Communications Minister Sam George has disclosed that PPL Net Ghana Limited must meet key legal and regulatory requirements, including submitting outstanding audited accounts, before it can receive additional spectrum.

Speaking at the swearing-in of the company’s new Board of Directors, Sam George said the National Communications Authority (NCA) could not legally allocate spectrum to a company that had failed to submit its audited accounts.

“The NCA cannot issue spectrum to a company or an entity that has not submitted audited accounts. These are base requirements that if you gloss over today, tomorrow can become questions on the grounds of the spectrum,” he stated.

Sam George said Cabinet had taken a decision on making spectrum available to PPL Net, which owns and operates the AT Ghana brand.

He said he had subsequently issued a policy directive to the NCA to make spectrum available to PPL Net in three different bands, subject to the company meeting the relevant legal requirements.

“I issued a policy directive to the NCA to make spectrum available in, I think, three different bands to PPL, but contingent on meeting the legal requirement,” he explained.

According to the Minister, PPL Net’s audited accounts are currently about a year in arrears.

The Chief Executive Officer of PPL Net Ghana Limited has welcomed the inauguration of the company’s new Board of Directors, describing it as an opportunity to demonstrate the potential of an all-Ghanaian telecommunications network.

The CEO said the company intends to challenge the perception that telecommunications networks must be large in scale to operate efficiently.

He said PPL Net would focus on growing its subscriber base while maintaining operational efficiency as it seeks to strengthen its position in Ghana’s telecommunications market.

“This is an opportunity for us to demonstrate what an all-Ghanaian telecommunications network can truly do. For too long, there has been a belief that a network has to be enormous to be efficient. We intend to challenge that thinking,” the CEO stated.

He added that the parent company also has outstanding accounts that need to be addressed.

Sam George said the newly constituted board has a responsibility to address the outstanding issues and position the company to move to the next stage of its operations.

“The board has its work cut out for it to ensure that you take the requisite steps to sort out the audited accounts and then also do the necessary changes to the Registrar of Companies on the directors that exist, especially for PPL, so that we can immediately move to the next phase of what has to be done with both AT Ghana and PPL Net Ghana Limited,” he said.

He described the inauguration of the board as necessary to enable the company to address the governance and regulatory matters standing in the way of further progress.

The Minister also disclosed that he had issued a policy directive to GIFEIC on the release of access for PPL Net to use the GIFEIC core.

However, he said that directive was also subject to the company meeting outstanding requirements.

“Apart from the audited accounts, there were issues about directors of the entity as well that needed to be addressed, and all of those needed to be addressed by the board,” he said.

Sam George noted that nearly two months had passed since the ministry issued the policy directive, but the process had not progressed because PPL Net did not have a board in place.

With the new board now sworn in, he expects the outstanding governance and regulatory issues to be addressed to allow the company to proceed with the next phase of its operations.

PPL Net Ghana Limited owns the assets and operates the AT Ghana telecommunications brand.

The company is wholly owned by Airtel Ghana, which is in turn fully owned by the Government of Ghana.

The government has been supporting efforts to reposition AT Ghana, with access to additional spectrum considered important to strengthening the network’s capacity and competitiveness.

The new board is therefore expected to address the outstanding audited accounts and corporate governance requirements as the company works towards securing the spectrum needed for its operations.