Telenol are only management consultants

Accra, Oct. 28, GNA - Government on Tuesday said Telenol Company of Norway is a management consultant and not shareholders in the Ghana Telecommunication Company (GT) as speculated in some quarters.

"They are just in to among other things improve operations of GT, improve service quality and above all improve shareholder value," Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Communications told the Meet-The-Press Series in Accra.

Mr Kan Dapaah took the opportunity to dilate on the re-designation of the Ministry from the Ministry of Communications and Technology to Ministry of Communications.

He indicated that Telenol would not be in the country for an undefined period, saying: "They will be here for only a while. They are only managing GT for now and will stick to that.

"It would not have been prudent to have sold them shares and still given them the right to manage the company at the same time, as it was in the previous situation with Telekom Malaysia."

Mr Kan Dapaah said government was not happy with the previous agreement with the Malaysian company, hence its decision not to renew the contract when it expired.

He explained that it was not the best of things to sell GT shares at the time when Telenol came onto the scene, "as the share price was very depressed at the time. We have, therefore, decided to do something like that when the conditions in the company are favourable and shareholder value rises".