MTN not excluded from 5G rollout—Ursula Owusu denies claims

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communication and Digitalization, has denied claims that MTN, one of Ghana’s top telecom providers, was deliberately excluded from the plans for the introduction of 5G technology.

She claims that industry experts expressed concerns about MTN’s exclusion from the Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC) consortium, which is in charge of executing the 5G network, on May 30, the day the government announced its ambitions to introduce 5G within the next six months.

Hon. Ursula Owusu addressed the matter on Monday, June 24 on the Citi Breakfast Show, informing host Bernard Avle monitored by Puretvonline.com that MTN will eventually become involved.

She dismissed as false alarm and untrue the allegations that MTN was purposefully left out.

“I don’t know who created that impression. Somebody threw it out there, and nobody spoke to me or any of those involved in putting this consortium together before spreading this false alarm. It is not true,” she stated.

“…Discussions are ongoing. All network operators in the country are being offered the opportunity to take up equity in this Next-Gen InfraCo, all of them, including MTN.”

In the meantime, two telcos, AT Ghana and Telecel Ghana, along with Ascend Digital, K-NET, Radisys, Nokia, and Tech Mahindra, comprise the 5G consortium.