The Civil Engineers Association of Ghana says it may need the intervention of a higher authority in addressing their concerns with mobile phone operators in the country.
Members of the Association are upset with the operators for their preference for foreign companies to local ones in their technical projects such as the management of their masts or towers.
Whilst tiGo sold its towers to Helios Africa in January, Vodafone Ghana outsourced its towers to Eaton Towers in October 2010. The latest is MTN Group Ltd which has also initiated moves with American Tower Corporation to set up a joint venture that will manage its infrastructure in Ghana.
The Civil Engineers Association of Ghana say the phenomenon is unduly undermining local capacity and participation. President of the Association, Edward Amanor told Citi Business the companies would be demonstrating their true commitment to the development of the country by engaging the services of local engineers and giving them the necessary training where necessary to take care of the masts.
“We have six or seven telecoms companies in the country. What are they doing that is new? What they are doing that is new is how to lay and install fibre optics. Why don’t they spend some little money to train the Ghanaian contractors who are in the telecom sector so they can take over these things? If we cannot get any local company with that capacity, we can build that capacity. We can even put together all the local construction companies together and build them up. It would take about one month to six weeks.”
Source: Citifmonline.com
