Prospects for the privatized telecommunication service and information delivery in Ghana

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Date
1999-02-22
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The development taking place in the global economy has shown that private sector is the engine of growth for an economy. The government of Ghana wants to shrike its dominance of economic activities in the country. Telecommunication sector was seen as an instrument that would facilitate the creation of an enabling environment for the development of the economy. However, this sector was characterised by public monopoly. The operation of telecommunication service was therefore constrained by high cost of operation, high incidence of cable theft, limited equipment capacity, weak management information system, among other things. To address these problems, the privatisation policy was extended to the telecommunication sector to encourage private participation which has the needed capital, expertise and technology and also introduce competition into the sector. It was against this background that the study was pursued. The study aimed at determining whether privatisation introduced into the service has brought about innovation and new technology; investigate the effect of the policy of privatising telecommunication service and the response to the demand of customers, workers and the economy as a whole. It is also to identify new services introduced as a result of privatising the service and also to offer useful policy recommendations for effective implementation of privatising the sector. To this effect impact analysis of the Ghana Telecom in terms of spatial distribution and coverage, provision of telephone facilities, profit and revenue generation capacity, quality of service, employment generation and among other things. The study showed that privatisation of the service has yielded much positive result. Analytical exposition revealed an increasing trend for telephone density, profit, improved quality of service, quality of personnel and general efficiency in their operations. Recommendations therefore targeted at strengthening and to design mechanisms for introducing new services, instituting monitoring role for maintenance of the facilities to ensure its sustainability, this will go a long way to improve the service delivery.
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A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the Degree of Master of Science in National Development Policy and Planning, 1999
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