Reporters challenge Ghana NCA

GOVERNMENT

By Nana Appiah Acquaye, Accra, Ghana

Ghana’s Network of Communications Reporters (NCR) has challenged the National Communication Authority (NCA) to reveal the full figures relating to mobile number portability.

The journalists, who specialise in ICT reporting, have criticized the authority for being slow to update statistics relating to operator subscriber numbers, among other things.

NCR Dean Charles Benoni Okine called on the NCA to release a full report on the market performances of all the telecommunication networks in the country, to give Ghanaians insight into which network is gaining or losing as a result of the implementation of mobile number portability. MNP came into effect in Ghana two months ago.

In an interview with Biztechafrica, Okine said releasing this information to the public would create a new level of transparency in the operations of the national regulator and the network providers.

He described as “unfortunate” the NCA’s failure to release full and accurate figures indicating which of the networks was gaining or losing as a result of the implementation of the MNP.  The NCA recently issued a statement announcing that since the commencement of MNP,  a total of 64,657 mobile phone subscribers had taken advantage of the system to move from one mobile service provider to another while retaining their mobile number.

Commenting on a statement issued out by the NCR, Mr. Okine noted that mobile network operators were churning out their own numbers with regards to the number of subscribers they hold in the country.

“It is amazing that since the introduction of MNP a couple of months ago, the NCA has not been able to [fully] update its market statistics,” he said.