The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), a pressure group says though the basic needs of life include food, clothing and shelter, mobile telecommunications has also become the fourth essential consumer product of the Ghanaian, and is calling on government to facilitate the passage of a law on general consumer protection against poor services provided by mobile networks in the country. Launching a campaign for telecommunication efficiency services in Ghana dubbed “The Voices for Telecommunication Efficiency (VOTE) initiative” in Accra on Thursday, Chairman of AFAG, Nana Dr. Kwame Afriyie indicated that government could set up a consumer protection authority under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Consumer Protection to assist consumers as evidenced in Botswana and other African countries. The initiative aims to empower consumers to bring out the numerous problems they encounter using these mobile telecommunications networks in the country. For this intended exercise, AFAG hinted that it had recruited about 820 volunteers from tertiary institutions to collect data and signatures of all consumers across the country as a starting point to address the inefficiencies. “Indeed, one can state emphatically that telecommunication service in this country is expensive and not universally accessible”, pointing out that it contravened the National Telecommunication Policy (NTP), stipulated under section 4.6 on tariffs. It reads; “all tariff determination must take into account the interest of consumers of services, especially those with lower incomes”. Interestingly, invited stakeholders in the industry; the National Communication Authority (NCA), Ministry of Communication, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), Zain, Vodafone, MTN, Kasapa and Milicom-Tigo were all absent. A situation, the group saw as unjustifiable. However, Dr. Afriyie mentioned that in a recent market survey conducted by AFAG, out of a list of essential needs, “55% of adults above 18 years in gainful employment preferred the use of mobile telephone in addition to a house and a car whilst 95% of all those unemployed including students preferred for now the use of mobile telephone currently over a car and a house”. He added that 100 per cent of all those interviewed found the use of mobile telephone as a necessity but expensive and requested for an urgent involvement of civil society to ensure fairness, efficiency and equity. Moreover, the Chairman of the pressure group, described the NCA as being weak, citing failure in its mandate to protect the rights of telecommunications consumers, monitor the activities of operators to comply and give quality services to their loyal customers. On behalf of the group, Dr. Afriyie challenged the NCA to make available all latest enforcement on networks, based on a market survey and consumer complaints. Also, he reminded the NCA and all other mobile telephone operators that as per the National Telecommunication Policy of the Republic of Ghana under section 4; regulations of the telecommunication market should be the primary regulator under the guidance of the Ministry of Communication. Credit: Nathaniel Y.Yankson