Vice President’s Comment on the Mobile Telecom Industry Breakfast Meeting
On the 5th of December the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications under the auspices of H.E The Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia held the 1st Mobile Telecom Industry Breakfast Meeting with H.E the Vice President.
In demonstration of his leadership and understanding of the issues discussed, H.E the Vice President posted this on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MBawumia/photos/pcb.1983994295026903/1983987248360941/?type=3&theater
“This morning, I joined key stakeholders in Ghana’s mobile telecommunications industry for a breakfast meeting in Accra under the theme “Leveraging Effective Use and Distribution of Spectrum in Ghana for National Development.”
The meeting discussed topical issues about the effective use and distribution of spectrum to help pursue government’s vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.
I stated that, it is imperative that as a country, we must consolidate all efforts to achieve this vision and have a finite roadmap to support our market players.
We must also allow flexibility, minimise distortions from historic regulatory models, provide certainty in licensing, reduce compliance costs and allow licensees to deploy the most efficient and cost-effective network technologies.”
As I sat with him during the presentation, I could not help but notice that as part of his notes he had translated the telecommunication economics into econometric graphs, an academic and technocratic political leader. His opening speech and closing remarks were insightful and spot on. We need to engage a lot more as an industry to ensure that we had we were leveraging on this national asset, spectrum to help accelerate Ghana’s match to Ghana-Beyond-Aid.
Every day that 1MHz of spectrum remains unassigned and unused government is losing a lot revenue and Ghanaians are also losing the benefit that mobile broadband brings to a community. Note that the economic benefits of broadband that at risk as reported by the World Bank, McKinsey & Company, Mobile broadband for the masses (2009), Booz & Company, Digital Highways: The Role of Government In 21st-Century Infrastructure (2009), Ofcom (2018) are as follows
- A 10% increase in broadband household penetration delivers a boost to a country‘s GDP that ranges from 0.1 to 1.4%
- Countries with 80% broadband penetration are more than twice as innovative as countries with 40% penetration
- A 10% increase in penetration of broadband services in low and middle-income countries accelerates economic growth by 1.38%
- A 10% increase in broadband penetration translates into a 1.5% increase in a country’s labour productivity over the following 5 years
- The rise in broadband adoption and speeds in 35 OECD countries from 2002 to 2016 led to a 6.7% average GDP increase.
In attendance were a 10 member delegation from the Parliamentary Select Committee of Communications, led by Hon Chairman, my name sake Kennedy Agyapong, Kweku Sakyi Addo Board Chairman of the National Communication Authority, the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Mr. Kofi Nti, a representative of the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Mitwa Kaemba Ng’ambi (CEO of Airtel Tigo) who led the Governing Council of the Chamber.
Other members of the governing council present were Francois Van Zyl (CEO of ATC) and Gareth Townley (CEO of Eaton Towers). All the other TeleCos and TowerCos were represented by senior executives and we have a good media presence as well as other stakeholders in the Telecommunications space as well as from the Presidency, Ministry of Finance and GRA.
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