Reliance Industries-owned Radisys Corporation is set to offer network infrastructure, applications, and smartphones to the Ghana-based Next Gen Infra Co (NGIC). The deal would enable NGIC to roll out 5G services in Ghana at low or affordable costs. However, the deal has faced pushback from the Ghanaian National Democratic Congress (NDC).
According to Bloomberg, NDC said that at a time when Ghana is in dire need of foreign exchange and non-tax revenue, it is a bad move to award scarce spectrum resources at just $125 million to be paid in annual installments over the next 10 years. NDC said that the government could have generated between $400-$500 million upfront if a formal bidding process happened.
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Instead, the spectrum was granted at just $125 million. This looks like a "sweetheart deal" to the NDC, one which is a bad one for the nation. Radisys is going to be helping NGIC in offering 5G and smartphones to customers in Ghana. The aim is to be able to model the success that Jio had in India in Ghana too.
Under this deal, NGIC and its strategic partners will have exclusive rights over offering 5G to customers there for a decade. Other partners of NGIC are Nokia Oyj, Microsoft Corp, and Tech Mahindra Ltd. The Ghanaian government owns about 10% stake in NGIC while two local telecom operators K-NET and Ascend Digital Solutions Ltd have a combined stake of 55% in the company.
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Ghana's government has set an ambitious goal of connecting the entire country to mobile networks in the next six years. With a population of only 33 million, it should be achievable in the next few years. It will be interesting to see how this deal plays out in Ghana for Reliance as well as the parties involved.
