Telcos Chamber Calls For Protection Of The Sector To Sustain Gains

As the leading telecommunications network in the country, MTN takes steps to further localize the company by having Ghanaians own at least 30% of its shares in the country by the end of this year, the Telecommunications Chamber says all stakeholders need to play their part to ensure that the gains of the sector are protected.

Data from the National Communications Authority as of the end of March 2022, shows that the total number of voice subscriptions was 41,481,767, representing a total penetration rate for the month under review of 135.75%. MTN held 61.61% of the voice market share. Vodafone, Airtel-Tigo and Glo meanwhile had 18.64%, 17.85% and 1.90% respectively.

On the data front, total subscriptions in the country at the end of March 2022 was 23,692,581, representing a penetration rate for the period of 76.94%. MTN held 71.41% of the market share in the month under review. Vodafone, Airtel-Tigo and Glo on the other handheld 12.97%, 14.20%and 1.42% market share respectively.In terms of the ownership structure of these companies, government owns 100% of Airtel-Tigo and 30% of Vodafone Ghana. Glo is fully private owned while MTN Ghana has about 23 % of its stake being owned by Ghanaians.

Speaking to Citi Business on the localization of the telecoms sector in the country, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr. Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey urged Ghanaians to treat the sector as their own.

“This is an industry that we own, an industry that is providing the vehicles to enable us to digitize and enable us leapfrog the development lag that we have. So we all must see it in that particular sense. It then behoves all of us to protect the industry. So then, the issues where the sector is taxed severely, the issues where people are stealing from the cell sites as well as fibre cuts among others, are all issues that we should be concerned with”.

“The question we now have to ask is how do we support this our industry to be able to provide us the vehicle to further to be able to further develop our economy,” he added.

Source: citibusinessnews.com