Ghana's mobile market grows 6.8% in 10 months -- NCA

Mobile voice subscription figures recorded a 6.81% cumulative growth for the first 10 months of this year to reach nearly 30 million, National Communication Authority data has shown.

Between January and October this year, mobile network operators added a little above 1.57 million new voice lines to their networks as they prepare for slowing growth and a renewed focus on customer retention and value-added services.

According to the latest NCA figures, the total mobile voice subscription number as at October is more than 29.99 million, and it is believed to have surpassed the 30 million mark in November.

The October figure puts mobile voice penetration rate at 114%, making Ghana one of the few countries in Africa with mobile voice adoption rate surpassing the 100 percent mark.

In theory, the current subscription number, which is more than Ghana's population of little over 26 shows that there more potential customers for cellphones - which may not be a good sign for cell phone dealers in the country.

Some mobile network operators contend that the subscription figures in Ghana is highly overrated due to the challenge of "multi-simming", which happens when one subscriber owns more than one SIM card.

Network operators have thus called for concerted efforts to deepen the business operating environment to bring communication services to a lot more people as the current subscription numbers send a wrong signal as to the actual number of people who have access to communication services.

As of the end of October this year, MTN still controlled 44.94% of the market - even though it its subscriber numbers decreased marginally from the 13,546,678 at end-September to finish October at 13, 412, 525.

Vodafone's subscriber base increased from 6,870, 223 to 7, 128 764, which pegs Vodafone's market share as of October at 23.04%.

Similarly, tiGO, which now boasts a 13.53% market share, recorded an increase in its subscriber base from the September figure of 4,012,580 to end October at 4,056,322.

Airtel, on the other hand, witnessed a decrease in its subscriber base of 1.3% from the previous month. The subscriber base of the telecom services provider decreased from 3,790,636 to 3,142,910 in the period under review.

Glo also suffered a dip in subscriber base. Its share decreased from the September figure of 1,474,988 to 1,465,829 by close of October 2014 - representing a market share of 4.89%.

In the case of Expresso, its subscriber base went down from 120,108 in September to 118,171 by close of October, representing a market share of 0.54%.