Business News of Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Source: Graphic.com.gh
Market share (voice) per operator-March 2015
Ghana’s mobile voice penetration rate has now hit 115.64 per cent as at the end of March this year.
This is far above the projections many years ago which predicted penetration to be at about 70 per cent by the close of 2015.
According to latest figures released by the industry regulator, National Communications Authority (NCA), mobile subscriber base increased from 31,028,253 in February this year to end March 2015 at 31,154,420.
This represents a marginal growth of 0.41 per cent during the period.
Gainers
During the period under review, the country’s biggest telecom company by subscriber base and finance, MTN Ghana, increased marginally from 14,113,432 at the end of February to end March with 14,207,778.
This represents a positive variance of 0.67 per cent and puts the company’s total market share at 45.60 per cent.
For the first time in the year, Glo Ghana joined the gainers as its subscriber base went up from 1,422,113 in February 2015 to end March with a figure of 1,481,903. This represents an increase of 4.20 per cent. It also translates into a market share of 4.76 per cent for March, up from the previous month’s market share of 4.58 per cent.
Airtel Ghana again maintained its marginal growth momentum as its subscriber base increased to 3,863,252 at the end of the month under review from the February 2015 figure of 3,808,747, representing an increase of 1.43 per cent.
As a result, Airtel’s market share of 12.28 per cent in February, increased to 12.40 per cent at the end of March 2015. Tigo’s subscriber base also registered an increase from 4,264,078 at the end of February to end March with 4,315,719, representing a 1.21 per cent growth.
The company’s market share also increased from 13.74 per cent to 13.85 per cent. On another hand, Expresso ended the month of March with a subscriber base of 126,202 from the 119,386 subscribers it registered in February.
Subsequently, the company’s market share now stands at 0.41 per cent in the period under review.
Loser
Vodafone Ghana, after seeing a rise in its subscriber base for months, saw a drop for the first time in the year. Its subscriber base decreased to 7,159,566 at the end of March from the February figure of 7,300,497. As a result, the company suffered a dip in its total market share from 23.53 per cent in February to 22.98 per cent at the end of March, 2015.
Customer’s wish
Some customers of the various telcos continued their agitations for better services, saying they had been denied quality services for long. Against this background, they urged the new Director General of the NCA, Mr William Tevie, to work at ensuring that the quality of service from the telcos improved to enable them to get value for money.
Mr Joojo Simaman, an accountant, said “the NCA must continue to crack the whip to get the telcos on track to meet customer expectations. A widower, Ms Joyce Tagoe, also called for measures that would prevent the tecols from “stealing our credit”.