By William Yaw Owusu
Monday March 22, 2010
The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) appears to have ‘calmed’ down on the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and turned the heat on the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the mobile telecommunication service providers whom they are accusing of “exploiting consumers”.
On Thursday at the SSNIT Guest House in Accra, AFAG launched what it calls the ‘Voices for Telecommunication’ (VOTE), an initiative that is going to put pressure on the NCA to force the telecommunication companies to provide quality and value-for-money services for Ghanaians.
It says it has already received about 820 volunteers mostly from the tertiary institutions to help them administer questionnaires on the public’s perception of the services of the telecommunication industry.
Although AFAG had sent invitations to the Ministry of Communications, the NCA, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) and all the mobile phone companies, not a single representative from the above-mentioned honoured the invitation to the launching, reinforcing the widely-held view that mobile phone companies do not attach seriousness in addressing the concerns of the Ghanaian consumer.
AFAG however made it clear that the Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, had personally asked a representative from the NCA to participate in the launching but nobody from the authority was present at the SSNIT Guest House.
Launching the initiative, Nana Kwame Afriyie Ayew, a Chairman of AFAG “the time has come for civil society organizations to stand up and speak against the injustices in the provision of mobile telecommunication services.”
“The telecommunications sector has been liberalized and services are mainly supplied by the private sector. There is therefore the urgent need to seek fairness and efficiency needed by the Ghanaian consumer”.
Nana Ayew said although the NCA under the telecommunication policy is expected to offer consumer protection, monitor operator activity, compliance and performance as well as quality service oversight, “the authority does not appear to be performing these key functions efficiently”.
“We want to remind the NCA and all mobile telephone operators that the Ghanaian consumer can no longer be taken for granted. We are going to work hard to ensure that the NCA exercises its constitutional mandate of putting an effective check on the mobile phone operators to provide quality service”.
He said the problem of consumer exploitation could be solved if the government passed a law establishing consumer protection authority to provide information for the public and taking away the protection rights from the NCA.
Kwabena Bonfeh, a leading member of AFAG said the group was not against the directive by the government to force all mobile communication companies to register their customers, saying “our only problem has been the source of the directive since this should have come from the NCA and not the National Security.”
He said the sim card registration “will actively enforce the contractual between consumers and mobile network operators.”
Samuel Awuku, another leading member of AFAG said that the group was now poised to embark on the initiative and said they will not hesitate to make public the findings of their nationwide survey, saying “for now these companies can afford to sit in their offices and not bother about what we are starting. We will work hard to empower consumers to demand accountability from them”.
Arnold Boateng another member of AFAG said “consumers all over the world enjoy affordable call rates far cheaper than what Ghanaians are paying for the same services and this cannot continue to go on.”
James Apietu Ankrah, a former Member of Parliament who chaired the launching called on all Ghanaians to support the initiative to help to bring respite to the consumer.
Also see : www.dailyguideghana.com
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