The Government of Ghana has revealed its collaboration with seven industry leaders to develop a new shared infrastructure aimed at providing affordable 5G mobile broadband services throughout the country.The seven partners include Ascend Digital, K-NET, Radisys, Nokia, Tech Mahindra, and two telecommunications companies – AT Ghana and Telecel Ghana.

Together, they have formed the Next-Gen Infrastructure Company (NGIC), which has been granted a 5G license and plans to roll out 5G services across Ghana within the next six months, with subsequent expansion to other regions in Africa.

The company will be the first to establish a nationwide 4G/5G network as a 5G Mobile Broadband Shared Infrastructure Entity. Additionally, it will collaborate with telecom operators to introduce affordable 4G/5G-enabled Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Customer Premises Equipment (CPEs) and smartphones in Ghana within this year.

The partnership aims to improve the lives of Ghanaians by providing digital services in education, healthcare, and digital payment transactions through P2P (peer-to-peer), P2M (peer-to-merchant), and M2M (merchant-to-merchant) systems, thereby bridging the digital divide and promoting financial inclusion.

Moreover, the multi-party collaboration will support NGIC in deploying the entire network infrastructure and associated services, as communication service providers (CSPs) aim to offer enhanced digital services to both enterprise and consumer markets. Tech Mahindra will develop a Cloud Native Core Network utilizing leading OEM (original equipment manufacturer) platforms to achieve this.NGIC plans to adopt India’s successful model of affordable handsets, digital platforms, and localized content and applications. The objective is to replicate this high-speed mobile data model across Africa, starting with Ghana.