MainOne to deepen broadband use in Ghana

MainOne, West Africa’s leading communication services company, has reiterated its resolve to deepen its footprints in the country’s broadband and Internet market in order to support the growth of businesses in Ghana and the West African sub-region.

The company’s Business Executive for West Africa, Mr Kazeem Oladepo, affirmed its commitment to increased broadband adoption in Ghana at an event to celebrate its fifth anniversary in Ghana recently.

“We want to expand the network to get more customers connected, deliver value-added services, build infrastructure and services that support the Internet ecosystem and the oasis of services that enable productivity and drive organisational efficiency.

“We are continually looking at the Ghana market to see where further opportunities are to further deepen broadband adoption and replicate our impact on the connectivity market in other areas of the ICT sector. This is in order to enable the growth of corporate and enterprise businesses and support the overall economic prosperity of the country,” he said.

Commenting on the company’s five-year operation, he said: “It has been a very tough but exciting journey so far; one that we feel privileged to be part of when you consider the growth and progress that have been achieved in the last five years in the sub-region, which we pioneered.

“We wouldn’t, however, have got here without our partners, including our customers, the Government of Ghana, the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the people who have given us the opportunity to deepen broadband adoption in Ghana.

“Everything we have achieved has been with a lot of hard work, given the operating environment generally in the region and competing in a market where there is a lot of value erosion by arbitrage business, in addition to being faced with currency constraints.

“The regulatory support and operating structure in Ghana has, however, been exceptional in helping us to overcome most of these challenges and the market has been quite supportive,” he said.

According to him, MainOne’s achievements in the last five years were enormous, adding, “That Internet services are now commoditised and have become more efficient in Ghana is representative of the value we have brought to Ghana and the region over the years.

“The enormous ICT improvement tells us we have come a great long way in enabling success, for us and for the internet service providers (ISPs), including third-generation (3G) and LTE operators, whose sustainability we remain committed to,” he said.

He added that was in addition to supporting the large telecom service providers in their effort to improve quality of data services and enhance connectivity services in Ghana.

“The growth of e-commerce is part of our unique story and the overall productivity improvement in Ghana remains part of our most cherished accomplishments so far,” Mr Oludepo said.

Infrastructure

He noted that infrastructure lapses still remained one of the major hurdles in the sector and mentioned the company’s initiatives to overcome those challenges.

“MainOne continues to invest in fibre optic infrastructure, most recent of which is the 16 kilometres of build connecting its cable landing station in Teshie-Nungua to Tema, which is part of our commitment to improve connectivity and up time for our customers in the area.

Going forward, he said, the company planned to move beyond connectivity services in the country to enabling more value-added services, adding that it was currently exploring the landscape to appraise opportunities for increasing its product and services suite.

It was also planning to extend its submarine cable footprint further into West African countries such as Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon.