Vodafone is expected to be confirmed the new owner of Ghana Telecom (GT) today according to Ghana’s newspaper the Daily Guide citing the ministry of finance sources. Vodafone was said to have concluded negotiations with government to acquire a 66.7 percent stake in the state-owned telecom incumbent which had been tabled for privatisation since last year. “The source indicated that Vodafone which was the sole company negotiating with the Inter-Ministerial Committee, agreed on a USD 960 million deal.
The committee and the Ghana Investment and Promotion Council (GIPC) were satisfied with the bid documents that Vodafone submitted. Communications Minister Benjamin Aggrey Ntim told the newspaper that a new owner of Ghana Telecom will be announced by next week, adding that Vodafone was the only firm left negotiating with government. Ghana Telecom was supposed to have been awarded to France Telecom after the operator won the bid ahead of Vodacom South Africa and Portugal Telecom until government stepped in asking for a new price of USD 1 billion.
The potential investor was required to be an existing telecommunication operator with at least one million landline subscribers and 6 million mobile subscribers. It was also required to triple the current mobile subscriber base within three years, along with fixed line capacity increases. Ghana had received several bids for the telecom operators, most of which have been rejected, but had insisted that it is still in the hunt for a suitable strategic investor.
