Afriwave Telecom has extended its warm congratulations to the Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana, Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang.

During a courtesy call on the Vice President, the company took the opportunity to brief Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang about the benefits and impacts of the Interconnect Clearinghouse in Ghana.

The team also discussed pertinent issues affecting the telecom industry, particularly regarding the Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) operations and tariff regime and adjustments.

In his address, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Afriwave Telecom, Francis Poku, mentioned that all the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country are interconnected through the ICH.

Interconnection is the linking of the networks of two or more service providers, thus enabling the subscribers on one network to access the subscribers of the other networks. In a multi-operator environment such as Ghana, seamless interconnection has been one of the contributory factors to the growth of the industry.

The Interconnect Clearing House takes over all the functions relating to the preparation of billing information and reconciliation reports and the reconciliation process itself. The Interconnect Clearing House has access to information from all the operators involved in a particular call and, therefore, discrepancies are more easily identified and resolved.

Additionally, any International Wholesale Carriers (IWCs) licenced by the National Communications Authority (NCA) that routes incoming international calls from outside Ghana are also connected to the ICH.

Mr Poku also highlighted a noticeable growth in national interconnect traffic, noting that traffic volumes which were once at an average of 800 million per month in 2016 have now risen to about more than 1 billion minutes per month as of the second quarter of 2025.

He emphasised that the ICH has simplified the interconnect architecture and standardised interconnect business processes among the telecom operators.

He also pointed out that direct foreign exchange inflows from the IWCLs through the ICH have reduced from approximately 20 million dollars to under one million dollars over the last five years. This, he said, is because of alleged pricing out by the Mobile Network Operators and the impact of WhatsApp calls.

Mr Poku appealed to the Vice President to intervene in resolving the financial and policy bottlenecks to help Afriwave Telecom thrive as a wholly Ghanaian-owned company.

In response, the Vice President, Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, acknowledged the critical concerns raised by Afriwave and assured of government intervention.

She also stated that the government will introduce policies that will support the growth of local industries as well as regional expansion.

Afriwave Telecom Ghana Limited is a Ghanaian company which has been licensed by the Government of Ghana through the National Communication Authority to operate and manage Ghana’s Interconnect Clearing House (ICH). The ICH is a single platform which provides access of interconnection to all existing and new network providers.