"Billionaire Ambani sets sight on Ghana, other African countries with new telecom venture"

" Billionaire Ambani sets sight on Ghana, other African countries with new telecom venture \r\n\r\nAsia\u2019s richest man Mukesh Ambani is set to enter Africa with a telecoms venture, seeking to win mobile broadband customers in a high-growth market.\r\n\r\nRadisys Corp., a unit of Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd., will provide key network infrastructure, applications and smartphones for Ghana-based Next-Gen InfraCo., according to Harkirit Singh, the executive director of NGIC. He described the plans ahead of NGIC\u2019s launch announcement on Monday in Mumbai, India\u2019s financial hub.\r\n\r\nNGIC, which is planning to begin operations by the end of this year, will provide 5G broadband services to mobile operators and internet services providers in Ghana.\r\n\r\nThe company \u201cis based on a premise of building affordable digital services in emerging markets,\u201d Singh told Bloomberg News.\r\n\r\nOther strategic partners in NGIC include Nokia Oyj, Indian outsourcer Tech Mahindra Ltd. and Microsoft Corp., which has increasingly sharpened its focus on the telecoms business following an acquisition of two cloud networking firms in 2020.\r\n\r\nGhana, a West African country with a population of just over 33 million, has three main operators: MTN Ghana, Vodafone Ghana and state-run AirtelTigo. NGIC\u2019s strategic partners, its technological prowess and the company\u2019s possession of Ghana\u2019s only 5G license will help it build broadband services at scale, a huge expense for individual mobile carriers, Singh said.\r\n\r\nTwo African telecoms firms \u2014 Ascend Digital Solutions Ltd. and K-NET \u2014 hold a combined stake of 55% in the new company, said Singh. The Ghana government will own just under 10% of NGIC, while local mobile operators and private investors will retain the remaining shares in the firm. Singh is also the chief executive of Ascend.\r\n\r\nNGIC has the exclusive right to offer 5G services in Ghana for a decade, though its license is valid for 15 years. The company\u2019s capital expenditure for three years is $145 million, according to Singh.\r\n\r\nThe company is looking to emulate the success of Ambani\u2019s Jio Infocomm Ltd. in India. Jio launched telecoms services in India in late 2016 with low-cost data and free voice calling, forcing some rivals to shut down and others to consolidate. It is widely credited for making mobile data affordable to hundreds of million of Indians. Jio is currently India\u2019s biggest mobile operator with 470 million users.\r\n\r\nNGIC will provide \u201caffordable mobile broadband services and devices to the people of Ghana, replicating the success of India\u2019s low-cost mobile data revolution,\u201d Ghana\u2019s Minister for Communications and Digitalization Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said in a statement.\r\n\r\nThe Reliance-NGIC partnership is also a diplomatic win for India, which has sought to counter China\u2019s surging influence in Africa via measures such as digital inclusion.\r\n\r\nNone of the strategic partners, including Reliance, currently own any equity in NGIC. But the company will give them an option to accept part of their payments as equity in the future, Singh said.\r\n\r\n\u201cFirst we have to be successful to show the value that we create before they come in,\u201d Singh said. \u201cThat\u2019s the discussion we\u2019re having with them."

"Billionaire Ambani sets sight on Ghana, other African countries with new telecom venture"

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