Clydestone Ghana Plc has initiated legal proceedings against MTN Ghana, MTN Group Limited, and MobileMoney Fintech Limited, alleging that its proprietary intellectual property was used without authorisation or compensation. The company filed a writ of summons and a statement of claim on July 27, 2026, in the Commercial Division of the High Court in Accra, according to a regulatory filing with the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
The case pertains to work that Clydestone claims was commissioned by MTN in 2007, when it was hired to develop a comprehensive commercial and operational framework for launching a mobile money business in Ghana. This work, which Clydestone asserts was personally authored by its founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Paul Jacquaye, included an entire mobile money ecosystem featuring the commercial model, operational architecture, implementation methodology, and supporting business case.
Clydestone contends that this work was commissioned under the understanding that a non-disclosure agreement and a memorandum of understanding would be signed. The company alleges that these agreements were never executed despite repeated requests, and that MTN subsequently used its proprietary work, commercial methodology and operational intelligence without authorisation or compensation.
The company further alleges that elements of the operational architecture and commercial model later implemented within MTN Mobile Money Ghana and deployed across multiple African jurisdictions materially derive from that commissioned work. The alleged wrongful use has been ongoing since MTN Mobile Money Ghana launched in 2009. However, Clydestone said it was only after the publication of two reports in 2026 that it obtained independently verifiable evidence of the full scale and commercial significance of the platform. The company cited the GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2026 and MTN Ghana’s 2025 annual report, which disclosed approximately 19.3 million active Mobile Money users and annual revenue of about GHS 6.0 billion.
Upon their publication, Clydestone said it reviewed its complete contemporaneous documentary record of the 2007 engagement and concluded there were sufficient grounds to initiate legal proceedings.
The company has received neither payment nor acknowledgement from any defendant in respect of the commissioned work since December 2007. Pre-action correspondence issued by Clydestone’s legal counsel in 2026 received no substantive response from any defendant.
Clydestone is seeking declarations, damages, equitable remedies and further orders as the court considers appropriate.
The Board of Directors has unanimously authorised the commencement of proceedings, and the company confirmed that the litigation does not affect its operations, customers or ongoing business activities.
MTN Group Limited had not commented at the time of publication on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.
Source: Kweku Zurek
