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GT Squaring up to MTN Competition?
Samuel Dowuona
It is now certain that Ghana Telecom (GT) is up for grabs
again, curtsy the full payoff of Telecom Malaysia ’s 30%
shares, of about $US55 million and the kicking out of the
Telenor Norway management team.
Long before then, Ghanadot had an exclusive interview with
Acting GT Boss, Matthew Dickson Oduro-Nyani, in which he
spoke of what is expected of the new strategic investor,
especially with the advent of the MTN Group in the Ghanaian
telecom market in the yet to be born AREEBA outfit.
In that interview Mr. Oduro-Nyani hinted that the company
had taken particular notice of the coming of MTN Group, the
South-African based telecommunications giant, into the
Ghanaian market and was gearing up for the competition MTN
was likely to pose.
He acknowledged that MTN was a well known major player in
the international telecommunications market and it was
therefore wise for any player faced with competition from a
company like MTN to strategically position itself in order
to reap its fair share of the market.
It would be recalled that a few months ago MTN Group
acquired 100 per cent of Investcom LLC assets and operations
in 10 countries, including Ghana . In Ghana Investcom
operates Ghana ’s number one mobile phone service provider,
Areeba through its local subsidiary, Scancom Ghana Limited.
By that acquisition MTN takes over the operations of Areeba
in Ghana with a huge financial and infrastructural backing,
characterized by a Market Capitalization of more than US$17
billion, over 24 million subscribers (close to three million
subscribers in Ghana alone), and a total telecom
infrastructure value of over six billion dollars.
That is the real challenge that faces any entity and or
investor for that matter, who sets its eye on competing with
MTN Areeba.
Mr. Oduro-Nyani said as part of measures to strategically
position GT for the envisaged competition, government had
appointed a transitional consultant to look for a strategic
investor of a standing that could march the strength of MTN,
in the aftermath of the termination of Telenor Norway ’s
contract with GT.
He said the strategic investor would be given specific
targets that focused more on innovation and the use of more
modern technology as the bases for service provision, rather
than increasing the numbers of landlines which run on
underground copper technology, as in the case of the
Norwegians and their predecessors the Malaysians.
Contrary to all the public and media criticisms against the
Malaysians and the Norwegians, Mr. Oduro-Nyani said both
management teams laid foundations in their own way for the
take off of Ghana Telecom to the next level.
“Now it would be the challenge of the next strategic
investor to build upon that foundation to take GT to the
level where it can compete favourably with giants on the
market,” he said.
The acting GT boss said in the absence of the Norwegians, on
whose team he worked as the Deputy, Managing Director, “I
and my team of local staff are preparing the grounds for the
coming of the new strategic investor, who would have an onus
task of repositioning the company to stay on top of the
game.”
He said for instance more modern telephony systems used
wireless mass, which is a technology from which both
internet and fixed wireless lines services could be provided
together for relatively cheaper than what GT and other local
players in the industry had now, and the strategic investor
would be expected to look at that area as the way forward
for GT.
Mr. Oduro-Nyani said prior to the coming of the strategic
investor, the local team under his leadership are vigorously
working on adding data to the voice on the landline
technology through the broadband internet services.
He noted that the broadband service had taken off already,
but plans were afoot to improve upon it ahead of the coming
of the strategic investor, saying that to achieve that, he
and his team were working on recouping the large sums of
money in the hands of debtors, whiles gradually paying off
creditors like Areeba and other companies GT owes.
The GT boss said so far GT has managed to pay off quite a
substantial percentage of the 300 to 400 billion cedis it
owed to Areeba, due to the controversial interconnection
arrangement between them, adding that GT had also paid up
its tax obligations as always.
“It is important for us to prove that as local staff there
are things we can do for ourselves without the strategic
investor – Ghanaians must know that strategic investors,
whether they invest in GT, Areeba, Tigo, Kasapa, Westel or
any other company have only one aim, to make money and get
out.”
He said “we, the current management, are Ghanaians and we
are interested in seeing our telecommunications industry
grow to benefit our people – we want to see even the rural
population benefit from telecommunications but the strategic
investor is only prepared to do so much but definitely not
to meet all our aspirations as a nation.”
Samuel
Dowuona, Ghanadot, June 15, 2007
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