Author(s): Eric Osei Owusu-Kumih, Millicent Asah-Kissiedu and Millicent Wiafe-Kwagyan
After the telecommunication reform Act was passed in 1996, Ghana's telecommunication evolution began. The emergence and dominance of small and medium companies (SMEs) in Ghana is a backdrop to this liberalization and deregulation success story. The goal of this study is to find empirical evidence to support, if any, the influence of liberalization in the telecommunication sector on Ghana's steady growth of SMEs. The 261 SME owner respondents from Ghana's three major commercial centers were analyzed using a survey research design and structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that liberalizing the telecom sector has influenced SMEs' growth in Ghana via the mediating roles of technology and innovations, market accessibility, and resource availability, all of which are key growth determinants for SMEs in Ghana. This means that liberalization provided an opportunity for SMEs to innovate, build new market channels, and develop the correct technology applications for effective and efficient resource scouting, acquisition, and development for their own use using the technological tools accessible to them.