When we founded EWIA Investments GmbH, our sole aim was to provide sub-Saharan entrepreneurs - usually SMEs - with a green, reliable and affordable electricity supply by financing PV systems. However, it soon became clear that we needed to set up a subsidiary that would install PV systems and telecommunications masts, among other things, in order to generate additional business, particularly with large companies that do not require financing. For this reason, EWIA Infrastructure Ltd. was founded as a German-Ghanaian joint venture for the construction of infrastructure projects.
EWIA Infrastructure erects mobile towers
EWIA Infrastructure is currently erecting 14 mobile towers in rural areas in northern Ghana for our customer Reime Ghana Ltd, a telecommunications company belonging to the NETIS Group.
Of these, three masts have already been erected, four more are nearing completion, another is 60% finished and the next mast will be tackled this weekend.
Initially, construction was delayed slightly due to supply bottlenecks for the components and the rainy season and general weather conditions also presented us with challenges. Five of the 14 construction sites are currently on hold because soil samples have yet to be analysed.
Wait, there is more!
Nevertheless, Reime Ghana awarded us the contract for seven additional transmission masts, meaning that we will be erecting a total of 21. In addition, there are another ten so-called ‘DONOR sites’ in the pipeline, which will be added shortly. Donor antennas receive the signal from smaller mobile phone masts and feed this into the fibre optic network.
Ghana pushes ahead with digitalisation
Like everywhere else in the world, functioning mobile networks and broadband internet are key to a prosperous economy and catalyse development - especially in Africa.
As part of the Ghanaian government's roadmap for digital transformation, the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), an agency affiliated with the Ministry of Communications and Digitisation, has initiated Rural Tower Projects (RTP) to build 1500 identified sites in rural areas of Ghana.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 60% of people live in rural areas. Only a minority are even connected to a 3G network and only around a fifth have subscribed to mobile internet services.
Expanding broadband access is a costly endeavour, as radio masts are 18% more expensive in rural areas and 35% more expensive in remote areas than in cities. Installing such a tower typically costs around $120,000, although the cost can be as high as $1 million depending on local conditions, Huawei calculated.
What's more, Huawei said, operator revenues in these areas can be 90% lower than in cities, meaning it can take up to ten years for operators to recoup their initial investment. As a result, many villages remain cut off from the Internet.
We are therefore very pleased to be able to contribute to the expansion of the network and to be able to equip these towers with PV in an environmentally friendly way. EWIA Infrastructure had previously equipped a 50 metre high telecommunications mast with PV for Rainbow Mobile Networks in Sagyimase in the Eastern Region, located between Accra and Kumasi (read more here).
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