MTN Ghana says it will use the courts to challenge moves by the National Communications Authority (NCA) aimed at exposing it to greater competition.
“MTN Ghana has, after much consultation, and as a last resort, made the difficult decision to resort to the law courts for redress in the form a judicial review of NCA’s decision,” it said in a statement.
In June, the government, through the Ministry of Communications, directed the NCA to enforce the provisions of the Electronic Communications (EC) Act 2008 and the National Telecommunications Policy to address glaring disparities in market share and revenue share in the sector.
Minister of Communications Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said the policy directive is motivated by evidence of a growing market imbalance and creation of a near-monopoly in the telecoms sector, a ministerial press release said.
“This imbalance potentially exposes the country to the dictates of the dominant operator and negatively impacts on competition and choice for the consumer as well as investments within the sector.
“The policy is, therefore, aimed at ensuring proper and healthy competition among telecommunications players, securing a much better pricing policy for the consumers and facilitating a sound regulatory regime,” she said.
NCA engages telcos
The deputy director of the engineering division at the NCA, Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko, speaking with the Asaase Breakfast Show last month, said: “Several engagements are currently ongoing between the regulator [NCA] and the SMP and the other players in the market, which is supposed to fine-tune the specific measures that we are putting in place to address the things we observe or we identify as potential risks to competition.”
The Ministry of Communications said MTN’s 75% market share represented “glaring disparities” and unhealthy competition.
Three other telcos, AirtelTigo, Vodafone and Glo, scrabble over the remaining 25% of the market.
Yirenkyi Fianko said, “The decision by the NCA affects MTN and not the entire company but certain relevant markets. So, in the market of mobile voice, mobile data, MTN is considered a Significant Market Power (SMP), but there are other segments of the business which are not affected by this decision.”
