The Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Communication announced that provisions of the Electronic Communications (EC) Act 2008 and National Telecommunication will be enforced to ensure that there is a healthy competition among telecommunication players.
Under the National Telecommunications Policy (NTP), an operator with 40% or more market share in voice, data, SMS, and value-added services like Mobile Money, is considered a Significant Market Power (SMP).
Per this policy, the NCA has declared Scancom Ltd. (MTN) as a Significant Market Power and the regulator is required to take corrective measures under the law to facilitate more market competition.
Speaking on the issue, Telecommunication Expert, Professor Patrick A. Boateng has said that the Government’s action is a step in the right direction.
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning show, he revealed that this action is to the benefit of consumers as it affords them the opportunity to choose from a variety of service providers.
“In any free market, the Government has to make sure that the industry players remain competitive on an ongoing bit and the reason for that is to protect anyone of them becoming a monopoly where the action of that monopoly ultimately does not give consumers the choice of products or the ability to decide in choosing which industry player that they want to basically give their money to”.
He furthered that this call for the Government to do away with the dominance by one telecommunication company is not surprising as the law had already made provisions to check the monopoly of one player in the industry.
“Looking at the telecom industry here, the electronic act of telecommunications act of 2008 anticipated that there may come a time where an industry provider may be a monopoly. And if that happens what does the regulator do? So the law anticipated that basically there should be a provision in law to give the regulator the ability to make certain assessments as to how to deal with that”, he said.
Professor Boateng stressed the benefit of this action by stating, “All that is to the benefit of the economy, consumers and to Government at large. That is what is happening right now”.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah