Mr. Yofi Grant, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), has iterated that Vodafone Ghana’s possible exit from the Ghanaian telecommunication industry will not disincentivize the market.
According to the CEO of GIPC, the decision by Vodafone to pack is the management’s own strategic decision not to prolong its stay in Ghana. As such, he said “This does not create a disincentive for other telecom companies to invest in the economy.”
“The planned exit of telecom giant, Vodafone Ghana does not create a glooming picture of the local economy. If you were to tell me all the foreign companies were exiting, that will be a difficult story. But if one, for a strategic reason decides that this is not the market that they want to be in, it doesn’t create a disincentive.”
Mr. Yofi Grant
Mr Yofi Grant pointed out that the telecoms industry is attractive all over Africa, new markets are being discovered, and as such, if a company feels it’s not making enough revenue in market A, it can exit and join market B. He thus, explained out the type of investment that Vodafone Ghana is doing in the Telco market.
“Like I did say, these are two different opportunities. Foreign Direct Investment is directly investing in business opportunities in the country. Foreign portfolio investors then come and list their companies to invest in and create the opportunities for other investors for any exiting companies.
“So, they are not the same thing. Vodafone was never listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, for MTN it is. Companies come and go all the time, if you are to say that one signal sums up the whole market, that will be erroneous.”
Mr. Yofi Grant
Private Ghanaian Entrepreneurs to Take up Investments in the Sector
Regarding the Vodafone exit, a Management Consultant, Mr Ato Conduah, urged the government to allow private Ghanaian entrepreneurs to take up investments in the sector rather than the state dominating.
“Investors will always determine what to do based on the economy. Africa was touted to be a growing market for telecoms and as we have seen over the years, Telecom investment in Africa, especially in the West Africa has yielded good returns for these investors and in recent times most of them do not take some risks which presently they are running from.”
“If you look at Vodafone, their trajectory in terms of growth has been very slow as compared to growth in other parts like in Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya and south Africa, so as a good investor if you are looking for an opportunity, if you don’t have the requisite strategies that will enable you to survive in that market, you might as well not come but for those who are already in the market two factors, its either your investments are not bringing you enough returns as you want or you may not have the requisite investment that will give you a leverage to get closer to the nearest person at the top which is MTN.”
Mr Ato Conduah
Vodafone Group has agreed a sale of its operations in Ghana to Telecel Group, as the UK-based telecom operator looks to refocus on key markets, Bloomberg reported.
However, the regulator, National Communications Authority (NCA), debunked claims that the government has blocked the sale of Vodafone Ghana to Telecel Group. There were reports that NCA has blocked the transfer of 70 percent majority shares of Vodafone International Holdings B.V. to the Telecel Group. But the Authority in a statement dated Tuesday, August 2 said it only conducted a critical regulatory review and evaluation in January when it was notified about the deal.
