Facts and figures, they say, don’t lie, but certainly they can be misrepresented or misinterpreted. This informs the level of skepticism with which many Ghanaians including some of our policy makers and experts received the news of the new enviable feat of our economic status as nation.
May be the Statistical Service needs to explain further to these skeptics that in economics, high GDP figures, per capita income, or economic growth do not necessary translate to welfare of the citizenry or development. This is one of the imbalances between economic theory and reality.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the rebasing of the economy was made to conform to international best practices. The telecommunication sector was mentioned as one of the sectors that has experienced a lot of growth over the years, and has contributed significantly to our middle income status. Many of our compatriots who comfortably doubt our middle income status would boldly attest that they are living witnesses to the massive growth of the telecommunication industry over the last 10 years, and the valuable benefits to almost every single Ghanaian.
This is why all of us are happy to welcome Globacom, another giant telecommunication company. Globacom has given Ghanaians convincing indications of widening the spheres of the existing benefits we enjoy from the sector, and even taking us to another level.
On Friday, April 9, I passed by Parliament House and the whole area was decorated in Glo’s colours and billboards. I said to myself, “Thank God, Glo is finally here,” even though I wasn’t sure. I later read about the launching of Glo 1 on myjoyonline.com. I believe Ghanaians are happy with the launching of Glo 1, and are anxiously waiting for the mobile services.
Healthy competition is a key in business and economic growth. It brings innovation in products and distribution. The competition in the telecommunication industry has kept us far apart from queuing to make or receive calls. We can choose our service providers at any point in time, and we can plan our communication and business transactions comfortably.
However, when competition becomes vindictive and destructive, it is equally dangerous to building a healthy economy. It wards off potential investors and reduces the infrastructural roll out, innovations, as well as quality products at affordable prices. From day one, we have been told that Glo is building their infrastructure from scratch unlike their existing competitors who took over from others. That was why when they threatened to pull out of Ghana, citing frustration of their efforts to roll out as one of the reasons, many were those who shared their frustration and openly said so. The frustration of some turned to pure anger when some key players in the telecommunication industry were cited as suspects of Glo’s frustrations.
In the words of Glo, the launch of Glo 1 “means established businesses would flourish and new businesses will emerge everywhere’’. In this regard, we expect to see complete revolution in e-commerce. This would ultimately speed up the rate of doing business, reduce risk, and help establish stable and competitive prices in all the major sectors in the formal sector, and possibly, the informal sector of our economy. Glo can only do this if they provide Ghanaians with world class stable internet connectivity.
Information technology has taken a center stage in all spheres of human and social development. Nations have ridden on the back of ICT to become giant economies. So as a nation we should be worried about the level of ICT penetration in our development processes, especially our educational system and institutions.
In this day and age, our schools from primary to universities should have stable internet facility. E-learning needs to be taking to the next level so that we can further make education more accessible. Unfortunately, even graduate students in our tertiary institution do not always have access to internet facilities for their research.
Glo’s infrastructure would help boost our effort to develop our ICT sector and we hope to feel it as citizens.
We are told that mobile telephony penetration in Ghana is about 80%. However many of us are still dissatisfy with the quality of service we faithfully pay for. In many of our rural areas and even some parts of urban areas, people still struggle to make and receive calls.
Apart from the people who live in these areas, we need professionals like teachers, nurses, and doctors to stay in these areas and provide basic services. So, basic services like telecommunication should not be a hard commodity in any part of Ghana at this level of our development. Aside this, many of us are still concern with pricing, voice clarity, connectivity, and customer service.
Some telecommunication officials still treat customers as if they are beggars. When telecom companies organized promotions to reward customers, it should truly be rewards and encompassing, not lotto, or rewards to the company. We expect the entrance of Glo to the telecom market in Ghana to see an end to some, if not all of these problems.
Glo stormed the Ghanaian scene with vim. They captured our hearts, passion, and pride with a juicy promotion package to our beloved Black Stars. Even before they commence operations, we have been beneficiaries of their corporate social responsibility. We can only hope that this would continue and even be expanded to cover other critical areas of our nation. Our education and health sectors are in dire need of such corporate support. If for instance, Glo can demonstrate to our pupils and students what they can do by way of their corporate social support to make their studies more comfortable and enjoyable, it would be a direct way of telling them what they (pupils and students) can expect from the Glo brand as clients.
Many young Ghanaians including myself have great hopes of finding employment opportunities with Glo. Since 2008, when they announced their presence in Ghana, many young graduates and other professionals have been knocking on their door with applications for employment.
That tells the kind of anticipation with which people are waiting to see Glo in full operation. We hope they would give Ghanaians the opportunity to serve them, and their nation at large.
We have now seen the launch of Glo 1. We continue to ask, when would Glo fully roll out all its services? Ghanaians seem to be standing on their toes, stretching their necks to catch glimpse of full Glo on the way! With Glo 1 launched, we are now sure that they are not pulling out any more. They have finally arrived, though, not fully, they are here to stay, and we warmly welcome them with a sigh of relief and hope. Glo, Amaraba! Glo, Akwaba!
Author: Karimu Suale/Karimu.suale@yahoo.com
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Feature: We welcome glo with a sigh of relief and hope