A Ghanaian Tech firm has hauled communication giant MTN Ghana to court over an allegation of stealing the Blueprint for Mobile Money (MoMo).
The Ghanaian firm has been identified as Clydestone Ghana Plc, one of only two technology companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
According to Clydestone Ghana Plc, it developed the blueprint for Mobile Money nearly two decades ago and was never compensated for it.
In a statement issued on July 27, Clydestone Ghana Plc disclosed that it has filed a writ of summons at the Commercial Division of Ghana’s High Court, naming three defendants: Scancom PLC, which operates as MTN Ghana; MTN Group Limited, the Johannesburg-listed parent; and MobileMoney Fintech Limited.
Clydestone is claiming MTN approached them back in 2007 to build a complete commercial and operational framework for launching a mobile money service.
Clydestone disclosed that the business model, the operational architecture, an implementation plan and a supporting business case were personally authored by its founder and chief executive, Paul Jacquaye.
The Ghanaian Tech firm alleged that the engagement was meant to be governed by a non-disclosure agreement and a memorandum of understanding, disclosing that the documents were never signed, despite repeated requests.
They allege that MTN went on to use its methodology when it launched Mobile Money Ghana in 2009.
Clydestone is now seeking declarations, damages and other equitable remedies.
They, however, did not disclose a monetary figure in their statement.
According to Clydestone, they could not previously quantify the scale of what it says MTN built on its work, because no independently verifiable data existed on the mobile money unit’s size or earnings; however, the two documents published in March gave it the numbers it needed
They detailed that the GSMA’s State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money, which ranked Ghana as the world’s top-rated mobile money regulatory market, and MTN Ghana’s own 2025 annual report, which disclosed about 19.3 million active mobile money users and roughly 6 billion cedis in annual mobile money revenue.
Meanwhile, MTN has not filed a public response, and Clydestone said in its announcement that it will not comment further on the substantive issues while the case is before the court.
They, however, disclosed that its operations, customers and ongoing business are unaffected by the litigation.
The lawsuit comes after MTN Ghana localised its mobile money business into MobileMoney Fintech Limited, which was completed earlier this year to satisfy Bank of Ghana ownership rules.
That restructuring makes MobileMoney Fintech a company only months old, which has now been named as a defendant in a dispute over the alleged theft that dates back to 2007.
See Clydestone’s statement below:
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