How American Tower Corporation Ghana is powering the digitalization agenda

Over the last decade or more, Ghana has left no stone unturned in its drive to digitalize the economy and by extension the country.

This has led to the opening up of the telecommunications industry, the granting of licences to data providers and a conscious effort to build the infrastructure needed to really keep up with what is now fancifully referred to as the information age.

The benefits of digitilization are there to see, from paperless transactions, the advent of Mobile Money services, and improving revenue at places such as the ports and harbours are just a handful of the benefits.

And one company that is playing a critical role in all of this is American Tower Corporation (ATC).

If your network provider is able to give you uninterrupted service ATC is mostly at the centre of it all. They also provide services to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Broadcasters (TV and Radio), government agencies, and others.

A brief about the company on its official website reads like this: “ATC Ghana provides the wireless infrastructure needed to enable a connected world—outdoors, indoors, and in urban and rural locations.

As an independent owner, operator and developer of wireless and power solutions, our goal is to help you make the best of your network.”

ATC Ghana is currently the market leader with almost 60 percent of the market share. It is the largest independent owner and operator of shared wireless infrastructure in Ghana. ATC, currently has 220,000 tower sites worldwide, with over 4,000 sites in Ghana.

They provide towers, in-building systems, power solutions and services that speed network deployment for the wireless and broadcast communications industry.

At a media forum earlier this week, the top brass of the company explained that while they are primarily a Business to Business (B2B) company and as such do not interface much with the end users, they feel the time is right for more Ghanaians to know the critical role they play in the developmental agenda.

Job Creation and Taxes

The name American Tower Corporation Ghana may come across as a foreign company but CEO, Yahaya Yunusa said 99 % of the staff at ATC are Ghanaians. The company he said had created creating 178 direct and 12,716 indirect jobs since ATC was set up.

ATC by their nature of work is among the large tax-paying companies in Ghana, generating revenue for the country.

The CEO however admonished the GRA to review the 40% tax obligation on players in the telecommunications industry downwards.

Giving back through CSR

Another senior management member of ATC, Enid Kanor (Head of Legal) mentioned that giving back is an integral part of the organizational culture.

She pointed to among other initiatives, Girls in ICT project as a valuable project.
The Girls in ICT program is a carefully curated programme that supports and encourages girls to take up ICT and STEM programs, with over 3,000 basic school girls benefiting so far.

There is also the Digital Communities initiative.

Through the Digital Communities initiative, ATC Ghana established computer-equipped learning centres that provide local communities with free education and training in ICT.

Challenges

Enid Kanor mentioned the issue of theft of the company’s equipment as one of the worrying challenges they face. The steeling of high-voltage batteries used to run the company are increasing the operational cost of ATC.

She also touched on the need for the regulator, the NCA to be more open to fast-paced changes in the industry so Ghana can keep up the pace with the developed countries,

Way forward

Already, ATC Ghana says it has invested about $1.5 billion since it commenced operations but there is a desire to do more in the coming years. CEO Yahaya Yunusa said there will be a need for more capital injection as Ghana looks to deploy 5G technology in the not-too-distant future.