MTN, Airtel slammed with fines in Ghana

There seems not to be respite for two of the nation's mobile operator,MTN and Airtel as their sister companies in Ghana has been slammed with fine over poor service barely less than three weeks when they got a knock from the Nigerian Communications Commission over similar offense.The National Communications Authority, (NCA) in Ghana imposed a fine of 1.2 million Ghana Cedi fine on MTN, Vodafone, Airtel, Expresso and Tigo for rendering sloppy services to their subscribers. The punishment, which covers the third quarter of this year, forms part of a strategy by the NCA to ensure that MTN, Vodafone, Airtel, Expresso and Tigo do not take subscribers for granted in their operations. According to a statement by the NCA said that Airtel would suffer the heaviest fine of 350,000 Ghana Cedis for experiencing call channel traffic congestion, an offence for which market leader, MTN, has also been cited. However MTN and Expresso will each pay 300,000 Ghana Cedis.Deputy Director In Charge of Consumer and Corporate Affairs at the NCA, Mr Mawuko Zormelo, said that the NCA wants to ensure that the telecom companies improve their services "for consumers to have absolute value for money."He said that although the telecom companies have invested heavily in infrastructure, more needs to be done to ensure that subscribers get value for their money.According to him, the NCA is also determined to compel the operators not only to improve their services but also to take their customer service seriously.The parameters considered in imposing the penalties, he said, were call drops, call congestion, which are similar offense that have made the affected operators to incur the wrath of the Nigerian Communication Commission. Mawuko Zormelo rejected suggestions that the fines are too negligible, stressing that the purpose of the fine was to achieve the overall objective of improved mobile telephony services to subscribers and that the money would go the state.
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