Indian telecommunications operator, Bharti Airtel, may be returning to Ghana in the future, managers of the company have disclosed to government.

According to Minister for Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the covid-19 pandemic compelled many telecom operators to pull out from the African sub-region including the recent decision by owners of Airtel and Millicom to move out of Ghana.

Madam Owusu-Ekuful told Joy Business Airtel will be considering the Ghanaian market at a later date for a possible return.

“We all assume that telecom is the only sector benefiting from the pandemic because a lot of our works have gone virtual, and so we think because a lot of people are using online platforms the companies in this sector are all doing very well.”

But she emphasized “that is not the case universally, as some are struggling and some of the parent companies of these investments in our country have also decided that they're pulling out of certain markets for their own investment reasons. And that's why we have also suffered this fate as a country”.

 Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful further said “Tigo is out of Africa, Airtel is also consolidating its acquisitions around the world and they have decided that Ghana must be one of the countries in which they no longer want to be, the reason we are in this situation.”

The Communications Minister however said, Airtel mentioned that they may come back to the Ghanaian market in the future.

“Airtel has mentioned to us that they're still looking at this market [Ghana] and there's a possibility that they may come back at some later stage. But what we have is a situation at hand and the government is determined to protect the jobs which is very critical” she stressed.

Government has already concluded negotiations to take over Airtel tigo, a joint venture company by the Indian Bharti Airtel and Millicom Africa.

Joy Business however gathers that the new company will be given to industry experts to manage in the interim.