Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asia, is planning to launch a telecom business in Africa to gain mobile broadband users in a rapidly expanding market.
According to Harkirit Singh, the executive director of NGIC, Ghana-based Next-Gen InfraCo will receive critical network infrastructure, apps, and smartphones from Radisys Corp., a division of Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd. In advance of NGIC’s official announcement on Monday in Mumbai, the financial center of India, he detailed the intentions.
NGIC
NGIC intends to start operating by the end of this year and offer 5G broadband services to Ghanaian internet service providers and mobile operators.
Singh told Bloomberg News that the company’s basis is based on the premise of building affordable digital services in emerging markets.
Other significant partners in NGIC include Nokia Oyj, Indian outsourcer Tech Mahindra Ltd., and Microsoft Corp., which has increased its focus on the telecoms industry with the acquisition of two cloud networking companies in 2020.
With a population of little over 33 million, Ghana is a West African nation with three major operators: MTN Ghana, Vodafone Ghana, and the government-owned AirtelTigo. Strategic alliances, technological know-how, and holding Ghana’s sole 5G license will enable NGIC to develop broadband services at scale, which would be extremely costly for individual mobile carriers, according to Singh.
Harkirit Singh
According to Singh, two African telecom companies, Ascend Digital Solutions Ltd. and K-NET, together own a 55% stake in the new business. Less than ten percent of NGIC is owned by the Ghanaian government, with the remainder of shares going to private investors and regional mobile operators. Singh leads Ascend as its CEO as well.
Although NGIC’s license is only good for ten years, it gives it the only authority to provide 5G services in Ghana. For three years, Singh estimates that the company will spend $145 million on capital.
The startup wants to replicate Ambani’s Jio Infocomm Ltd.’s Indian success. With its low-cost data plans and free voice calls when it first started its telecom services in India in late 2016, Jio forced some of its competitors to close and others to combine. It is commonly acknowledged that it enables hundreds of millions of Indians to afford mobile data. With 470 million users, Jio is presently the largest mobile operator in India.
Ghana
According to a statement from Ghana’s Minister of Communications and Digitalization Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, NGIC would offer affordable mobile broadband services and devices to the people of Ghana, replicating the success of India’s low-cost mobile data revolution.
The Reliance-NGIC relationship is also a diplomatic victory for India, which has attempted to challenge China’s growing influence in Africa through initiatives such as digital inclusion.
None of the strategic partners, including Reliance, presently own any equity in NGIC. However, Singh stated that the company will eventually give clients the choice of accepting a portion of their payments as shares.
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Before they can enter, Singh stated, We must first successfully demonstrate the value that we create. We are having that conversation with them.
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