At a press briefing on Wednesday in parliament, the Minority on the Communications and Information Committee states that, “as a caucus, we wish to unequivocably object to any deal with Telecel by way of merger, absorption, acquisition or whatever a term the minister seeks to place on such “unholy alliance”.

“We object on grounds that it is a scheme to dispose of a national asset to fill private pockets. It is technically, operationally and financially unconscionable transaction. We reiterate that Telecel has no exclusive expertise that the staff and management of AT do not possess. Telecel promised during the acquisition of Vodaphone to invest US$500 million was not honoured and same fate awaits AT should the government agrees to any merger or alliance. Telecel has indebtedness of over US$ 400 million.

The Minority stated that it is their believe that Telecel only seeks to benefit from the over 3 million customers of AT and only seeks to sour their customer base to over 10 million without cost. “We believe that Afritel/Rekton participation will position AT to outperform Telecel and it is impropriated to surrender the capacity of AT, a state-owned company, to a private company by majority ownership. We object to the transaction because there is no clear plan of safeguarding jobs and livelihood of several thousands of people by the promoters”.

They argued that the Government of Ghana acquired 100 percent ownership of AT in 2021 for one dollar ($1) to protect jobs and sustain competition in the telecom industry after Airtel and Tigo decided to exit the Ghanaian market. The acquisition, they noted, safeguarded over 500 direct jobs and the interests of more than five million subscribers.

However, the Minority accused the current Minister of engaging in inconsistent decision-making and questionable negotiations that have left AT “in a state of confusion and decline.” They cited the minister’s abrupt shift from a proposed partnership with Afritel/Rektron—which had pledged an initial $150 million investment and up to $1 billion over five years—to a new deal with Telecel, which they claim lacks the financial and technical capacity to revive AT.

Revisit the 2022 Blueprint

They urged the government to revisit the blueprint which formed the basis for engagement with Afritel/Rektron.

“Fortunately, Afritel/Rektron has secured US$150 million which has been ringfenced and locked down for the past 4 months for the purposes of this transaction with a promised of US$ 1 billion funding in the next 5 years. This is adequate capitalization according to the minister’s own estimate. There is evidence that Afritel/Rekton participation secure over 20% of market share participation for AT. Therefore there is no justification for the minister backtracking after initially agreeing unless they are not “playing ball”.