The government’s choice to award a 5G license contract to NextGen InfraCo, a business founded just one week prior to the contract’s approval, has been defended by Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister for Communications and Digitalization.

In defense, the MP for Ablekuma West said that NextGen InfraCo was created especially to handle the 5G rollout. She continued by saying that no other infrastructure provider had the ability to oversee the rollout at the time.

The minister went on to say that the government’s plan to get around previous obstacles and hasten the rollout of Ghana’s 5G network includes directly awarding the contract to this new business.

“This is a special purpose vehicle and once the government took the decision that we will use a neutral infrastructure company to deliver this service, there is no existing neutral infrastructure company that can deliver it at the moment.”

“So, it had to be specifically formed for the purpose of delivering this service based on the strategic policies and decisions of the government, and it is borne out of our experiences and that is why we chose not to auction it,” she stated.

Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni, who questioned the timeliness of the contract handed to NextGen InfraCo Ltd. in a social media post,.  The investigative journalist emphasized that the company was founded barely a week before President Akufo-Addo gave it executive clearance.

Awuni also took issue with the contract’s sole-sourcing method—which was awarded without a competitive bidding process—and its estimated worth of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The minister also revealed that Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC) plans to roll out internet services throughout the nation within the allotted time frame, with subsequent development into neighboring African countries.