From noon today till the end of July, MTN Ghana is offering 4.64 billion shares at 75 pesewas each, representing 35% of its value.

Ebenezer Asante, CEO of MTN Ghana said today's official launch follows the network's successful completion of all regulatory requirements which will allow Ghanaians to acquire 35% of the operator's shares when it officially launches its Initial Public Offering (IPO), scheduled to close at the end of July.

Transferring part ownership of the company to Ghanaians was a regulatory requirement for the company to secure a 4G license for 800MHz spectrum in 2015.

On 20 April MTN received the regulators' approval to go ahead with the IPO and the company will work with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) and the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) ahead of the official IPO launch.

The IPO is a major step towards listing MTN Ghana on the GSE and if successful, industry experts believe this could be achieved as early as June 2018.

In an invitation sent to journalists for the official IPO launch event, MTN said it is fulfilling its 4G license requirement to transfer the 35% stake to Ghanaians by June 2018.

MTN is yet to make an official statement on how much it is aiming to raise with the IPO, although local media outlets are reporting a likely sum of GHS3.48 billion (over US$745 million) and are describing it as the country's biggest IPO to date.

To date the GSE's largest IPO was the Agricultural Development Bank which raised 326 million cedis in December 2016.

Recent figures from Ghana's National Communications Authority (NCA) position MTN as the country's telecoms market leader controlling about 48% of mobile voice market with 17.8 million voice subscribers, and 57% of data subscription with 13 million data subscribers as at the end of September 2017.

The company also controls 77% of Ghana's 4G market.