Telecom Chamber moves data subscription from 8 million to 23 million in a decade – Ashigbey

Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications Friday said the chamber has moved data subscriptions from eight million to 23 million in a decade.

This was a growth of over 187 per cent from its inception in 2011 to August 2021, whilst voice penetration currently stood at over 132 per cent.

Speaking at the launch of the chamber’s 10th-anniversary celebration in Accra, he noted there had been significant growth in financial inclusion due to the mobile financial sector with a total mobile money account of GH¢47.3 million.

He attributed the success to collaborative efforts from past and current governments, agencies, and industry players. The chamber sought to expand the 4G network to cover the entire country saying they were working on Ghana’s Digital Policy.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he explained that the tower guidelines had been revised and put before the Communication Minister for approval.

He urged the Minister to approve the document to help in the deployment of towers and address some inefficiencies. According to the last report, he saw Ghana was not doing ten per cent of permissible levels required by the World Health Organization.

Dr Ken Ashigbey cautioned the public against the destruction of fiber cables as last year alone they had recorded three million fiber cuts, and an excess of USD 6 million was spent in repairing them.

He cited the expansion of Obuasi to Kumasi road project this year that had their fiber erected in the air destroyed during the bush clearing.

The situation he mentioned affected quality telecommunications services, business operations and brought security implications; it caused some countries who depended on Ghana for fiber to threaten to leave.

He however said the situation had been under control as the National Engineering Coordinating team put in place; made-up industry players and technocrats worked in solving the challenges.

Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications came into existence in November 2011, when Robert Palitz of Kasapa, Brett Goschen of MTN, David Venn of Vodafone, Christophe Soulet of Tigo, and Philip Sowah of Zain put the vison before Kwaku Sakyi-Addo.

In 2014, some tower companies joined namely: ATC Ghana, Helios, and Eaton joined. Also, Huawei, Comsys, and CSquared joined in 2019. The chamber currently has eight members.

The 10th-anniversary celebration would be a year-long event

Source: GNA