Ningo Prampram lawmaker, Samuel Nartey George has said he believes the government has something to hide in relation to the AirtelTigo agreement.
He said the answers provided by the Minister of Communications and Digitalization Ursula Owusu-Ekuful in Parliament regarding this agreement left more questions to be answered by the government.
“The minister has erred,” he told Johnnie Hughes on the New Day show on TV3 Monday, February 21.
“She came to answer a question I had filed and it was clear, her answers left more questions to be answered. Clearly, there is a lot that has been hidden,” Sam George who is a member of the Communications Committee in Parliament added.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, while answering questions in Parliament on Tuesday, February 15, said that the government is still at the closing obligation stage of the deal with AirtelTogo to take over 100 per cent ownership of the telecom company.
She said, “We are still in the closing obligation stage of this transaction and so all the legal, constitutional processes will be completed on the advice of the Attorney General by the end of this meeting.”
The government of Ghana in November 2021 completed the takeover of the ownership of AirtelTigo, operators of the network, Bharti Airtel disclosed in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
“This is in further to our announcement dated October 27, 2020, and April 16, 2021, regarding Government of Ghana’s takeover of ownership of Airtel/Tigo Joint Venture. We wish to update that the transaction has been completed and 100% shares of Airtel Tigo have been transferred to the Government of Ghana,” Bharti Airtel said.
In April this year, the government of Ghana signed an agreement for the transfer of ownership of telecommunications company AirtelTigo, a joint venture between Bharti Airtel and telecom operator Millicom International Cellular SA (Tigo), which jointly operates in the country.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful signed on behalf of the government of Ghana, while Ms. Jatina Catharina Uneken-van de Vreede, Mr. Martin P Frechette, Mr. Timothy Pennington, Mr. Eric Nana Nipah and Mr. Vish Ashiagbor signed on behalf of the seller entities.