Ghana’s sole interconnect clearinghouse operator, Afriwave Telecoms, and West Africa’s sole Tier 4 co-location data center operator, ONIX have joined forces to deliver a world class offering of data centre, connectivity, Cloud and Value-Added Services into the Ghanaian and regional market.
ONIX hosts the second internet exchange point (IXP) in Ghana, and has a formidable data centre offering with a solar powered Tier 4 certified facility that is connected to most of the main carriers.
Afriwave, on the other hand, manages all interconnect voice and data traffic in Ghana with their ICH licence, using infrastructure costing US$38 million, built in partnership with Huawei and a number of local banks and hosted in the ONIX data centre as well as two others across the country.
A joint statement from the two companies said the partnership places Afriwave in the unique position to route all telephony and data traffic via their ICH hosted in the ONIX data centre, thus creating the busiest and most trusted Telehouse hub in Ghana and the most comprehensive connectivity ecosystem.
This major and strategic collaboration comes at a time when Afriwave has just joined the Smart Africa Alliance (https://smartafrica.org/) as a senior member and the first Ghanaian private sector industry player to have done so, with the aim of fostering such strategic collaborations to leapfrog the hurdles in Africa’s digital progress within the framework of the AfCFTA (Africa Continental Free Trade Area).
The partnership would also give a major boost to Afriwave’s drive at adding new markets to their ICH platform – with plans to become one of the most consequential telephony and data traffic providers across the continent.
It also comes at a time when Ghana’s digital landscape is in flux with new investment in the ICT sector as international players make their presence felt.
Indeed, the submarine cable market is being expanded with 2Africa (the Facebook consortium) and Equiano (the Google consortium) gearing up to land new cables onto Ghana’s shores in the near future, as the telco market looks to consolidate with some speculation about Vodafone and Airtel-Tigo looking to give MTN much-needed competition.
Under the partnership deal, Afriwave will provide a range of Value-Added Services including Cloud on the back of the ONIX infrastructure to the Ghana ICT market.
“Afriwave and ONIX are also in discussion with other technical partners to further expand these services,” the statement said.
The CEO of Afriwave Francis Poku stated that, “We are very excited about our partnership with ONIX who have invested millions in bringing a state-of-the-art data centre to Ghana and we look forward to working together to propel Ghana into the digital age.”
Head of Marketing and Strategy for ONIX, Ross Macdonald, said that, “Afriwave are a special partner to ONIX with their extensive experience and reach into the Ghana market and we look forward to making a difference to the Ghana economy by delivering world class services. We envisage a long-term partnership with Afriwave that extends beyond Ghana as we move into the greater African market. “
Ghana is well positioned to lead the region in terms of digitisation of the economy. The Government of Ghana is committed to this strategy and is making it attractive for global tech companies to locate here such as Twitter and Google. ONIX and Afriwave are both Ghanaian companies and are dedicated to the advancement of all its peoples through the deployment of accessible and affordable technologies.
