Reliance Industries is Partnering Tech Mahindra and Nokia to Offer 4G and 5G Network Support in Ghana

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), led by Mukesh Ambani, is expanding its telecom playbook beyond India. The company plans to offer 4G and 5G network support in Ghana, the second-most populous country in West Africa.

Reliance is partnering with Anand Mahindra's Tech Mahindra and Finnish multinational telecommunications company Nokia for this venture.

Ghana is poised to roll out 5G services within the next six months, bridging the digital divide and transforming lives and businesses through high-speed mobile data. The Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, expressed inspiration from India's digital infrastructure and low-cost mobile data model. Ghana aims to replicate this success by rapidly expanding 5G services across the country.

Next-Gen Infrastructure Company (NGIC) , which has the Ghanaian government, Ascend Digital, and K-Net as stakeholders, will be involved in this initiative. NGIC is the first neutral 5G shared infrastructure provider in Africa. It has been awarded Ghana's first 5G license and aims to build and operate a nationwide 4G/5G network.

NGIC plans to invest around Rs 1661 crore over three years to scale up its 4G and 5G networks in Africa. This investment will help mobile operators optimize costs by sharing infrastructure resources.

NGIC'S CEO, Harkirit Singh, announced plans to launch its wholesale 4G/5G Network as a Service within the next six months. The company aims to deliver affordable mobile broadband services to all Ghanaians and eventually expand to other parts of Africa.

Radisys, a subsidiary of RIL, will offer NGIC its own 5G software stack. Jio Platforms Ltd’s 5G stack uses Open radio access network technology and gear for delivering 5G-based fixed wireless access (FWA) services in African markets, starting with Ghana.

Anand Mahindra promoted Tech Mahindra is tasked with developing a Cloud-Native Core Network, leveraging platforms from leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMS). This core network will be a critical component in delivering high-speed data access to Ghana people.

Nokia, a global leader in telecom technology, brings its expertise in mobile broadband technology to the table. Nokia will contribute to supporting the establishment of an open-access network model designed to spur innovation and create economic opportunities in Ghana.

Radisys, a global leader in open telecom solutions, was acquired by RIL, in June 2018, to bolster its offerings in the telecom sector, particularly in areas like 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT). The acquisition was at a price of US$1.72 per share in cash, which amounted to a total deal size of approximately $74 million.

Headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon, with an engineering team based out of Bengaluru, India, Radisys has been instrumental in providing disruptive open-centric software, hardware, and service capabilities that enable the migration to next-generation network topologies.

This collaboration of RIL, through its subsidiary Radisys, with Tech Mahindra and Nokia aims to enhance telecom capabilities and digital experiences in Ghana and potentially other African countries.

Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man and the head of Reliance Industries Ltd., has set his sights on Africa with an ambitious telecom venture with the goal of winning mobile broadband customers in a high-growth market of Africa, and Radisys plays a crucial role in this.

Blockchain-powered Traceability Platform TraceX Partners with Ghanaian Agritech Firm Univision to Offer Traceability in the Agri Supply Chain

TraceX Technologies, a blockchain-powered traceability platform that enhances food and supply chain transparency, has forayed into Africa by partnering with Ghana-based agritech consulting firm Univision to offer end-to-end traceability in the agriculture supply chain.

Through this partnership, TraceX and Univision will bring the entire agriculture ecosystem under one platform. From smallholder farmers in Ghana to financial institutions that provide loans to farmers, all members of the agri supply chain will be able to interact and transact under one platform.

Univision Consultancy Ltd offers Ag-Tech Consulting, Agribusiness Mapping, Export Aggregator, and Business Support Services to clients both in Ghana and abroad. As a part of its consulting services, they help agribusinesses in Ghana with the right Ag-tech platforms that would assist them to reduce their cost, improve their operational activities and also improve their yield per acre of their farms. Similarly, as a part of their agribusiness mapping services, they bring several smallholder farmers (cooperatives) together to cultivate a certain farm produce, link them to input companies and financial institutions who can support these farmers with inputs like quality seeds, fertilizers, agrochemicals, provide loans to the farmers, etc and finally, they assist them to market for their produce.

Commenting on the partnership, Isaac Ampiaw, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Univision, said, “One of the main reasons we chose to work with TraceX is that they enable us to bring all the key stakeholders of the ecosystem together under one digital platform. Additionally, they offer an offline and online model of communication that allows smallholder farmers to easily communicate with other members of the supply chain. We look forward to working closely with TraceX to offer end-to-end traceability in the agri supply chain”. 

TraceX’s digital traceability solution offers the following advantages

• Ensure consistent quality in produce: TraceX’s platform offers a crop database with a set of predefined package of practices to achieve quality yield
• Single source of information: TraceX’s technology brings multiple stakeholders onto a single platform to enable the exchange and verification of auditable data.
• Builds trust and transparency: TraceX provides credibility to claims and offers complete provenance of the produce through a quick scan of the QR code
• Maintain regulatory compliance: The farmers have to upload authentication certificates to meet regulatory compliances. The data recorded at each step of the supply chain helps satisfy all regulatory requirements.

Commenting on the partnership, Srivatsa Sreenivasarao, Co-Founder and CEO, TraceX, said, “ Africa is a key geography for us because of the strong growth opportunities that exist for agribusinesses. Supply chain digitization has a lot of potential, particularly in West Africa, and we are happy to partner with Univision to tap into this opportunity. End-to-end digitization enables traceability, which in turn increases opportunities for smallholder farmers and improves their access to capital"

About Univision

Univision Consultancy was established in January, 2018 with the main aim of carrying out Ag-Tech Consulting, Agribusiness Mapping, Export Aggregator and Business Support Services to clients ranging from large corporations to individuals both in Ghana and abroad. Unlike being a traditional business advisory services provider, Univision Consultancy focuses on an innovative approach to help its clients reach their export potential as quickly as possible.

Website: https://univisionconsult.com/

About TraceX

TraceX is a next generation digital agriculture platform that leverages blockchain to connect multiple participants across the food and agri supply chain and help them securely exchange verifiable and auditable data leading to mutual trust, accountability, traceability and transparency amongst the participating actors.

Their solution enables farmers, producer organizations, aggregators, food processors, insurance providers, credit providers, logistics providers, buyers etc to exchange information with mutual trust via a permissioned blockchain digital ledger enabling each one to prove transparency, traceability and provenance of the claims. Farmers, Processors, Procurement folks use their multilingual mobile application and others use web-based applications to interact with the system.

Website: https://tracextech.com/