Ghana’s telecom regulator has given operators more time to apply for 5G spectrum, while tightening the rules on who can win it.
The National Communications Authority (NCA) issued a consolidated response on July 31 revising the timetable and eligibility criteria for its 5G spectrum award process.
The changes touch nearly every stage of the process, from application deadlines to rural coverage targets, and offer the clearest picture yet of how Ghana intends to structure its 5G rollout.
More Time to Apply, More Time to Pay
The application deadline has moved by 21 days, from early August to Thursday, August 27, at 5:00 p.m. The extension gives prospective bidders — including new entrants and existing operators — additional weeks to assemble financing and paperwork.
The NCA also loosened the payment timeline for winners. Licence fees, originally due within 30 days of an award notification, must now be paid within 60 days, pushing the deadline to November 17. Once a winning bidder pays in full, the NCA says it will issue the spectrum licence within 10 business days.
The adjustments suggest the regulator is trying to avoid the kind of rushed timelines that have complicated spectrum auctions elsewhere on the continent, where compressed deadlines have occasionally discouraged smaller or foreign-backed applicants from participating.
Who Gets to Bid
The ownership rules are where the NCA has drawn its sharpest lines.
Foreign strategic partners can participate, but only if the applicant entity meets Ghana’s core eligibility requirements first. For newly formed joint ventures or special purpose vehicles, that means being entirely Ghanaian-owned — not just at the time of filing, but throughout the application process and at the moment of award. Any change of ownership afterward, including bringing in a foreign partner, requires NCA sign-off.
That is a notable constraint. It effectively blocks foreign investors from using a new joint venture as a bidding vehicle unless Ghanaian ownership is secured up front, funneling foreign capital instead toward existing, already-authorized operators.
The NCA also updated its legal references, replacing the 2013 investment promotion law with the newly enacted Ghana Investment Promotion Authority Act, 2026.
Mobile virtual network operators — companies that lease network capacity rather than own infrastructure — are now explicitly eligible to apply. If one wins spectrum, it graduates to full mobile network operator status, taking on the licensing conditions that come with it.
A Two-Speed Rollout: Coverage First, Capacity Second
Perhaps the most technical — and consequential — part of the NCA’s update is how it splits obligations by spectrum band.
The 700 MHz band, prized for its ability to travel long distances and penetrate buildings, comes with an aggressive coverage schedule: all 16 regional capitals within six months, 40 percent of the population and at least 30 municipal or district capitals within 18 months, then 50 percent within three years and 70 percent within five.
Operators must hit a specific signal-strength threshold across at least 90 percent of each target area, not just nominal coverage.
The mid-bands — 2.3 GHz and 3 GHz — are treated differently. These frequencies carry more data but travel shorter distances, making them suited for dense urban capacity rather than broad rural reach. The NCA classifies them as “capacity bands” and requires operators to activate them across a growing list of cities, starting with Greater Accra within nine months, while ensuring at least 20 percent of broadband-capable sites in an area are actively carrying traffic.
The change signals that Ghana wants 700 MHz to close coverage gaps first, while mid-band spectrum densifies networks in cities where demand is highest.
Rural Targets Pushed Back
Operators designated as having “significant market power” — effectively Ghana’s dominant carriers — face separate rural coverage obligations. The NCA revised these targets to avoid what it called “retrospective acceleration” of existing commitments, setting the first milestone at 40 percent rural population coverage by December 2029, rising to 60 percent by 2032 and 80 percent by 2035.
The rural population baseline now excludes areas already served by the government’s Rural Telephony Project, effectively narrowing the pool operators are measured against. The regulator also corrected an error in earlier language that had referenced rail corridors; the obligation now applies to highway corridors linking the 16 regional capitals.
No Reselling, No Shortcuts
The NCA closed off two potential loopholes. Spectrum pricing tied to an operator’s dominant market status will only affect the floor price such an operator must bid — it won’t discount their final offer when ranked against competitors.
And national roaming, when priced “at principal cost,” has been formally defined as cost-oriented pricing, with a specific rule barring operators from counting roaming coverage toward their own deployment targets.
The RFA also makes clear there is no secondary market for this spectrum. Licensees cannot resell unused frequency; if it goes undeployed, the NCA says it will pursue enforcement, including revocation.
What the Notice Leaves Out
The NCA’s response addresses process and eligibility in detail but is silent on reserve prices, the total spectrum available for award, or how many licenses the authority expects to issue. Those figures, along with the identities of applicants, are likely to shape the more consequential debate over how competitive Ghana’s 5G market ultimately becomes.
