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ACCRA – THE chief executive officer of Vodafone Ghana, Haris Broumidis, projected local internet penetration to reach 50 percent in 2019.
The growth, he said, would be driven by huge network coverage, expansion in local market and significant increase in smartphones and tablets.Broumidis therefore encouraged the government, regulators and mobile operators to embrace the growth as it had a direct impact on improving living standards and the growth of businesses in the country.

“ICT solutions help businesses to connect better with their customers, help to cut cost, drive efficiency and improve profitability,” he told participants at the West Africa Telecom Summit in Accra.

He noted that encouraging internet growth would require innovative ways of managing the growing demand of data consumption.

“Since 2008, data has grown quite rapidly from mainly a SAT 3 fibre optic cable to 3G.   Within the same period internet penetration had also grown from 7 to 24 percent in 2014, with the democratisation of internet to ensure they were readily available to homes and offices,” said chief executive Broumidis.

He said Vodafone Ghana would continue to support internet growth in the country by expanding into rural Ghana to connect them to the world and help grow SMEs.

The country’s current internet penetration stands about 17 percent while figures from National Communications Authority (NCA) indicated that Ghana’s mobile data subscription hit 47 percent in February 2014. – CAJ News.