Africa-focused telecom company,
Telecel Group, has planned to invest an amount of 500 million USD into
Vodafone Ghana’s operations following a successful takeover subject to
government approval.
The deal, when
successfully approved, will not only have the West African nation government
maintaining its 30 percent stake in the business but also witness the injection
of USD 500 million into its operations which will include the servicing of
debts while providing CAPEX to support the technology development and
innovation. This would be for mobile telephone and Fixed Broadband (FBB)
services with an improved customer experience at the right price point.
Last week,
news broke about Vodafone Group’s intention to exit Ghana’s telecom market to
enable the service provider to re-focus on its key markets. According to the
report, the British telecommunication giant has agreed to offload 70 percent of
its stake in Ghana’s operation to Telecel Group, pending regulatory approval by
the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Communications.
Through its investment, Telecel Group
would also support the
network infrastructure and architecture for existing and new Vodafone Ghana
customers, including consumers, corporates, government, and SMEs.
According to
its website, Telecel is an Africa-focused telecommunication service provider
and leader in the transformation of digital services. It prides itself as a
market disruptor with a wealth of experience from shareholders who have
impacted the global retail industry and are poised to apply the same skills to
impact positively the continent’s telecom market. Not to mention
that according to sources Telecel, in general, is close to large groups
like Orange, Etisalat, Convergence Partners, Digital 9, and others of the same
tier, and they sometimes work in partnership with them.
The Telecel
Group operates in four different business lines within the telecom and
technology industry. These include Telecel Mobile, which owns and operates
several mobile operators in Africa and Europe.
Telecel Global
Services provides wholesale, enterprise, and digital security services to
telecom operators and enterprises worldwide, while Telecel Play is a digital
platform that is digitizing mobile users’ experience. The fourth in the
business line, Africa Startup Initiative Program, supports innovative start-ups
in Africa and offers them funding and guidance to the scale of which Ghanian
startups have been participating and benefiting, according to the latest news
on the subject published recently in the media.
The Telecel
Board is made up of experts in Telecom, Finance, and Digital services, with a
large experience in leading positions in major companies, such as MTN,
Vodafone, Orange, Google, and others; the chairman who is also the main
shareholder comes from the Mulliez family, highly regarded in Europe as being
the Rothchild’s of France.
Source: Nana Appiah Acquaye
