Vodafone Lies In Wait for Ghanaian Market

Vodafone plans to deploy M-PESA, a mobile money transfer and product service, as one of the strategies to dominate the mobile market, if Ghana's parliament passes the sales and purchase agreement on the sale of Ghana's incumbent telecommunications provider Ghana Telecom (GT).

One particular product which we will bring to the market is M-PESA, our award winning Mobile money transfer and product payment service which is already operational in Kenya, Tanzania and Afghanistan, Mark Pursey of the Vodafone Group told CIO Business World. Subscribers on their network can use that mobile money transfer system for transactions which such as sending money to children in school or forwarding money to relatives in rural areas.

Government and Vodafone last month announced Vodafone's move to acquire a 70 percent stake in Ghana's incumbent telecommunications provider Ghana Telecom for US$900 million on a cash free debt free basis. Vodafone is the world's largest telecommunications operator, and presently holds 50% shareholding in South Africa's Vodacom with other operations in Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.

Vodafone is not looking at products for the mobile facet alone. Along with the introduction of Vodafone's international products and services in mobile, mobile internet, fixed broadband, fixed-line and fixed line substitution services we expect to see an increase in both overall customer numbers and an increase percentage of market share in comparison to the competitors in the Ghanaian market, Pursey said. Apart from M-PESA, Pursey will not elaborate on the specific products they want to put on the market; As for other products which will differentiate our service, please watch this space, he said.

Ghana Telecom will initially be re-branded as GT Vodafone. We tend to initially retain the local brand in each market which we enter by acquiring a company. After some time we tend to move to a duel-brand (one which has both the local brand name and the name "Vodafone" in the title) and finally move to just the Vodafone name, Pursey explained the process of rebranding the incumbent telecommunications provider.

This is our usual position, but we will of course be making it clear in time if this is indeed the approach we will be using in Ghana, he elaborated. One of the attractions of Vodafone to destination Ghana was the considerable low mobile penetration. According to Pursey, only 35% of the population currently has a mobile phone, so there is considerable growth still available for all mobile operators in Ghana.

Vodafone plans to raise the necessary investment for Ghana Telecom to lead the market. We believe that there is a considerable opportunity both in the mobile, fixed-line and broadband markets in Ghana. Ghana Telecom has been effected by underinvestment in comparison to its competitors in the last few years, Pursey said.

Vodafone has a track record for innovation, customer service and bringing products to market first where it operates, he said of the customer experience they want to give to subscribers.