Business News of Tuesday, 18 June 2002

Source: Deep Throat @ GhanaTel

Gov't intends to buy Malaysians shares

...in Ghana Telecom
Sources close to Telecom Malaysia indicate that the government of Ghana has written to Teleckom Malaysia expressing interest to buy their shares in Ghana Telecom (GT).

Apparently it is a long time orchestrated attempt to get their people, with the support of Telenor a Norwegian Telecommunications Company, to take over the company.

There are indications that GT is working on the valuation of the shares of GT and then the 30 % sold to Ghana government. The Malaysian have agreed to sell off to the government, because they are tired of harassment of the professionals in Ghana. They have also been advised by their government to sell and pack back. The minister of transport and communications, Owusu-Adjapong, cannot say this in public, so he blames the issue on GT's inefficiency and ineffectiveness of Telecom services. The current NPP administration believes the NDC owns shares in the deal and that?s the main reason behind all this. This is an attempt at blocking all NDC's possible and probable channel of funds before the next election.

It is believed that telecom services in Ghana are only comparable to South Africa and Morocco in Africa, but still the minister says the Malaysian messed up.