Telecoms & IT
From The Report: Ghana 2016
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Dynamic and competitive, Ghana’s telecoms sector is one of the brightest spots in an economy that has had a bumpy ride over the past two years. Demand for mobile services in particular is resilient and rising. As of June 2015, Ghana had a total of 32.36m mobile subscribers, indicating theoretical market penetration of 119.41%. The market is appealing, as evidenced by the strong international presence and competition. In IT, the government, international institutions and the private sector are increasingly convinced of the market’s potential, and the importance of the ICT sector in broader social and economic development. However, more investment in infrastructure, products, and services is needed to capitalise on this potential, with many residents, businesses and parts of the government still lagging behind in technology adoption.

This chapter contains an interview with Jonathan Tawiah, Managing Director, Ostec.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Calling the shots: Liberalisation and mobile demand are driving a strong market
OBG
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Dynamic and competitive, Ghana’s telecoms sector is one of the brightest spots of an economy that has had a bumpy ride over the past two years. Demand for mobile services in particular is resilient and rising. The market is an appealing prospect, as evidenced by the presence of half a dozen international telecoms companies operating mobile networks, and the competition between a host of other firms in segments such as network development and management. Driven by liberalisation, increasing competition…

Analysis

Cash in hand: New guidelines legitimise mobile money as a payment system
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Mobile money is a growing segment in Ghana, having been launched in 2009, later than in some African countries. Transactions worth a total of GHC11.6bn ($3.22bn) were made in 2014, up from GHC2.4bn ($666m) in 2013, according to Bank of Ghana (BoG) statistics. The number of transactions soared from 36.8m in 2013 to 106.4m in 2014, while the number of registered mobile money customers grew by nearly two thirds in 2014, reaching 5.42m. As in conventional telecoms subscriptions, MTN is the market leader,…

Analysis

Towers of value: Mobile operators are sharing and outsourcing infrastructure
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Across the continent, there is a trend towards sharing and outsourcing network infrastructure, which is capital intensive to build and costly to maintain. Ghana has been a leader in this movement, with major deals struck between mobile operators and infrastructure operators over the past five years. Changing Times For some time, the trend was slow due to the fierce competition between players, but economic logic has asserted itself. Declining average revenue per user and the need to boost data…

Interview

Adapting to grow: OBG talks to Jonathan Tawiah, Managing Director, Ostec
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Interview:Jonathan Tawiah Which specific sectors of the economy have seen the largest increase in IT investments? JONATHAN TAWIAH: The sectors that have increased investment in IT in Ghana the most are banking and telecommunications. Telecoms firms tend to make greater numbers of investments, but when you consider the size of the investments in proportion to revenue, banking places the same emphasis on IT. The two sectors have become so competitive that they have no choice but to consistently…

Overview

Zero to hero: The rapid rise of ICT has international interests taking notice
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From a near-standing start, Ghana’s ICT sector has developed strongly since the beginning of the century, with internet take-up among citizens and businesses growing, international broadband connectivity expanding rapidly, and private sector investment on the rise. The government, international institutions and the private sector are increasingly convinced of the Ghanaian ICT market’s potential, and the importance of the sector in broader social and economic development. However, more investment…

Analysis

Operation transformation: A new government strategy plans to digitise the nation
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Ghana is a leader in African telecoms market liberalisation, has a relatively high level of mobile penetration and is a regional centre for submarine cables. However, this has not necessarily been reflected by the use of ICT in the day-to-day lives of Ghanaians or in ordinary businesses. For Daniel Glover, general manager of Tecno, the issue is digital awareness: “We believe providing 4G LTE will not necessarily make any difference without showing people what to do with the internet.” In November…