Next-Gen Infra Co (NGIC) is set to commence operations by the end of this year, providing 5G broadband services to mobile operators and internet service providers in Ghana. The company’s network infrastructure, applications, and smartphones will be supplied by Radisys Corp, a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, owned by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani. NGIC’s launch aims to bolster the country’s telecommunications landscape.
Strategic partners in NGIC include Nokia Oyj, Indian outsourcer Tech Mahindra Ltd., and Microsoft, which has been increasingly focused on the telecom sector following its acquisition of two cloud networking firms in 2020.
Two African telecom firms, Ascend Digital Solutions Ltd. and K-NET, hold a combined 55% stake in NGIC. The Ghanaian government will own just under 10%, while local mobile operators and private investors will retain the remaining shares. NGIC has secured the exclusive right to offer 5G services in Ghana for a decade, with its license valid for 15 years. The company’s projected capital expenditure over the next three years is $145 million.
NGIC aims to replicate the success of Ambani’s Jio Infocomm Ltd. in India, which launched telecom services in 2016 with low-cost data and free voice calling, dramatically transforming the Indian telecom market. Jio is now India’s largest mobile operator with 470 million users.
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