The National Communications Authority (NCA), has with effect from July 15, 2026, removed the exclusive rights of Next Gen Infraco (NGIC) to 5G wholesale provider in Ghana, setting the tone for the auction of new licenses to allow other players into the space.
A statement from the NCA dated July 15, 2026 said the moved was action “in the public interest”, explaining that “as the telecommunications market has evolved, the Authority has concluded that the public interest is better served by a competitive wholesale 5G market that promotes investment, innovation, network resilience, service quality and wider access to advanced communications services.”
In 2024, the then government awarded NGIC a ten-year exclusive rights to rollout a shared 5G wholesale network in Ghana. The exclusivity condition formed part of the regulatory framework established to support the development of a national wholesale 5G network. It gave NGIC the sole right to own and operate wholesale 5G infrastructure in Ghana. This meant for the ten-year period ending 2034, no one else could offer 5G services in Ghana without going through NGIC.
The licensing terms required NGIC to rollout the network nationwide within a given time period, working with all the traditional telcos and towercos. In November 2024, President Nana Akuffo-Addo did a soft launch of the NGIC network, where the then sector minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful announced that the NGIC wholesale network was ready for operators to connect and offer commercial services to Ghanaians.
But the facts were that, as of the time she made the announcement, non of the operators had a connecting entity license to even get ready to connect to NGIC. So, the former minister’s announcement was misleading.
Again, a major setback to the NGIC arrangement was that the market leader and significant market power (SMP), MTN Ghana flatly refused to join that arrangement because it had invested heavily in getting ready for standalone 5G network, and was not ready to hand over its investment to NGIC.
MTN’s refusal to join the NGIC arrangement, plus other factors meant NGIC was not going be able to rollout the 5G network nationwide as fast as it had hoped. As a result, by March 2026, when NCA first announced plans to amend their license and remove the exclusive rights, NGIC had rolled out only 43 cell sites in parts of the country.
Following the announcement of plans to remove their exclusive rights, NGIC took advantage of the 90-day window to table a number of written and verbal objections, all of which NCA says it critically examined before taking the final decision to go ahead with the removal of NGIC’s exclusive rights to 5G wholesale operations in Ghana.
The NCA said its power to amend the Licence is derived from Article 6.1.2 of NGIC’s Licence and section 14 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775), which empower the Authority to amend licence conditions in the public interest.
It explained that in accordance with the law, the Authority issued a Notice of Proposed Amendment to NGIC on March 2, 2026 and met with the company on March 18, 2026, where NGIC exercised its right under section 14(4) of Act 775 by submitting a Statement of Objections on April 1, 2026. The Authority subsequently afforded NGIC a further opportunity to make oral representations before the Governing Board on May 28, 2026.
“After carefully considering NGIC’s written and oral representations, the Authority concluded that it was in the public interest to remove the exclusivity condition from the Licence,” the statement said.
The NCA however explained that the amendment relates only to that specific condition and does not affect the validity of the remainder of the Licence, adding that NGIC therefore retains all its other rights and obligations under the Licence, including its spectrum assignment.
This means NGIC can still continue to offer wholesale 5G services in Ghana, and any operator, business entity and individual who wish to use the NGIC network to offer commercial 5G services in Ghana if free to do so.
“The Authority expects the amendment to promote competition in the wholesale 5G market, encourage investment and innovation, and further advance Ghana’s digital transformation agenda in the public interest,” the statement said.
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