Next-Gen Infra Co (NGIC) is planning to begin operations by the end of this year and will provide 5G broadband services to mobile operators and internet service providers in Ghana.
The company will be provided key network infrastructure, applications, and smartphones by Radisys Corp, a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, which is owned by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.
Other strategic partners in NGIC include Nokia Oyj, Indian outsourcer Tech Mahindra Ltd., and Microsoft, which has increasingly sharpened its focus on the telecoms business following an acquisition of two cloud networking firms in 2020.
Zoom In
Ghana currently has three main operators: MTN, Telecel Ghana (formerly Vodafone), and state-run AT Ghana (formerly AirtelTigo).
Between The Lines
Two African telecoms firms — Ascend Digital Solutions Ltd. and K-NET — hold a combined stake of 55% in the new company.
The Ghana government will own just under 10% of NGIC, while local mobile operators and private investors will retain the remaining shares in the firm.
NGIC has the exclusive right to offer 5G services in Ghana for a decade, though its license is valid for 15 years. The company’s capital expenditure for three years is $145 million.
Zoom Out
The company is looking to emulate the success of Ambani’s Jio Infocomm Ltd. in India. Jio launched telecoms services in India in late 2016 with low-cost data and free voice calling, forcing some rivals to shut down and others to consolidate.
It is widely credited for making mobile data affordable to hundreds of million of Indians. Jio is currently India’s biggest mobile operator with 470 million users.
What They're Saying
The company “is based on a premise of building affordable digital services in emerging markets,” said Harkirit Singh, the executive director of NGIC.
NGIC will provide “affordable mobile broadband services and devices to the people of Ghana, replicating the success of India’s low-cost mobile data revolution,” Ghana’s Minister for Communications and Digitalization Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said in a statement.
Source: Bloomberg
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