Kwaku Sakyi-Addo
High energy tariffs, which constitute about 60 percent of the operating cost in the telecoms industry, are negatively affecting the players.
Kweku Sakyi-Addo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Telecoms Chamber, who disclosed this, said “operators had invested so much in the 3G technology throughout district capitals but in many of those places, their monthly revenue was “a tiny fraction of the running cost.”
He disclosed this at a ‘Thought Leadership Forum’ on Thursday in Accra as part of the Chamber’s 5th anniversary.
“Throughout the five years, inflation in communication services had been the lowest in the non-food category. Whereas the cost of our inputs rose, the structure of the market and the nature of competition held us back from sharing out those costs,” he added.
Notwithstanding these problems, Mr Sakyi-Addo said there were opportunities for growth in the next five years, especially in area of mobile financial services and electronic payments.
“There are opportunities for government to make strategic policy decision that would enable mobile money to be utilised across sectors for citizens to make payments to government and vice-versa.
For the first six months of this year, the country’s mobile money transaction recorded GH¢30 billion with over 80,000 agents earning income through the service.
According to him, the value for the country’s annual transaction which was GH¢400,000.00 per annum had shot up to GH¢35 billion in 2015.
Mr Sakyi-Addo said currently 6,200 people were directly employed by members of the Chamber.
He noted that despite the impressive numbers, only one in four adults had signed up for mobile money.
Policy and regulatory clarity, transparency and predictability are fundamental to teasing out the creative juices of innovators and appetite for investors,” he said.
Mr Sakyi-Addo said the Chamber was eager to think through policies with government and its institutions, as well as share knowledge and experiences from markets in Africa, Asia, Europe and America in order to develop in the next five years.
Ghana Chambers of Telecommunications, which was established in November 2011 comprise mobile networks such as Airtel, Expresso, MTN, Tigo, Vodafone and other tower companies.
By Samuel Boadi
samuel10gh@yahoo.com