Menu

Ghanaians take on Telcos with #SaveOurData campaign

Sim Card Registration.png The hashtag #SaveOurData is currently number one on twitter

Mon, 2 Dec 2019 Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Some Ghanaians on Twitter are currently on a crusade against telecommunication networks in the country for what they describe as exploitation by the network companies in terms of data and call charges.

Armed with the hashtag #SaveOurData the customers who sound very bitter are expressing their frustrations through a barrage of tweets on the popular social media platform.

The campaign is being spearheaded by popular sports presenter, Saddick Adams also known as Sports Obama, who has made several tweets and retweets on the subject.

As of the time this report was being filed by GhanaWeb.com, the hashtag #SaveOurData was sitting at number one on Twitter trends, with close to ten thousand (10,000) tweets garnered.

This latest development is the ripple effect of the introduction of a 9% Communication Services Tax(CST) by the government of Ghana during the mid-year budget review of 2019. To the angry customers the CST effect is only an add up to the exploitation that was already being carried out by the Telcos, amidst bad services.

To the parties in the triangle, thus: government, the Telcos and the customers, the introduction of the CST has brought various forms of pressure on everyone.

In October this year, following public backlash the Ministry of Communication directed Telcos to stop the upfront deduction of the 9% levy from customers top-ups. According to the sector the minister, Ursula Owusu Akuful, the method used by the Telcos was creating a public disaffection against the government. She also directed the Telcos rollover customer’s unused data and not put expiration limits on them.

Following the directive by the ministry, the Telcos announced they were going to cease the upfront deduction and incorporate the charges in their rates.

The restructuring of rates by the Telcos to incorporate the CST clearly seems to have not favoured the Ghanaian customers, as they have now taken to Twitter to express their frustrations against the Telcos using the hashtag #SaveOurData.

Read some of the Tweets below

















Source: www.ghanaweb.com