The main condition for National Communications Authority (NCA) approving the sale of majority stake in Vodafone Ghana to Telecel Group was an agreement by Telecel to pay 20% of Vodafone’s outstanding licensing fees to the NCA, Techgh24 can confirm.
NCA granted conditional approval to the deal after months of back and forth over claims that the deal did not meet regulatory requirement, and that Telecel did not have the financial and technical muscle to run a company the size of Vodafone Ghana.
Eventually the NCA came out and said it was satisfied with the further and better particulars Telecel resubmitted as proof of its capability to run and grow Vodafone Ghana.
But Techgh24 gathered that the main motivation for NCA was that Telecel has accepted to pay 20% of Vodafone Ghana’s outstanding licensing fees which run into several millions of dollars, but what Telecel is expected to pay is something between $8 million to $15 million.
But before Telecel came into the picture, the government of Ghana, which is the 30% minority shareholder in Vodafone Ghana, had, through the Ministry of Finance, agreed to pay at least one of Vodafone Ghana’s licensing fees which was between $18 million to $25 million to the NCA, but they failed to honor that promise.
Now that fee has been included in the money Vodafone Ghana owes to NCA and Telecel has agreed to to pay 20 per cent of the whole before they can actually take over the company.
Telecel, according to our sources, has been ready with the funds to settle the ask but there procedural delays in government attempt to secure the Attorney General’s opinion for the deal.
Meanwhile, Telecel was expected to have completed that part of the process as of last week so that they could take over the company, come in and meet with workers and spell out their vision to them. But all that has not happened because all the stakeholders are waiting for the AG’s opinion.
Telecel, an Africa-focused telecom company, recently got approval to purchase 70% majority stake on Ghana Telecom from Vodafone Group in an all-cash deal.
Co-owner and CEO of Telecel Group, Moh Damush has since assured Ghanaians of the company’s commitment to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the network, increase the number of towers to at least 2,000, expand rural connectivity and innovate around the fintech and broadband sides of the business.
Another co-owner and Director on the Board of the company, Nicolas Bourg has also assured workers of Vodafone Ghana that there will be no job cuts under Telecel because it is simply not their style to lay off workers after an acquisition. But he is yet to meet with the workers and tell them that directly.
Meanwhile, it is expected that there will strategic changes at the top management level to reflect the new direction the company intends to go.
Techgh24 also reported earlier that Telecel does not intend to change the Vodafone branding to Telecel any time soon, at least not until after about two years.
Meanwhile, Telecel has raised some $700 million from investors and banks for more acquisitions and expansions across the continent, as it prepares the company for an initial public offer (IPO) in the next five years.
