The New Ghana Social Justice Forum (NGSJF), has urged Civil Society Organizations not to be quiet on Telecommunication Companies (Telcos) internet data fraud that is causing high cost of internet in the country.
According to Mr. Abdallah Musah ,the Vice President of the (NGSJF), they have researched, and are
of the realization of the high level internet data fraud by Telcos, making the
cost of internet very expensive in Ghana, as compared to other countries, a high cost lamented by the world bank, which urged the Communications ministry to adopt measures to bring the cost down to
enable a lot Ghanaians or residents use the internet at affordable prices.
Speaking in a press conference in Accra, he said,“It is very
unfortunate that the media, the big boys, etc are all quiet on the high cost of
internet, for fear of not getting sponsorship from the Telcos. Even the
political parties find it difficult to come out strongly to criticize these
companies; MTN, VODAFONE, or AIRTELTIGO. Simply because, we have a firm belief
that these Telcos sponsor political parties during electioneering campaigns,
therefore, making it difficult for political parties to also come out to criticize
them on the subject”.
He said, the worse is that in Ghana, there’s no consumer
protection organization that protects the Ghanaian consumer, and if we even
have such an organization, “they don’t even have a voice”.
“The worse of it all is that Ghanaians love being on Social
media, which is so expensive, meaning that the average Ghanaian cannot save or
invest money, since he/she is being extorted for paying much money for what he
described as the desired internet.
According to him ,this is supported by the system like the
big boys, organizations etc all because of money .So, there’s a big corruption
there, that is exploiting the ordinary Ghanaian”, he stressed.