Consumer Protection Is At The Heart Of The Communication Ministry- Ursula Owusu Ekuful

The Minister for Communication and Digitalisation Hon. Ursula Owusu Ekuful says Consumer protection is at the heart of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation and its agencies, as they implement and oversee different pieces of legislation that protect Consumers of Communications services.

According to her, during the covid-19 pandemic, they closely monitored the market, realized the increased use of voice and data for transactions due to social distancing protocols created congestion on the various networks, and took the needed action to ensure that Mobile Networks Operators were not overwhelmed by granting them the use of free spectrum.

She said this enabled them to continue providing much-needed services to consumers relatively seamlessly of which Ghana was the first country to do so.

Mrs. Ekuful indicated that the pandemic underscored the need to transform Ghana’s economy to take full advantage of digital technology to facilitate the growth of the country.

Hon. Ursula stated that they are committed to ensuring that connectivity is improved in the underserved areas and provided to the unserved areas through government’s Rural Telephony Project as they cannot leave anyone behind.

According to Hon. Ekuful, as part of the RTP, 2016 cell sites are being provided across the country to meet the telecom access needs of rural communities in a cost-effective manner by the end of 2023, to connect about 3.5 million more Ghanaians to mobile telecom networks.

In addition, she disclosed that since the inception of the project in November 2020 at Atwereboana in the New Edubiase Constituency, 769 sites have been built, out of which 360 are on Air active and delivering voice and data services to over 120,000 subscribers daily, on the average, across various rural communities, as at May 27, 2022.

Furthermore, Hon. Ursula Owusu Ekuful emphasized that as part of their efforts to improve customer experience, the National Roaming Service, which allows phones to automatically connect to the Mobile Network with the best quality of service available in any area, regardless of which Operator one is primarily a subscriber to, has been activated on the rural Telephony network dubbed RURALCOM.

The Minister of Communication made these known in Kumasi on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, at the Consumer Forum on telecommunications services dubbed “Ensuring a safe and Secured Telecommunications Environment for the Consumer” at the Prempeh Assembly Hall.

Source: Opemsuo.com/Kwame Adu Gyamfi Kumanin.