Spectrum Fibre Limited (a fibre infrastructure company and a subsidiary of Broadspectrum Group), led by its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Razak Awudulai, has recently, paid a courtesy call on the Chief Executive Officer of the Telecoms Chamber of Ghana, Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey and the management of the Chamber.
The visit was to formally introduce Spectrum Fibre Limited and related subsidiaries of Broadspectrum Limited to the Chamber and to seek a mutually beneficial relationship between the Chamber and Spectrum Fibre Limited.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Telecoms Chamber, Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey gave a brief overview of the members that make up the chamber, which are the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), the Tower Companies, the Fibre infrastructure companies and the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and plans to include a few others that work in the connectivity space such as the FinTech companies.
The Telecoms Chamber, he said, basically runs on two principles. First, Co-Opetition, which He explained as the Chamber requiring its members to cooperate with each other and also compete amongst themselves thus pushing the boundaries of the industry with a focal interest, that brings the second paradigm; Sim-Pacting; which is impacting lives through technology.
He made it clear that, the focus of the Chamber is delivering the best connectivity to the customer, advocating for the Telecoms industry, and finding ways to support their members to better deliver the results that customers want.
Detailing the scope of operations and footprints of Spectrum Fibre Limited, Group Chief Commercial Officer (GCCO), Mr. Maxwell Dodd explained that Spectrum Fibre Limited in collaboration with the Government of Ghana through a partnership with the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), is delivering over 800km of fibre infrastructure across the western corridor, making up over 114 communities in the western part of the country.
Group Chief Commercial Officer (GCCO), Mr. Maxwell Dodd mentioned that, unprecedented fibre cable cuts across the nation due to Galamsey activities and road construction remains one of the major challenges the company face in its operations.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chamber, Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey disclosed that fibre cuts remain the bane for the telecommunications companies in Ghana. According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chamber, Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey, losses incurred as a results of fiber cuts was approximately $6.6million in 2020.
This according to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chamber did not include losses which might have been incurred by Spectrum Fibre Ltd. He added that these damages are due to activities like road construction (public or private developers), cranes, gas filling stations, etc.
He also said that the Chamber is championing the cause by bringing together road construction contractors, utility companies, and some other professional bodies to discuss the impact of fibre cuts on service delivery and how to mitigate such losses.
The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Broadspectrum limited, Mr. Razak Awudulai underscored on the importance of collaboration between the private and public sector to address the Telecommunication problems of the country. He spoke on the need to build trust and share knowledge and experience to address National problems in Telecommunications.
The Chamber also shared some programs and initiatives they execute throughout the year of which some included the Total Tax Contribution event, i.e., an event that gives insights of the contribution (taxes, levies and fees) by the sector to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and on job creation.
There are events such as the Knowledge Forum and the Chamber Dialogue which discusses topical issues by experts and seeks to give members a platform to engage on uprising issues in the sector via social media and traditional radio. The Chamber also speaks a lot about contentious matters on behalf of its members, meets with select committees and engage with the public as much as possible.
Mr. Derek Barnabas Laryea, the Head of Research and Communications at the Chamber of Telecommunication was the other representative that joined the meeting.
The Spectrum Fibre team included Maxwell Dodd (Group Chief Commercial Officer), Sam Osew-Kwatia (Group Chief Financial Officer), Dr. Kwame Annor (Group Human Capital Director) & Ranstina-Lee Opare-Saforo (Head of Marketing, PR & CX).
