Nigeria – Mike Adenuga’s Telecommunication, Globacom is currently getting unpleasant treatment in Ghana as things are not looking rosy for the newly set up telecommunication. The firm who began operations in Ghana in December 2009 has been facing willful damage and sabotage of her advertisement structures like billboards, light boxes and others as well as restrictions on erection of masts. Its quite obvious that the reason for the vandalization is one-fold; to make Globacom quit. And the unanswered question is; who are those behind this unmitigated vandalization?.
The speculations around is that, some Telecom operators with less subscribers in Ghana must have been scared of losing them out to the newly set up telecoms, Globacom. This act of vandalization has intensified, as it has been confirmed that the saboteurs gets kickback for their actions. As a result of these, Glo had sensed that the sabotage is a foretaste of what was to come, and the best decision is to withdraw her operation in Ghana when one of her senior officials disclosed “the frustrations are getting out of control. We have considered pulling out”.
Glo’s exit might be a big loss both ways to the country and Wale Adenuga as Globacom already has set up offices around the country and some of these are fully furnished. It would not be in the interest of Glo to pull out of Ghana at this stage. So far, Glo had pumped millions of dollar into Ghana’s local football league, which is tagged “Glo premier league”, Glo then followed it up with sponsoring and supporting Ghana national team as well as the Ghana national supporters union. It was revealed that the Ghanaian government had never received such level of support from any of the existing telecom operators.
So far, these were some of the problems faced by Globacom Ghana; The national communication authority’s encroachment on the frequency allocated to Glo, The sabotage of Globacom’s billboards, light boxes, lamp post signs geared towards launching of the company’s full operation. As at February 2010, more than 12 light boxes placed around the airport traffic light median were destroyed. Last month, more than 14 light boxes were destroyed in accra. The Ghanaian government had done nothing to protect the telecoms from these unlawful acts.
The late approval of the GSM licence to be awarded to Glo by the national communications authority (NCA).
The National environmental protection agency placed ban on the erection of mast in some major areas, which affected Glo adversely since Glo is the only newly set up telecom operator in the country.
Globacom Ghana, the sixth telecom in the country is competing with other telecom operators such as MTN, Tigo, Vodafone, Zain and Kasapa (arranged based on the number of subscribers). None of the old telecom operators experienced such kind of Glo-like problems.
