encourage them to invest, he said.

It was also a way to “build relationships with customers and shareholders.”

Prior to the IPO’s availability in the country, MTN Ghana’s minimum threshold was capped at GH¢347 million.

“We achieved three times that. We’ve raised over 1 billion. This is historic. We’ve broken new ground,” Adadevoh attested.

MTN has now become the 40th company and the first telco to list on the GSE. In Ghana alone, MTN serves 17 million subscribers. Earlier this year, the telecommunication giant announced its collaboration with Ecobank, where they planned to offer more services to its subscribers and leverage both companies’ assets.

Now that the company has opened its IPO to Ghana, Adadevoh is optimistic that it will only go further ahead in its quest to become a leading global telecommunications company.

But at its core, MTN is thankful to those who have made the company a success.

“Thanks to our customers,” he said, adding that “we welcome our newly-minted shareholders.”