On March 03, 2026, Ghana’s sole wholesaler for 5G, Next-Gen Infraco (NGIC) made a long-awaited announcement that it has received confirmation from the National Communications Authority (NCA) for the commencement of commercial 5G operations in Ghana.

That confirmation from the NCA was contained in a February 4, 2026 letter, after NGIC had in a December 15, 2025 letter, informed the NCA of its readiness to start commercial operations, and copied the sector minister on the same.

The NCA then replied in a January 16, 2026 letter informing NGIC of a pre-commercial launch inspection. It was after the inspection that NCA finally wrote the February 4, 2026 letter to clear NGIC for commercial 5G operations. But NGIC actually received that letter on February 25, 2026, more than 20 days after it was written.

In the NCA’s February 4 (25), 2026 clearance letter, it made three very crucial points:

1. That the inspection findings confirm the operational readiness of NGIC to commence commercial delivery of wholesale (not retail) 4G/5G network based on the commissioning of 49 cell sites equipped with 4G and 5G radio access network technologies, in Greater Accra (43), Ashanti (2), Central (1), Northern (1), Bono (1), and Western (1) regions.

“In view of the foregoing, the NCA hereby grants approval to NGIC to commence commercial operations under the terms and conditions of your WHOLESALE Electronic Communications Infrastructure (Telecommunications) License.”

2. NCA also reminded NGIC of its obligations under the license to cover all Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) by the third anniversary of the license.

(The license was given in July 2024, so the third anniversary will be July 2027)

3. The NCA also reminded NGIC of its obligation to pay the outstanding instalment of its licensing fees, which was due in September 2025, but the company is still yet to make payment. Out of a total of US$125 million licensing fee, NGIC has paid US$6.25 million.

The company was due to pay another US$6.25 million in September last year but is yet to do so.

It was on the back of this clear communication of approval to start commercial 4G and 5G operations that NGIC made the big announcement on March 3, 2026 that its network is now live and ready for commercial operations.

 After the announcement, however, there have been a number of reactions from various stakeholders, three of which stand out:

1. An avowed reader of Techfocus24 commented and said “how many times would NGIC’s 5G network go live in Ghana”?

2. The Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation, Sam George described the announcement as “unfortunate” and “misleading”.

3. NCA issued a public notice informing NGIC of steps to amend its licensing terms and remove their 10-year 5G exclusivity right.

Let’s put all these in perspective

The reader who asked “how many times would NGIC’s 5G network go live in Ghana”? had a very genuine basis for that question.

In November 2024, there was a soft ceremonial launch of the NGIC 5G network amidst a funfair at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel.

In fact, at the glamorous ceremony, there was a live demonstration of 5G with a hologram display and Ghanaians were told that from that moment, 5G was live in Ghana. Indeed, after the ceremonial launch, the then sector minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful stated that if by December 2024, Ghanaians did not have access to 5G, then the telcos were to blame because NGIC was ready. So, after all that, it only raises questions in the minds of the public when another network readiness announcement is made in March 2026.

But there is a reason for this:

The point must be made that NGIC is strictly a wholesaler and not a retailer. So, the company cannot offer 5G services directly to Ghanaians.

The telcos and ISPs must connect to NGIC and offer direct services to their respective customers.

The telcos and ISPs also needed connecting entity licenses from NCA to connect to the NGIC 5G network.

At the time of the November 2024 soft launch, only 16 cell sites were live in Accra, and no telco or ISP had a connecting entity license to even connect to NGIC and start offering direct 5G services to consumers, because none of them had even applied for the license at the time.

The then minister knew this very well, but rather chose to push it on the telcos and say they should be blamed if Ghanaians didn’t get to enjoy the service one month after the soft launch of the wholesale network.

In fact, for more than a year after the soft launch, no telco had a connecting entity license or even the network capability to connect to NGIC.

It was much later that AT Ghana got a temporary license, and Telecel was granted a full connecting entity license, which enabled them to finally integrate with NGIC.

The other challenge was that independent tower companies were reluctant to work with NGIC because two other telcos – AT Ghana and Telecel – owed them millions of dollars, and they were not ready to join another arrangement on a revenue share basis.

They wanted an upfront payment or no deal. This was also an issue that the regulator and policymakers should have intervened in, but they were indifferent to it at the time.

There were other technical issues pending, all of which were captured in a previous article on the link below:

Again, after NGIC’s March 3 announcement, the sector minister, Sam George, responded in a very direct manner, describing the announcement as “unfortunate” and “misleading”.

His reasons were fourfold:

1. That 49 cell sites is only enough for one district, but the company’s announcement has created the impression that they are available everywhere, which is not the case. He thinks that trivialises Ghana’s drive towards 5G rollout, particularly at a time when other countries have launched 5G eight years ago and are now talking about 6G. The minister for instance, noted that Accra alone houses over 1,600 cell sites from all telcos combined, and there are still network challenges. But NGIC has only 43 sites in Accra, two in Ashanti and one each in four other regions. To him, that cannot be described as a network rollout.

2. That NGIC intentionally made the announcement after the government had indicated that it was about to auction new spectrum for 5G, just to impact the price of the spectrum negatively.

3. That NGIC has still not fulfilled its licensing obligation with regard to the payment of the September 2025 instalment of the licensing fee, and they need even more money to roll out the 350 sites expected by the third anniversary of the license. So, the announcement did not make sense.

4. The Minister also said, as a policy decision, he is focused on all operators starting 5G rollout together to prevent what happened with 4G, when MTN went ahead of every operator and that resulted in a skewed market structure leading to the declaration of MTN as a significant market power (SMP). So, NGIC’s move runs contrary to the national agenda.

To put the minister’s concerns into perspective, one can understand the noble intentions behind a policy to do 5G rollout together, even though some experts think that is practically untenable.

But it is challenging for one to understand what is “unfortunate” and “misleading” about NGIC making an announcement based on a very clear communication of approval from NCA to NGIC to start commercial wholesale 5G operations. NGIC did not come out of the blue to make that announcement.

They had approval a month ago, on February 4, 2026. NCA, which is the minister’s own agency, knew then that NGIC had readied only 49 sites and yet they gave them approval to start.

So, making announcement of readiness to start wholesale operations based on a regulatory approval could not be misleading, much less unfortunate.

Secondly, It will be recalled that the minister used one of his first media engagements early last year, to state categorically that NGIC had a deadline of June 2025 to start operations or risk losing their license. He later shifted the deadline to the fourth quarter 2025, which ended in December 2025.

Take note that December 15, 2025 was when NGIC first informed NCA and the minister of its readiness to start commercial wholesale operations. This was in fulfilment of the minister’s own deadline. So, a March 3, 2026 announcement of readiness to commence wholesale operations, particularly after a clear approval from the NCA, seem more like a show of good faith by NGIC than anything else.

Thirdly, 49 sites may be inadequate, but it is not out of the norm for a network rollout to start gradually and grow over time. One telco in Ghana, for instance, started 4G rollout just at Osu in Accra, with just one cell site, before they progressively expanded nationwide. So, this is not new. Moreover, even though AT Ghana and Telecel have just recently received their connecting entity licenses, there are still issues with their readiness to actually launch and start providing 5G services.

• Telecel is fully integrated and utilising its sites and spectrum for 4G while they wait to resolve the 5G SIM authentication from a core network vendor. That cannot be NGIC’s fault.

• AT Ghana is fully integrated with NGIC, offering a full core network including HSS (home subscriber server). They are ready to announce the 5G services soon, pending final confirmation from NCA.

Meanwhile, as a wholesaler, NGIC keeps paying tower and power bills for the 49 ready sites and for several other sites in the works, even though no operator has launched on the network yet for NGIC to make any money. This is one of the reasons NGIC has asked the NCA for a moratorium (not a complete waiver) on the payment of its licensing fees, so it can at least breathe for a while, until it actually starts making some revenue, when operators have connected and are offering direct services to Ghanaians, then it will resume payment of the licensing fees.

Again, it is our respectful opinion that the minister should have clearly communicated his policy decision for a unified nationwide rollout of 5G by all networks to all players, particularly the wholesaler to whom he gave a clear deadline to start commercial operations by December 2025, or risk losing their license. Failure to communicate such a critical policy decision to the wholesaler, coupled with the approval by NCA to NGIC to start commercial wholesale 5G operations, makes NGIC’s March 3 announcement a genuine one. Moreover, what NGIC announced was its readiness for operators to connect and provide retail services. That was not even a retail service launch, so, what exactly is the harm done?

BUT what exactly triggered the March 3, 2026 announcement by NGIC? Was it just the approval from NCA or something else? This is where it gets tricky.

A day after NGIC made the big announcement, the NCA issued a public notice informing NGIC of steps to amend their license by removing the 10-year 5G exclusivity clause. At first glance, that public notice looked like one of the responses to NGIC’s announcement. But it is not. It is our opinion that it might have been the trigger of the March 3, 2026 announcement.

How so?

On March 2, 2026, a day before NGIC’s big announcement, the NCA wrote to NGIC and informed them about the steps to amend their license and remove the exclusivity clause in 90 days from the day of the notice.

This, in our opinion, may most likely have triggered the announcement just a day after, so that the public would know that the amendment is not for lack of readiness on the part of NGIC.

That for us, was a fair PR move, but not necessarily the best, because it then pushes the regulator to also go public with information that would most likely have been kept private and handled in a manner not to agitate investors.

But for the public announcement, the license amendment notice may have remained private, we think.

But it is important to note that in communicating the license amendment to NGIC and subsequently to the public, NCA noted that the reasons in chief were the failure to meet licensing obligations, with respect to the payment of licensing fees, and also public interest.

The legal backing for the move is Section 14 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775).

So, clearly, if the NCA wrote to NGIC a day before the announcement, then the move to amend the license has nothing to do with the announcement.

That is very important to clarify.

In conclusion, let me state that Ghanaians have been waiting for 5G since November 2024. Sector ministers have since announced several commencement deadlines – December 2024, January 2025, May 2025 and December 2025, all of which created the erroneous impression that Ghanaians will have 5G service from those dates.

Till date, no individual Ghanaian or business in Ghana have access to 5G.

Now we are told the wholesale network is ready, but no service provider is ready to offer direct services to consumers yet because even those who have connected to NGIC, still have some unresolved pre-launch issues.

Again, we are being told that the government’s new policy is to first establish national roaming, on the back of which all operators will be enjoined to start 5G services together.

But some experts say that such a policy, even though well-intended, is practically untenable. Now we don’t even know what's next – whether some operators will start ahead of others or all of them will start together.

We have been waiting since November 2024, and it appears we still have to keep waiting.

-Samuel Dowuona