GVG Deal: Telcos Left in Limbo Due to Lawsuit

Telecommunications companies yet to connect to the Common Monitoring Platform operated by Kelni GVG are in limbo due to a suit brought against the Ministry of Communications.

Two individuals, Sara Asafu-Adjaye and Maximus Amertogoh, have filed a case restraining the government from implementing the Common Platform which Kelni GVG was set to implement.

Prior to the suit, the Ministry of Communication had issued a deadline of June 11, 2018, for the telcos to connect to the platform or face sanctions.

However, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has been joined to the said lawsuit.

While acknowledging that the chamber has been attached to the suit, the CEO of the chamber Ken Ashigbey said they will work with the National Communications Authority (NCA) in a manner that does not violate the law.

“The injunction has been served on me, so I’m speaking to my lawyers to advice on what we need to do. So now I need to be careful how I deal with this so I’m not found to be in contempt of the law. The way forward for the chamber is to be able to work with the Ministry and the NCA to be able to do this thing in such a way that we do not fall foul of the law. The question for us is how do we do it in such a way that privacy issues and security of the network issues are dealt with?”

Mr. Ashigbey added that collaboration between all the stakeholders was the best way forward.

“I’m pretty sure we can work with the NCA at this stage to be able to find a way of resolving this problem. If there is an injunction we would obey the law. Whatever it is the law says we would try to do just that,” he stressed.

Concerns over Kelni GVG deal

There have been suggestions that telcos are not pleased with the common platform monitoring system being implemented by Kelni GVG.

Some observers have also raised concerns about the privacy customers of telcos.

A lot of the criticism of the deal, which is costing Ghana $89 million, has come from think tank IMANI Africa.

But the Communications Ministry insisted that these fears have been assuaged.

IMANI Africa first sounded an alarm over the details of the deal and called for its immediate termination.

President of Imani Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, argued that the agreement mirrored the controversial agreements the state entered into with Subah Infosolutions and Afriwave Telcom Ltd in 2010 and 2016 respectively.

He also raised the privacy concerns while questioning the credibility of Kelni GVG.

Source: Citibusinessnews