Vodafone Close to Investing in Ghana
Reports from various media in Ghana are suggesting that Vodafone is about to announce the purchase of Ghana Telecom (GT) for US$960 million. The government has been trying to sell a two-thirds stake in the company since last year.
An unnamed source told Modern Ghana that Vodafone was the sole bidder for the company.
Additionally, the Inter-Ministerial Committee comprising officials from the Office of the President, Ministries of Communications and Finance, and the Ghana Investment and Promotion Council (GIPC) were satisfied with the bid documents that Vodafone submitted, the source stated.
The Communications Minister, Benjamin Aggrey Ntim had recently told the
Parliament that plans to sell a stake in Ghana Telecom were expected to be
completed by the end of this month. The government was close to selling its stake to France Telecom, but cancelled the sale after saying that the offered price was too low. It is understood that France Telecom had offered US$520 million for the stake.
According to figures from the Mobile World database, Ghana Telecom ended the last quarter with an estimated 1.3 million subscribers. There are four operators in the country at the moment, MTN (53%), Tigo (28.6%), Ghana Telecom (15.5%) and Kasapa Telecom (3.3%).
Nigeria based Globalcom recently secured an operating license in the country.
On the web: Modern Ghana - Mobile World
Posted to the site on 26th June 2008
