Keypoints:
- NCA offers 11 lots with $230m reserve floor
- MTN faces a 40 percent price premium
- Licensees face 70 percent coverage target
GHANA has invited bids for 11 mobile broadband spectrum lots carrying a combined minimum reserve value of $230m, opening the country’s 5G market to wider competition after ending Next Gen Infraco Limited’s exclusive infrastructure role.
The licensing process gives existing telecom operators, smaller service providers and qualifying Ghanaian-owned entrants a direct route to spectrum. It also turns the government’s earlier policy shift into a time-bound competitive exercise intended to accelerate coverage, investment and service delivery.
The National Communications Authority issued the request for applications on July 16, a day after amending NGIC’s wholesale 5G licence in what it described as the public interest.
The regulator removed NGIC’s exclusive right to operate as Ghana’s sole wholesale 5G infrastructure provider. However, the company remains licensed and retains its existing spectrum assignment, along with its other rights and obligations.
Ghana’s decision to abandon the single-provider 5G model followed concerns about rollout delays, market access and the effect of exclusivity on competition.
Three spectrum bands on offer
The NCA is offering three paired 2×10 MHz lots in the 700 MHz band, five 20 MHz lots in the 2.3 GHz band and three 50 MHz lots in the 3 GHz mid-band.
Minimum reserve prices have been set at $36m for each 700 MHz lot, $10m for each 2.3 GHz lot and $24m for each 3 GHz lot. Together, the 11 lots have a minimum reserve floor of $230m.
Each licence will run for 15 years.
Applicants must pay a non-refundable GH¢300,000 fee for every spectrum band they seek. Eligible bidders include mobile network operators, mobile virtual network operators, broadband wireless access providers, internet service providers and fully Ghanaian-owned new entrants.
Applicants may secure no more than two 700 MHz lots and three 2.3 GHz lots. The regulator has not imposed a cap on the number of 3 GHz lots an applicant may obtain.
MTN faces higher prices
MTN Ghana, which is formally designated by the NCA as having Significant Market Power, will face a 40 percent premium on reserve prices for applications in the 700 MHz and 3 GHz bands.
Its minimum reserve price will therefore rise to $50.4m for each 700 MHz lot and $33.6m for each 3 GHz lot.
The measure forms part of the regulator’s continuing effort to protect competition in a market where MTN’s Significant Market Power designation has previously triggered special regulatory interventions.
Fast rollout obligations
Successful licensees must provide outdoor mobile broadband coverage to at least 70 percent of Ghana’s population by March 6, 2027.
Coverage must include Greater Accra, Greater Kumasi, all 16 regional capitals and every district capital.
The licences are technology-neutral but may be used to provide 5G and other mobile broadband services. The rollout obligation indicates that the process is intended to produce measurable network expansion rather than merely generate spectrum revenue.
The wider economic stakes are significant as Africa’s mobile economy becomes increasingly important to digital finance, public services, commerce and wider economic growth.
What happens next?
Applications are due to close at 5pm on August 6.
Under the NCA’s indicative timetable, qualified applicants are expected to be published on August 19, with financial offers opened on August 20. Successful bidders are due to be notified on August 28.
Licence payments and awards are expected to be completed by September 28, although the regulator has reserved the right to adjust the timetable.
The outcome will determine whether Ghana’s shift from exclusivity delivers faster investment, wider coverage and greater consumer choice while preventing further concentration in the telecom market.
