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The Ghana Telecommunications Company (GhanaTelecom) has negotiated a $65-million loan from Societe General to undertake the second phase of its nationwide mobile phone expansion programme.
The move forms part of efforts by the company, which runs the OneTouch mobile service, to double its subscriber rate from about 500,000 as of the end of last year to about one million by the close of 2006.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the solely government-owned company, Mr Frode Haugan, said part of the funds would also be used to enhance its backbone network, to ensure faster data processing through its Broadband Internet service.
Mr Haugan was speaking to a cross-section of the media shortly after a high-powered delegation from Sinosure of the China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, the only insurance company in that country that guarantees external facilities for competent and profitable companies in Africa, visited the offices of GhanaTelecom in Accra yesterday.
The delegation, led by Madam Fu Zhe, the Vice-Division Chief in charge of Medium to Long-Term Project Management Department of the Sinosure, was to afford them the opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with the management and board of the company regarding the repayment of the loan, among other things.
Present at the meeting were Mr Dickson Oduro-Nyaning, the Deputy CEO, and the acting Board Chairman of GhanaTelecom, Mr Edmund Hagan.
GhanaTelecom last three years secured a similar facility of about $67 million from the same source and guaranteed by Sinosure to carry out the first phase of its expansion programme as part of efforts to beat the fierce competition within the sector.
It was also successful in securing a ¢150-million Chinese loan last four years for the supply of equipment from Alcatel Shanghai Bell in China to replace some of its old equipment.
Additionally, the company managed to mobilise a syndicated loan of about $60 million from the local banks to do other expansion works.
But Mr Frode Haugan said GhanaTelecom needed more than what it had accessed now to face the competition within the sector, as well as meet the ever-growing demand for telephone services throughout the country.
He stated that the company was making frantic efforts to improve its quality of service and gave the assurance that within the next couple of months, subscribers to the company’s services, both on the fixed line and OneTouch, would see improvement in services.
GhanaTelecom’s OneTouch service was rated third among the four mobile phone operators in the country by the industry regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA), last month and Mr Haugan said the company was poised to better its position.
Asked whether he was satisfied with the rankings, he said “I do not want to comment about this”, but noted that the company was not oblivious of its responsibilities and would work to satisfy its customers.
He said GhanaTelecom was a profitable company and was meeting all its financial obligations, including loan repayments.
Mr Haugan added that the company required at least $75 million annually to be able to undertake a vigorous expansion programme and since the company’s resources could not meet that, loans were the possible alternative
The Chairman of the board, Nana Antwi Boasiako, whose speech was read on his behalf, expressed gratitude to Sinosure for its continued financial and technical support to the company.
He said the funds would be used to develop the telecommunications infrastructure of the company to the benefit of the whole nation in fulfilment of the government’s vision to implement and accelerate its ICT policy.
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