Ghana ready to do business with Ericsson

The minister for communications, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, has assured LM ERICSSON Limited, a Sweden-based communications company, of government's support in its efforts to establish itself in Ghana.

He said the Government is determined to move the telecommunications industry forward and so any group that was ready to help in that direction would be given all the necessary assistance.

Mr Kan-Dapaah, expressed these views when he received in his office Mr Marten Hellgen, key account manager and Ericsson's representative in West Africa based in Lagos, Nigeria.

“We know Ericsson and we have a lot of regard for the company. We are ready to do business with you for the sake of the telecommunications industry in Ghana,” the minister added.

He told Mr Hellgen that the Government had decided to establish Ghana as a hub of IT in the sub-region and respectable companies like Ericsson would be needed to help Ghana to achieve its aim.

According to the minister, Ghana was the first country in the sub-region to liberalise the telecommunication industry in 1997 and also allowed private participation in the industry when it passed on 30 per cent shares in Ghana Telecom to the Malaysians and also gave them key positions in the management of the company.

Mr Kan-Dapaah revealed that as of 2000, Ghana had only 400,000 telephone lines which were doubled by 2003, with an additional one million lines last year, adding that there was every likelihood of increasing the number of lines to 3.5 million by the end of this year.

Responding, Mr Hellgen said Ghana was a very important country as far as the telecommunication industry in the sub-region was concerned and very dear to Ericsson because of the political climate, especially its political stability.