AirtelTigo takeover a right decision by government – George Andah

A former Deputy Minister for Communications, George Andah has lauded government’s resolve to acquire telecommunications company AirtelTigo.

Government of Ghana in April this year announced that it had acquired a 100 percent share of the company primarily intended to save jobs and protect stakeholders interest of some 5.1 million customers.

Responding to the development in an interaction with Citi Business News monitored by GhanaWeb, George Andah said government took the right decision towards the agreement.

“I think there’s no doubt that the Minister for Communications and Digitalization and the government took the right decision and the government takeover of AirtelTigo was done in a very smooth way,“ he commended.

“I believe that the industry still has significant opportunity, depending on proper technological support, proper management direction, an enabling regulatory framework supported by good policies from the government to drive growth areas, the mobile financial services sector or the financial services sector,” Andah weighed.

The former Communications Minister however expressed confidence in the move and indicated that government has taken lessons from previous takeovers deals.

“There are a lot of positive stories to show that it is not a rule that once government touches an organisation, that organisation runs down. I think it’s a matter of putting in place the right environment and making sure that you have the right leadership there,” Andah said.

AirtelTigo is a joint venture between Bharti Airtel and Millicom International Cellular, operators of tiGO in Ghana. The two merged in 2017, becoming the second-largest telecom operator in Ghana at the time. Additionally, Bharti Airtel holds a non-controlling 49.95 percent stake in AirtelTigo.