Billionaire Ambani heads to Africa with telecommunications venture

Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, is entering Africa’s telecommunications market with the ambition of conquering mobile broadband customers in a rapidly growing market.

Radisys , part of the Reliance Industries group run by Mr. Ambani, will provide key network infrastructure, applications and smartphones to Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC), headquartered in Ghana. NGIC is expected to begin operations later this year, providing 5G broadband services to mobile operators and internet service providers in Ghana.

NGIC’s goal is to “build affordable digital services in emerging markets”. NGIC’s other strategic partners include Nokia, Tech Mahindra and Microsoft.

Ghana, a West African country of more than 33 million people, currently has three main carriers: MTN Ghana, Vodafone Ghana and state-run AirtelTigo. NGIC, with its partners, cutting-edge technology and Ghana’s exclusive 5G license, will deliver large-scale broadband services – a huge investment for individual mobile operators.

NGIC has exclusive rights to provide 5G services in Ghana for 10 years, with a total three-year investment cost of 145 million USD.

The company aims to model the success of Jio Infocomm Ltd. Ambani’s in India. Jio launched telecommunications services with cheap data and free voice calls, forcing some competitors to close and others to merge. Jio is widely known for making mobile data affordable for hundreds of millions of Indians. Currently Jio is India’s largest mobile network with 470 million users.

Ghana’s Minister of Communications and Digital Transformation Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said NGIC will provide “affordable mobile broadband services and devices to Ghanaians, replicating the success of the India’s low-cost mobile data revolution”.

The partnership between Reliance and NGIC is also a diplomatic win for India, which is seeking to counter China’s growing influence in Africa through measures such as digital inclusion.

Currently, strategic partners, including Reliance, do not own any shares in NGIC. However, the company will allow them to receive part of their payments in the form of shares in the future.