Ghana eSIM
Data for Ghana on MTN and Vodafone, from $8.89. It never expires, tethering is included, and refills land on the line you already have, with nothing new to install.
- Networks
- MTN and Vodafone
- Typical speed
- 31 Mbps typical, 7 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- yes, non standalone
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans for Ghana
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $8.89 | $8.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $5.96 | $17.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $5.18 | $25.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $4.49 | $44.89 | |
| 20 GB | Never expires | $3.94 | $78.89 |
Every plan works the moment you land. Unused data returns to your wallet when the line closes, and customers get at least 100 MB of free rescue data a month even at zero balance.
What 31 Mbps actually means in Ghana
Typical download speed on Orbislo in Ghana: 31 Mbps. That sits close to the Africa median of 30 Mbps, which makes Ghana an unremarkable place to be connected, in the good sense.
The tenth percentile is 7 Mbps. That gap between the median and the floor is normal and it is where the frustration lives: the connection is quick most of the time and noticeably slow in the busiest few percent of moments, typically at transport hubs at peak hour.
Maps, messaging, ride hailing and payment apps all work without complaint. Video calls connect but will drop resolution, and streaming is better set to standard definition than left on automatic. Tethering a laptop works for email and documents rather than for calls.
Which networks you will be on
Orbislo carries traffic in Ghana on MTN and Vodafone. Your phone is not tied to one of them. When the network you are attached to congests or drops, the profile moves you to the other, and it happens without a prompt and without you noticing anything except that the connection kept working.
This matters more than the headline speed. Almost every travel eSIM sold today resells a single upstream agreement per country, so when that one network has a bad hour you have a bad hour with it and your only option is to buy a second eSIM from somebody else. A profile with more than one network behind it can make a decision you never see.
5G in Ghana: yes, non standalone. Worth knowing that 5G on a travel profile is normal rather than special, and that the tenth percentile above is the number that will decide how the trip feels, not the generation label in the status bar.
What data costs in Ghana
A 500 MB plan for Ghana starts at $1.22, which is $0.00 a gigabyte. That is the number to compare between providers, because a headline price attached to a different allowance tells you nothing.
The comparison most providers would rather you did not run is cost per gigabyte actually used. Independent surveys of travel data put the share of purchased data lost to expiry between 20 and 35 percent, because a plan that expires on day thirty deletes what you did not get through. Orbislo data has no expiry date, so the gigabyte you paid for is still there on the next trip. At the same headline price that is 25 to 40 percent more usable data, and in Ghana it means the effective cost is nearer $0.00 a gigabyte than $0.00.
Because nothing expires, the cheapest way to buy for Ghana is to buy slightly less than you think you need and top up if you run out. Topping up takes about ten seconds and does not involve installing anything. Buying too much is the expensive mistake everywhere else and merely a neutral one here.
Landing in Ghana
Install before you fly, on your home wifi. The profile downloads while you still have a connection you trust, then sits dormant until you land in Ghana and it attaches to MTN.
On landing there is one thing to check: data roaming has to be switched on for the Orbislo line. It is off by default on both iOS and Android, and it has nothing to do with roaming charges here, because the plan is prepaid and there is no bill to run up. Turn it on for the Orbislo line and leave it off for your home line, and your home number keeps working for calls and bank codes without costing anything.
Getting a local SIM in Ghana
A visitor registers against a passport and proof of entry, and the card is activated only after a biometric check against the national identity database has passed.
Worth knowing about Ghana
- Registration happens face to face at an operator agent, who photographs the front and back of the identity document, takes a picture of the subscriber and captures fingerprints before the card is switched on.
- Ghana tracks handsets through a central equipment identity register that captures a device's details the moment it connects, and the regulator uses it to block counterfeit or smuggled phones across every network at once.
How Ghana compares across Africa
- Regional typical speed
- 29.5 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, MTN, Vodafone
- 5G
- Yes, non standalone
- Next fastest nearby
- Botswana, 31 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Morocco, 31 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 1: Accra
