The National Communications Authority (NCA) has dismissed reports of a new ownership for Expresso.
According to the regulator, it has not received any request indicating a change in ownership of the telecom company.
The comments from the NCA was in a response to an email from Citi Business News seeking confirmation or otherwise to media reports that there is going to be a change in ownership of the company.
There have been recent media reports indicating that Mr. Prince Kofi Kludjeson, owner of Celtel is taking over Expresso as the new manager, by the end of 2017.
But in the NCA’s response, it quoted the law as, ‘Section 5(1b) of the Electronic Communications Act 2008, Act 775 which states that “a network operator or service: provider shall not assign the license without the prior written approval of the Authority”.
Sections 5(2) and 10 (2) also state that “a person who has a significant interest in a network operator or service provider shall not sell, transfer, charge or otherwise dispose of that interest or any part of that interest in the network operator or service provider, unless notice is given to the Authority 30 days before the proposed transaction’.
“On the basis of the above, the Authority has no records on its files relating to any change of ownership of Expresso as it remains same as per the Licence. The NCA further states that it has not received any request from Expresso on Transfer of Shares or Change of Ownership.”
“We would also like to point out that the NCA’s regulatory mandate covers only the communications industry in Ghana and does not extend beyond the borders of Ghana,” the NCA added.
Expresso, originally known as Kasapa started operated under the company name Cell Tell in 1995.
The company has faced a couple of challenges which have hampered its growth in the industry.
For instance in 2016, the company’s recurrent challenges, prompted a warning from the NCA to revoke its license.
Its share of the mobile data subscription has been the least for some time now.
Expresso’s voice subscriber figures decreased from 40,111 as at the end of March 2017 to 23,264 as at the end of April 2017.
This represents a percentage decrease of 42.00%. Their total market share for the month under review was 0.06%.
Also in the same period, the NCA’s figures showed that Expresso had a mobile data subscription market share of 10,151.
This represented 0.05 percent of the market share.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana