BTA Admin Ghana-listed technology company claims proprietary mobile money framework developed in 2007 was used without compensation and seeks damages and other court remedies.
Ghana-listed technology company Clydestone Ghana Plc has filed a lawsuit against MTN Ghana, MTN Group Limited and MobileMoney Fintech Limited, alleging that intellectual property it developed for the launch of MTN’s mobile money business was used without authorisation or compensation.
The company said in a regulatory filing to the Ghana Stock Exchange that it commenced proceedings in the Commercial Division of the High Court in Accra on July 27, 2026.
The dispute centres on work that Clydestone says MTN commissioned in 2007 to develop a commercial and operational framework for a mobile money business in Ghana. According to the filing, the project included the commercial model, operational architecture, implementation methodology and business case for what would become MTN Mobile Money Ghana.
Clydestone said the work was authored by its founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Paul Jacquaye, and was undertaken with the understanding that a non-disclosure agreement and memorandum of understanding would be executed. The company alleges that those agreements were never signed despite repeated requests.
The company claims MTN subsequently used its proprietary work, commercial methodology and operational intelligence in launching MTN Mobile Money Ghana in 2009 and later deploying elements of the platform across multiple African markets.
Clydestone said the alleged unauthorised use has continued for years but that it only obtained independently verifiable evidence of the scale and commercial significance of the platform in 2026 after reviewing the GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2026 and MTN Ghana’s 2025 annual report.
The company said those reports disclosed approximately 19.3 million active Mobile Money users in Ghana and annual Mobile Money revenue of about GHS 6.0 billion, prompting it to review contemporaneous records of the 2007 engagement and conclude that sufficient grounds existed for legal action.
Clydestone said it has received neither payment nor acknowledgement from any of the defendants in relation to the commissioned work since December 2007. It added that pre-action correspondence sent by its legal counsel in 2026 received no substantive response.
The company is seeking declarations, damages, equitable relief and other orders the court considers appropriate.
Clydestone’s board said it unanimously authorised the litigation and that the proceedings are not expected to affect the company’s operations, customers or ongoing business activities.
MTN Group Limited had not publicly commented on the lawsuit at the time of publication.
The case could become one of the most closely watched intellectual property disputes in Ghana’s technology sector, given the scale of MTN’s Mobile Money business and its role in the country’s digital financial services industry.
