Vodafone Group has agreed a sale of its operations in Ghana to Telecel Group as part of its strategy to refocus on key markets, Bloomberg reports. The London-listed company will sell its majority stake in Vodafone Ghana to Telecel, subject to certain conditions, a Vodafone spokesperson confirmed in a statement. Telecel plans to help fund the acquisition by later offloading the Ghana business’s mobile towers, the news agency claims, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. A representative for Telecel confirmed the talks with Vodafone, but declined to comment further.
Vodafone acquired a 70% stake in national PTO Ghana Telecom from the government in August 2008 for USD900 million. Since then, the company has struggled to compete with dominant market leader MTN; MTN claimed more than 60% of the country’s mobile subscriptions as of 31 March 2022, while Vodafone held almost 19%.