Telecom Consumers in Ghana

I am yet to meet a Ghanaian who has not been ripped off by one of the many telecommunication companies in Ghana in a way of bad and or poor service.

One common expectation of any consumer is to get his or her money worth. However, when it comes to Ghana, no matter how much of a demand the consumer makes, they are still likely to be given less value for the hard earned cash. One of the sectors which champion this lopsided relationship between what they offer and what consumers pay is the telecommunication sector in Ghana. Most of the networks in Ghana are a mess.

You do not have to be with them to know how poor they are with their services. Their customers will easily give you the sentiments from their facial expressions and unending complaints; if the phone of every person you try to reach is not switched off, then all the people you are calling are busy on their phones; if there is no network congestion, then the phone call you are paying for will cut off anytime the conversation is getting interesting; if the internet modem you purchased will not take forever to open a page, then it will disconnect the moment you see something that you really want to read or look at; if the little rains will not disrupt your internet service, it will surely make it excessively slow; if the credits (units) on your phone are not being stolen by dwarfs when you have not used them, then you are a lucky Ghanaian. Do not get excited, even with your luck, you will still be told you have no credit to make a call when your balance says otherwise; if you do not have to wait till your battery dies before you get to speak to a customer service agent, she or he will intentionally cut the phone call when you begin to tell her your problem and she figures out she cannot help.

If you are not confused as me when it comes to the countless packages these operators advertise to the extent that you do not even know which one is really cheap and good for you, then you do not simply have a mobile phone or data plan.

Recently the National Communication Authority conducted a survey onto the performances and consumers expectations in the telecom sector in Ghana.

It is very frightening that in spite of the fact that over 7 million telecom consumers in Ghana cannot get value for their monies, the NCA could come to a conclusion that the survey response was satisfactory.

Now we are told that the NCA in its attempt to bring some sanity to the industry has barred Expresso Ghana from carrying out marketing promotions until there is an improvement in their service delivery. This sounds positive but one would have expected that equally punitive measures should be taken against Telcos whose performances are very shoddy.

For instance, the Cellular Mobile Consumer Satisfaction Survey 2012/13 Survey claims that MTN and Vodafone service delivery are very sub standard both in terms of charges and quality of service. They are far from meeting the benchmarks and yet the NCA does not find it necessary to sanction them in any way.

The concept of organising surveys in the telecommunication industry is positive and ought to be commended. However the operational conduct of the Cellular Mobile Consumer Satisfaction Survey 2012/13 Survey makes one doubt the integrity of the survey report.

About 400 field officers were trained for three days on how to administer close to 25 page questionnaire.

They were to spend ten days covering the whole country and they were made to believe that the agency would collaborate with the various District Assemblies to facilitate their transportation and access to hinterlands. These field officers were eventually given about gh?500.00 each and left on their own in the jungle.

Credible information indicates that a lot of the survey officers could not access some parts of the country resulting in a situation where questionnaires were filled without talking to mobile consumers.

Currently telecom consumers in Ghana are faced with numerous troubles including schemes designed by some of the telecom companies to take hard earned currencies from the people of Ghana and attitudes that have no regards to public interest.

All that the Ghanaian consumer expects is that, telecom companies should deliver the services they promise and for which the consumers are paying them monies.

Dauda Mohammed Suru.

daudasuru@yahoo.com

Member of Consumer Action Front.