The country’s biggest mobile phone network operator, MTN, has been adjudged the best network operator in the country at an awards ceremony held last week to climax the second edition of the Ghana Telecom Summit in Accra.
Also the chief executive officer of Vodafone Ghana, Kyle Whitehill, came up tops as the telecom CEO of the year — taking over from Airtel Ghana boss, Philip Sowah.
Overall, the night belonged to Vodafone which swept four other top-prize awards including Best Marketing Campaign, Best Business/Enterprise Solutions Provider, Best Telecom Brand, and Best Customer Care.
Other award winners included Telecom equipment Vendor of the year, Ericsson Ghana; Best Software Company of the Year, Rancard Solutions; Phone of the Year, Techno; and Wholesale Provider of the Year, MainOne Cable.
Others are Most Innovative Mobile Product, Tigo Mobile Insurance; Infrastructure Company of the Year, Helios Towers Ghana; Best ISP of the Year, Busy Internet; Best CSR initiative, MTN; and Best Use of IT in Banking, GT Bank Ghana.
Other special awards presented at the ceremony comprised Special Recognition for services to the Telecom Industry, Paarock Van Percy; Special Recognition for the female Technologist of the Year, Patricia Obo-Nai — who is the Chief Technical officer of Vodafone; and Mobile World Lifetime Achievement, Herman Chinnery Hesse.
The Ghana Telecom Summit and Awards in its second year of running has become the most highly prized industry event of the year, recognising excellence in telecom services in the country.
The theme for this year’s summit was “Consolidating the Growth in the ICT Industry”.
The Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu — who endorsed the awards as a way to improve service quality in the industry — paid a glowing tribute to developments in the telecom industry saying: “The telecommunications industry in Ghana continues to experience tremendous growth as a result of investment in infrastructure development and the favourable enabling environment.
“Ghana has been recognised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to be among the countries with the highest growing communications sector.”
He urged telecom investors to continue seeing Ghana as their number-one choice when making investment decisions and assured them of the safety of their investments.
By Evans Boah-Mensah
