Sam George, Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations
Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George has said that contrary to assertions that due to the size of MTN, no investor is interested in coming into Ghana’s telecom sector, since he took off, several potential investors have showed interest in both Telecel Ghana and AT Ghana.
The Minister inherited a sector in which MTN was already a significant market power (SMP), and all regulatory and administrative measures to use that SMP intervention to grow the entire sector had failed and is failing.
Meanwhile, MTN customers have also been experiencing network congestion because they have been growing in leaps and bounds in spite of their SMP status.
So, recently the Minister granted technology neutrality and more spectrum to MTN Ghana, giving them even more more leverage to expand their market dominance, while improving on their network performance.
Industry watchers expressed concerns that, the move will repel potential investors, but the minister said contrary to that view, potential investors are rather lining up to come into Ghana.
According to him, there are a number of potential investors who have expressed interest in both Telecel Ghana and AT Ghana and he is currently studying all the proposals before making a decision on which offer to settle for.
He noted that the previous government had committed a blunder with the purchase of Vodafone Ghana shares by Telecel, saying that part of the condition for approving that transaction was that Telecel was going to bring in $100 million upfront, but till date that money has never come.
Sam George said he has therefore charged Telecel Ghana to show clear evidence of their readiness to make cash investment into the network, because he is now considering other potential investors.
Rescue Mission for AT Ghana
Earlier, he had announced that government was plotting a bold rescue for AT Ghana, which is going to secure jobs in that company.
He said currently, the AT Ghana core and billing networks have reach “end of life” stage and they are incapable of doing anything beyond 3G.
Sam George said government is therefore considering giving AT Ghana some quasi-network to thrive on until there is an investor, because their network cannot support 4G and 5G so there is no need rolling that technology on their network.
He slammed the previous government for taking a bad decision to save two dying telcos – Airtel and Tigo, at a time when government should have allowed market forces to take their courses.
“The market is at a stage where if any player has less than 30% market share, that player will not survive, so it became clear then that Airtel and Tigo could not thrive but the then government allowed an illicit marriage between them and now it has become a burden on the state,” he said.
He is confident that eventually, a worthy investor(s) will get the nod to inject some capital into the two companies and make them worth the while of consumers, so they could compete and prevent the market from sliding into a monopoly.
Source: techfocus24.com