COUNTRY FOCUS : GHANA
Aside from traditional voice calling and SMS , the most popular mobile phone usage was financial activities , 60 % of responses , which includes mobile money . Entertainment was another popular use , 38 %, followed by Internet access , 35 %, social media , 26 %, and taking photos or videos , 5 %.
Total mobile voice subscriptions stood at 133 % of the population . Total registered subscriptions were down marginally from 139 %% in 2020 . Total mobile data subscriptions stood at 23 million at end-March 2021 , representing a penetration rate of 74 % of the population .
Internet penetration as a share of the total population has increased over recent years , with significant growth recorded in 2020 as the pandemic led to higher data consumption . Internet penetration stood at 35 % in January 2019 and increased to 48 % in January 2020 . Penetration continued to grow more marginally to 50 % in January 2021 . as reflected in the country ’ s improving score on the ICT Index , a component of the composite Africa Infrastructure Development Index published by the African Development Bank , AfDB . Countries that have performed well in the ICT sector are among the highest-ranked nations on the AfDB ’ s composite Infrastructure Development Index .
Upgrades and modernisation of mobile networks , and improvements in broadband and fibre access are the major ICT development trends in Africa , according to the AfDB , with several regional submarine and terrestrial cabled installed between 2015 and 2020 .
Ghana has five major submarine fibre-optic cables installed and provides a landing point . The SAT-3 cable ; MainOne cable ; Ultra-high-capacity West African Cable System ; the GLO-1 cable ; and African Coast to Europe Cable .
There are four mobile operators in the market : MTN , Vodafone , AirtelTigo and Glo . MTN is the largest , with a 57 % market share of voice subscriptions as of March 2021 . In June 2020 the NCA declared its intent to classify MTN , Africa ’ s largest telecommunication company , as a significant market power in the voice , data and SMS market , under the Electronic Communications Act .
Following AirtelTigo ’ s October 2020 announcement that it would exit the Ghanaian market , the government acquired full ownership of AirtelTigo , including all its customers and assets , in November 2021 . In the fixed-line voice market , Vodafone remains the dominant player , with a 98 % market share and 303,749 subscriptions as of March 2021 .
Infrastructure and connectivity
The quality of Ghana ’ s telecommunication infrastructure has improved over the last few years ,
Inland fibre has been deployed by the four mobile network operators to serve as backbone redundancy to existing microwave transmission infrastructure , or as metro fibre network to the end user .
The first backbone connection was installed by VoltaCom along the southern and middle section of the national power grid . MTN has also deployed an underground optical network across the country to supply backbone connections between the 16 regions . MTN and Vodafone have deployed FTTx metro networks in a combined 38 cities and towns , while AirtelTigo and Glo have laid underground fibre to improve capacity on the backbone route and provide redundancy for microwave links .
The state-initiated 800-km Eastern Corridor Fibre- Optic Backbone project connects 27 towns and municipal centres across the country to the existing cable network . The $ 38m project was completed in 2015 , with funding provided by the Danish International Development Agency .
In April 2021 the Ghana Grid Company , which operates the national electricity grid , partnered with CS quared , to lease additional fibre capacity for telecommunication use .
Ghana ’ s start-up ecosystem was ranked second in West Africa and seventh in Africa on StartupBlink ’ s 2021 Index . Global Technology tech firms have identified value in establishing a presence in Ghana .
Source : Excerpted and edited , Courtesy Oxford Business Group p
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