Accra, Sept. 20, GNA - The first ever industry report on the Status and Outlook of the Telecommunications market in Ghana was launched at the Ghana Permanent Mission to United Nations, New York, on Friday, September 16.

The Report authored by Wilkofsky Gruen Associates with assistance from Kina Telecom, provides data on major industry segments including fixed line, Mobile, Internet, Payphone Market, Regulatory Structure as well as the Equipment and Infrastructure Market.

A statement received in Accra on Tuesday said the Report also analyses the historical experience, identifies key trends and developments, sets out factors underlying projections, cites passages of the NCA Act and liberalization of the telecommunications industry along with improved management of Ghana Telecommunications and new sources of financing.

Wilkofsky Gruen Associates is a New York-based economic firm that follows the global telecommunications market and writes an annual report for the Telecommunications Industry Association in the United States while Kina Telecom is a research and value-added telecommunications firm in Ghana.

According to Mr Victor Teppeh, Senior Telecom Analyst at Kina Telecom, the book provides industry information that was currently not available on a systematic basis in a single source. "It provides crucial statistical data that investors need in their decision making and in the process focusing attention on Ghana as a destination for investment," he said.

The statement said one of the most significant findings of the report was the challenges and opportunities in the telecom sector. Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan, Technical Advisor to the Minister of Communications, who wrote a foreword to the Report urged businesses to take advantage of it as it contained vital information for investors, industry analysts, telecom operators and donors. "With the development of ICT, the greatest challenge is the availability of data, statistics or any kind of effective market analysis in the country."

Mr Adu-Gyan said the book offered business intelligence and quality market analysis.

The Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Mrs Dorothy Gordon, in her foreword, stated her pleasure with the publication, especially, the partnership between a US and a Ghanaian company.

She said the report was the most useful source of background information on Ghana's telecommunications market and would satisfy the needs of a variety of stakeholders and also help the reader to deal with the challenge of finding historical data. The Report would be launched in Accra on October 11.