Powering the digital economy: Telecommunications matters

By Prof. Samuel LARTEY

www.pefghana.org

Ghana’s telecommunications sector has become the invisible infrastructure underpinning modern life, commerce, and governance, carrying the weight of a rapidly digitising economy while contending with rising demand, infrastructure strain, and heightened consumer expectations. As the largest player in this ecosystem, MTN Ghana sits at the centre of this transformation, expanding connectivity, financial inclusion, and digital services that power households, businesses, and public institutions, even as the sector faces increasing operational, regulatory, and service-delivery pressures.

MTN Ghana stands as one of the most influential corporate institutions in Ghana’s modern economic history. As the country’s largest telecommunications operator, it has a footprint that extends far beyond voice and data services into financial inclusion, employment creation, enterprise enablement, public revenue mobilisation, and international brand representation. Through sustained investments in digital infrastructure and financial technology, MTN has helped shape Ghana’s digital economy and redefine how individuals, businesses, and the informal sector transact, communicate, and grow.

Yet, alongside these contributions, MTN’s scale has also magnified its challenges. Network congestion, service outages, inconsistent data speeds, and downtime have become increasingly painful for consumers and businesses whose daily activities depend on uninterrupted connectivity. Understanding MTN Ghana’s role, therefore, requires a balanced assessment of both its economic contributions and the operational constraints it continues to grapple with as demand outpaces infrastructure expansion.

Building the Digital Backbone of Ghana’s Economy

MTN Ghana has played a central role in expanding national connectivity. With near nationwide population coverage for voice and 4G data services, the company has helped close digital access gaps between urban and rural communities. Its investments in fibre, base stations, and transmission infrastructure support education platforms, e-commerce, telemedicine, digital government services, and remote work.

The rapid growth in smartphone penetration and data usage, however, has placed sustained pressure on network capacity. During peak usage periods, particularly in densely populated urban centres, customers experience reduced data speeds, call drops, and intermittent service availability. For businesses dependent on stable connectivity, such disruptions translate directly into lost productivity, delayed transactions, and reputational risk.

Despite continuous capital expenditure, the pace of network demand growth has often outstripped expansion, revealing the structural tension between affordability, scale, and quality in Ghana’s telecommunications market.

Financial Inclusion at Scale and Its Operational Constraints

MTN’s Mobile Money platform, like those of all other telco operators, has revolutionised financial transactions in Ghana. Millions of individuals now send, receive, save, and pay digitally, reducing cash dependency and expanding access to basic financial services. Small traders, transport operators, farmers, and informal workers rely heavily on MoMo for daily business operations.

However, when network instability occurs, the consequences are immediate. Failed transactions, delayed reversals, and temporary service unavailability disrupt cash flows for micro businesses and households alike. For market traders and mobile money vendors, downtime can mean hours of lost income and customer frustration.

These challenges underscore the reality that digital financial inclusion is only as strong as the reliability of the underlying network infrastructure.

Employment Creation Across the Formal and Informal Economy

MTN Ghana’s employment impact is extensive and multi-layered. Beyond its direct workforce, the company supports a vast ecosystem of distributors, sales agents, mobile money vendors, call centre operators, contractors, and service providers.

Employment Channel	Economic Impact
Direct Staff	Skilled jobs in engineering, IT, finance, marketing
Sales and Distribution	Thousands of agents nationwide
Mobile Money Vendors	Income generation for informal operators
Supplier Ecosystem	Local SMEs providing logistics, security, and services

Network unreliability directly affects this employment chain. Sales agents lose commissions when customers reduce usage due to poor service experiences. Mobile money vendors face customer distrust during frequent transaction failures. Over time, service quality challenges can erode the sustainability of livelihoods built around MTN’s ecosystem.

Impact on Consumers, Entrepreneurs, and Businesses

For individual consumers, MTN provides essential communication tools that support social interaction, access to information, and participation in the digital economy. Yet recurring complaints about slow internet speeds, call failures, and prolonged outages have heightened consumer sensitivity to service quality.

For entrepreneurs and SMEs, connectivity is no longer optional. Online payments, inventory management, customer engagement, and marketing depend on stable data services. Network downtime disrupts operations, delays deliveries, and weakens competitiveness, especially for digitally enabled startups.

Large corporates and institutions also face risks when connectivity interruptions affect enterprise systems, remote access platforms, and customer service channels.

Key Customer and Stakeholder Concerns and Expectations Regarding MTN Ghana

Customers, businesses, and stakeholders recognise MTN Ghana’s central role in powering Ghana’s digital economy, but this position also amplifies the impact of its service challenges. The most persistent concern is network congestion and slow data speeds, especially during peak periods, which reduce productivity for individuals and digitally dependent businesses. Closely related are network outages and downtime, which disrupt communication, mobile money transactions, and business continuity, leading to direct income losses for traders, agents, and enterprises.

Another major concern is the reliability of mobile money, including failed transactions and delayed reversals, which undermine trust and strain cash flows in the informal and SME sectors. Customer service responsiveness also remains a challenge, with users expecting quicker complaint resolution and clearer feedback. In addition, billing transparency, rapid data depletion, and unclear tariff structures continue to raise customer dissatisfaction.

Service quality gaps between urban and rural areas, infrastructure vulnerability to fibre cuts and power disruptions, and the effects of regulatory and tax changes further complicate service delivery. As the market leader, MTN also faces heightened scrutiny over market dominance and service standards, with customers expecting responsible leadership rather than complacency.

Across all stakeholder groups, expectations are consistent: faster network upgrades, reduced downtime, resilient mobile money systems, transparent pricing, proactive communication, fair compensation for prolonged outages, and stronger customer support. Ultimately, stakeholders expect MTN to match its economic importance with reliability, accountability, and continuous service improvement, reinforcing trust in Ghana’s digital economy.

MTN Ghana has acknowledged service challenges linked to fibre cuts, power outages, congestion, and equipment upgrades. While some disruptions are systemic and external, customers increasingly expect faster resolution and clearer communication.

In response, MTN has deployed several compensatory and market expansion strategies, including:

1. Customer data and airtime compensation following prolonged outages,
2. Promotional data bundles and discounted voice packages,
3. Service recovery bonuses targeted at affected regions,
4. Flexible pricing campaigns to retain and expand subscriber loyalty.

These measures serve dual purposes. They mitigate customer dissatisfaction while also expanding usage volumes and reinforcing brand stickiness in a highly competitive market. Compensation, when timely and transparent, becomes both a customer care tool and a strategic growth lever.

Fiscal Contributions and National Revenue Impact

MTN Ghana remains one of the largest corporate contributors to government revenue. Through corporate taxes, communication service taxes, spectrum fees, and regulatory levies, the company contributes billions of Ghana cedis annually to public finances.

Fiscal Contribution Area	National Impact
Corporate Income Tax	Budgetary support
Communication Service Tax	Infrastructure funding
Regulatory Fees	Sector oversight
Withholding and PAYE	Employment-linked revenue

These contributions support infrastructure development, social services, and fiscal stability, reinforcing MTN’s position as a cornerstone of Ghana’s formal economy.

International Visibility and Ambassadorial Influence

As part of a leading pan-African telecommunications group, MTN Ghana projects Ghana’s digital progress onto the international stage. Its success signals market maturity, regulatory viability, and investment potential to global investors and technology partners.

At the same time, unresolved service quality issues risk weakening this narrative and raising questions about infrastructure resilience and regulatory coordination in Ghana’s digital economy.

Conclusion

MTN Ghana occupies a pivotal position in Ghana’s socio-economic architecture. Its contributions to connectivity, financial inclusion, employment, enterprise growth, and public revenue are undeniable and far-reaching. At the same time, its scale amplifies the consequences of unresolved service challenges, particularly network downtime and inconsistent data performance.

The future of MTN Ghana’s impact will depend on how effectively it balances expansion with reliability, growth with quality, and affordability with infrastructure resilience. Strengthening network stability, accelerating fault resolution, and maintaining transparent customer engagement will be critical.

As Ghana deepens its reliance on digital systems, MTN’s ability to deliver consistent, high-quality service will not only define its corporate success but also shape the resilience, productivity, and inclusiveness of the national economy it helps connect.

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