TELECOM
Ghana Telecom to deliver ICT to all corners of the country

Major investment and proactive government policies have created a highly competitive telecom sector, in which Ghana Telecom is actively expanding its services

	With Broadband4U, Ghana Telecom plans to bring broadband Internet to all regions of the country

“The Information and Technology Age has provided opportunities for Ghana to mitigate the problems of decades – long stagnation and poor economic performance,” said Albert Kan-Dapaah, the minister of communication in 2005, when ICT was still a relatively fledgeling sector. Now, just two years later, and despite a number of challenges still ahead, hopes remain high that ICT will help to alleviate poverty and transform Ghana into an information society.

Thanks to the government policies and regulatory interventions, as well as $157 million in private investment that poured in between 2000 and 2005, Ghana’s telecom industry is today competitive and vibrant. A number of obstacles, however, continue to hamper its growth and impact. High prices, a relatively poor quality of ICT services, the lack of a strong domestic backbone infrastructure and uneven access to infrastructure and services are hurdles that Ghana must overcome if it is to embrace ICT as a vehicle for empowerment.

GT is working hard to make itself more attractive to investors

Ghana Telecom (GT), the national service provider, is in the best position to improve this situation. It has the most complete infrastructure and currently provides Internet access in all the major cities. It is also working to provide universal mobile coverage through technology and infrastructure upgrades.

“We are the only company that has got the copper, and we are providing ADSL technology to almost every regional capital in Ghana,” states GT CEO Dickson Oduro-Nyaning. He adds that the company is currently investing heavily, and hopes to have every citizen in the country connected to mobile telephony by 2008. This goal is certainly feasible as there are already more than six million mobile phone subscribers in the country - over a quarter of the population.

GT’s target of providing universal Internet coverage through wireless technology by 2010 may prove to be a much bigger challenge, however, as access to broadband service is still limited to less than one percent of the population. Nevertheless, GT remains undeterred. It recently launched its new high-quality product, Broadband4U, in various regions connecting homes, schools and offices with the rest of the world, and it plans to expand to other regional capitals soon.

GT says it will also move on to full privatisation now, following its partial privatisation in 1997. “We are working hard to capture a sizeable portion of the market to make the company more attractive for a strategic investor,” says Mr Oduro-Nyaning.