Audio By Carbonatix
The Executive Director of the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA), Kofi Kapito, insists that the agency’s work is purposely for the public’s interest and deserves the support of all Ghanaians in its primary demand for ‘value for money from all service providers’.
Contributing to a discussion on the low quality of service in Ghana’s mobile phone industry - on last Sunday’s Tarzan’s Take, Kofi Kapito noted that the effectiveness of the CPA did not depend on its legal status but rather on its success as a pressure group.
The CPA's aim according to Kapito, is to make the case for, and get the support of Ghanaians to ensure that the telecom industry provides quality service.
He described the relationship between his group, the National Communication Authority and the mobile phone companies as lukewarm and ineffective.
He explained that even though the NCA has cordially received letters of complaints from the CPA on some unacceptable practices by the service providers, the end results had been overwhelmingly disappointing as the NCA always sought refuge in its standard 'do nothing response' of : “we are working on it”
“I am tired of the excuses” is how a clearly frustrated and exasperated Kofi Kapito describes the poor cooperation and inaction of the NCA.
He cited an instance of still waiting to meet the NCA and one of the Telecom companies over five months after he wrote to the Regulator. He was ultimately told that the company had declined to meet with any consumer group. NCA did nothing to help resolve the matter, according to Kofi Kapito.
He affirmed that; it is the duty of the NCA as the industry regulator to protect the interests of the consumers, and warned that if the NCA continued to fail in its duties, the CPA will go to court to get redress for the hapless Ghanaian consumer.
Although Mr. Kapito is optimistic that if and when Ghana finally passes the long-awaited Consumer Protection Law, it will make his organization’s work and that of individual consumers easier and more effective. He is however doubful of the political will to do so as successive governments had promised and failed to pass a law.
However, a positive sounding Kofi Kapito concluded that he was hopeful this time round because he had been assured “that by the end of the year or early quarter of next year we should see something concrete”.
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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