National Communications Authority to confiscate illegal communication gadgets

The National Communications Authority (NCA) is warning all dealers of electronic communication equipments to certify their products or risk having them destroyed when they are discovered to be substandard.

The move, according to the authority, was to prevent accidents and injury as well as to safeguard critical national infrastructural interest.

This directive also follows the introduction of a Type Approval Regime (TAR) to ensure that all devices used in Ghana complied with the technical and regulatory requirements by the authority.

It had been designed to facilitate easy access to market entry, introduce variety of equipment choice for the consumer and maintain consumer rights of quality and safety.

At a stakeholder sensitisation workshop on dealership licensing and equipment authorisation for dealers in communication gadgets, organised by the NCA in Accra, the Deputy Director in charge of Technical Operations at the NCA, Mr Henry Kanor, listed television sets, mobile phones, tablets, modems, set-top boxes and laptops as some of the equipment manufacturers and importers need to certify in line with the regulation.

The workshop was to educate stakeholders on the Authority’s equipment approval type and encourage them to comply with technical and regulatory requirements in importing communication devices.

Mr Kanor said the authority was embarking on series of such workshops to educate dealers, manufacturers and importers on the need to ensure that their equipment were up to standard.

He seized the opportunity to announce the NCA’s plans to launch a world class laboratory to test communication equipment imported into the country. The ultra-modern laboratory, he mentioned, will be expected to test every emitting wireless device such as mobile phones, laptops computer to ensure that the equipment conforms to international standards.

It would also address public health and safety concerns on emissions, strengthen the previous and post market surveillance activities on unapproved devices and facilitate the availability of quality devices.

Mr Isaac Boateng, Manager in charge of Regulatory Administration, NCA, explained equipment authorisation was crucial because it helped to check cyber related threats, drug trade and terrorism activity, consumer privacy, safety of digital transactions and taxes evasion.

Mr Boateng noted that equipment authorisation was also to ensure that electronic communications equipment on the market were environmentally friendly, exposed electromagnetic field were within the required national established limits and ensure guaranteed network quality to customers. He urged the public to report all unregistered and unapproved communications equipment to the Authority and appealed to manufacturers, importers and dealers to visit the NCS’s portal to apply and register.

On his part, the Principal Manager at the Legal Division at the NCA, Mr Robert Apaya, said all electronic goods imported are subject to pre-installing testing to ensure that equipment conform to international standards.

Mr Apaya pointed out that the standards included the specifications of electronic communications equipment that had to be inspected to check if they “meet local and international standards”.

On related offences, he stated that the NCA was mandated to prosecute dealers who were found culpable and were liable to payment of fines, confiscation of their equipment that risked being destroyed or disposed of should those devices fall below standard.