6 April 2007, by Nana Kofi Acquah. For three good years, the saga raged. The Government of Ghana wasn't satisfied with the performance of Western Telesystems (WESTEL), Ghana's second national telecommunications operator, so they bought their American partners out. Now the question was, who gets to buy themselves in? Many names came up. A couple of weeks ago, Globacom was so rumor-mongered, I wrote about them... and finally, it turns out Kinz Telecom and Etisalat Communications of the UAE have won the race to secure a 66.7% stake in Westel.
Dr Salieh El Hassan, Chairman of Kinz International Group, is reported to have told TeleGeography (www.telegeography.com), this week: 'We would like to inform you [that] Kinz Telecom, one of our Kinz International Group, is winning the WESTEL bidding in Ghana... we will get 66.7% of WESTEL." Kinz Telecom also said it had been advised by both the government appointed transactional advisers, NTHC and Databank, and the sector Minister that it has emerged the winner out of the four short-listed bidders, writes the Ghanaian Chronicle.
It is understood that Kinz has offered more than the USD65 million asking price and has pledged to absorb the company"s debts and to invest USD500 million in cash and equipment and 'replicate a full-blown social responsibility agenda on women, education, youth, sports development and technology transfer".
Purchasing the WESTEL stake will also give Kinz the prized asset of its E-Marine submarine cable laying unit which builds fibre-optic networks and manufactures telephone smart cards. Kinz Telecom chairman Nana Martinson said 'we were interested in acquiring WESTEL because we have solid faith in the future of the Ghanaian economy and trust in the country's national telecommunications policy'. Martinson also revealed that his company is teaming up with Huawei as equipment suppliers and manufacturers".
With Ghana's current electricity supply problems at its worst ever, forcing companies like Valco to shut down and compelling a lot of other businesses to re-think, the Kinz Telecom and Etisalat Communications group's coming aboard might easily be one the government of Ghana's most successful stories for 2007.
 
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