Government decided not to put the contract for the rollout of its 5G network up for auction in order to maximize its advantage, as indicated by Deputy Information Minister Sylvester Tetteh.

Based on past experiences, the Deputy Information Minister said, the government decided to work with active industry participants, such as Ascend Digital, K-NET, Radisys, Nokia, Tech Mahindra, and other communications businesses.

The Bortianor Ngleshie-Amanfro MP stated in an interview with Citi News that the only method to guarantee a successful outcome is to use the special purpose vehicle established for this endeavor.

“We auctioned our 4G in 2015 and till now, we have had only 15 percent penetration for 4G usage and mainly in the city centre, so the rest of the country where we are promoting digitalization and inclusion has been left out of the 4G space. So if you have done this for nine years and you have attained only a 15 percent penetration rate, then there is a problem.

“Now we are going for 5G and are you going to auction it for the highest bidder or whoever qualifies to run it? The person picks it and plays off everybody from the industry, yet we don’t get the necessary benefit from the 5G. So the government says, no, we are not going to auction it, we will own part of it, and all the industry players should own part of it. So this special purpose vehicle was put together by all the industry players.”