Reliance head Mukesh Ambani to expand his telecom market in Ghana

Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has announced plans to expand his telecommunications venture of his Reliance industries in Africa.

Reportedly, Radisys, a subsidiary of Ambani’s Reliance Industries will provide essential network infrastructure, applications and smartphones for Ghana-based Next Gen InfraCo (NGIC).

Harkirit Singh, NGIC’s executive director, outlined these plans ahead of NGIC’s launch announcement scheduled for May 27 in Mumbai.

NGIC’s strategic partners, its technological prowess and the company’s possession of Ghana’s only 5G license will help it build broadband services at scale, a huge expense for individual mobile carriers, Singh said.

Other strategic partners in NGIC include Nokia Oyj, Indian outsourcer Tech Mahindra Ltd., and Microsoft Corp., which has increasingly sharpened its focus on the telecom business following its acquisition of two cloud networking firms in 2020.

NGIC, which is set to launch by the end of 2024 and holds the exclusive 5G license will offer 5G broadband services to mobile operators and internet service providers ISPs in Ghana for 10 years and plans to invest $145 million over 3 years.

Currently, Ghana, a West African country has three main operators: MTN Ghana, Vodafone Ghana and state-run AirtelTigo.