He spoke in Kano,during a road show organised by the company to enlighten the investing public about their public offer.
In his words: “We are going public for one reason and only for one reason. We want Nigerians, every common Nigerian in every part of Nigeria, to have a share in the wealth creation that MTN is going to take us through in the coming years , 20 , 30 and in the next hundred years”
He explained that MTN does not want to give a chunk of its shares to a few large institutions, adding rather that, ” We want as many people as possible to holds shares however little you can afford.”
He explained that the road show was to explain to the public and Nigerians in general, “How to subscribe to the offer, what the benefits of the offer are, the digital subscription process, the bonus we give after one year and really about the strength of MTN as a company, its governance potential and the quality of the management team”
On the timing of the public offer, he said that, “It is something that we have been working on for quite a while. We were listed by introduction on the stock market by May 2019
” We needed the economic conditions to be right, we needed a few things like the renewal of the license and spectrum to be behind us before coming to the market.” he stated
“All of them have come together and of course, the Security and Exchange Commission has to give us the authorization which we got just as the beginning of the week. That is why we are taking off at this time”.
He expressed appreciation to the people of Kano for taking time off their busy schedule to spend with MTN Nigeria,
Speaking at the occasion, the Chief Executive Officer Central Security Clearing System, Jalo Waziri implored the people of Kano to seize the opportunity of the offer to improve their presence in the stock market..
In his comment, the President of the Association for the Advancement of the Rights of Nigerian Shareholders, Alhaji Farouk Umar tasked the people of the region to come off the back seat and invest in shares, saying that buying shares is more beneficial than buying land and property.