The Minister of Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful paid a working visit to the offices of Airtel Ghana – the Smartphone Network – to interact with the Executive Management team and acquaint herself with the operations of the Change maker Company.
The Minister, was accompanied by her two deputies – George Andah, Vincent Sowah Odotei – and the Director of Finance at the Ministry, Mr. K Tabi. The delegation highly commended Airtel Ghana for sustainably impacting the lives of Ghanaians through the company’s operations and community investment initiatives.
The delegation met with Airtel Ghana’s Managing Director, Lucy Quist and her executive management team and later toured the company’s Data Center.
The leadership team of Airtel engaged the Minister and her delegation on the company’s operations, superior customer offerings across voice, enterprise, mobile finance and community investment initiatives.
Airtel Ghana’s CEO, Lucy Quist thanked the Minister and her entourage for visiting the company and requested for a streamlined regulatory environment to promote the growth of the industry.
She said: “We would like to see a streamlined regulatory environment that enables investment and fosters growth of the industry. The telecom industry plays a critical role in the economy – impacting and contributing to the growth of every other sector of the economy. As a company, we are committed to providing superior voice, data, enterprise and mobile finance services to all our customers”.
She also spoke to the need for local content in telecom equipment manufacturing.
“The biggest constituent of investments in the industry in Ghana, and across Africa, is network infrastructure and telecom equipment yet almost every single component is imported. Policies that encourage and promotes local content in telecom equipment production will go a long way to create jobs and develop local capabilities,” she said .
The Minister commended Airtel Ghana for impacting lives through its operations, for leading the pack in promoting digital and financial inclusion and for being a force for good.
She reiterated her commitment to support the company and the industry by creating an enabling environment for telecom companies to thrive. She indicated her resolve to look into policies in support of local content in the production of telecom equipment as part of government’s commitment to create jobs in the country.