Government has put measures in place for the reintroduction of TV licenses in the country following cabinet’s approval of the ‘modalities’ involved in the distribution of the funds accrued from the licenses.
The Minister of Communications, Edward Omane Boamah, said the processes for the re-introduction of the license were far advanced with the proposal receiving cabinet’s approval earlier in the year.
His announcement came in response to a call by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwesimintsim, Joe Baidoo-Ansah for the re-introduction of the TV license scheme during deliberations on the Communications Ministry’s GH¢ 298 million budget for 2015 in parliament.
[contextly_sidebar id=”6iKg21208tGfoowMqlxaxG3J5u5KPf6K”]“Let me give the assurance that cabinet has already approved, six months ago, the new modalities that we are to adopt in the distribution of whatever is accrued from the TV licensing,” Dr. Omane Boamah said on the floor of Parliament.
The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in April reintroduced the licenses meaning television retailers pay a sum of GHC 2 on any television set sold with the cost passed on to the consumers.
The Minister however revealed that the new license will not be exclusively controlled by the national broadcaster and will include other bodies who will benefit from the funds collected as well.
“It is not going to be the exclusive preserve of [GBC]. We even went further to indicate that the National Media Commission (NMC) will also benefit, as well as the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA),” he explained.
Dr. Omane Boamah also announced that steps are in place to set up an interconnect clearing house which will be created as part of measures to address SIM Box fraud.
The country has reportedly lost about 50million dollars to the activities of SIM box fraudsters.
And as a result, the Communications Ministry proposed a directive which would seek to prohibit people from owning more than 10 SIM cards.
Dr. Omane Boamah told Citi Business News in September that all telecommunication traffic will be going through the interconnect Clearing House and hence unregistered SIM in the system will be detected.
“During the [nationwide sim re-registration exercise], you will register all the SIMS you have and everybody will be given a maximum of 10. Once you are able to register a maximum of 10, the data will then be given to the national communication authority. That also helps through the interconnection house system to bounce off all unregistered SIM cards.”
According to the minister, a lot more attention needed to be given to the telecommunications sector as “all is not well with respect to transparency when it comes to revenue generation in the sector.” The National Communications Authority conducted some revenue assurance audits by very reputable firms and the outcomes were not good.”
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana