Ghanaian
In October this year, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications introduced a 9% levy(Communication Service Tax – CST) that was to be charged on mobile phone users for communication services. It had been raised FROM 6% during the 2019 Mid-Year Budget Review by Ken Ofori-Atta, the country’s finance minister. A 9% CST fee was to be charged for every GH¢ of recharge purchased and the GH¢0.93 left for the purchase of products and services.
The 9% Communication Service Tax charged upfront was later revered in late November and the Telecommunications Chamber in Ghana ordered telecom operators to publish new costs of their respective tariffs. This was to stop the operators from giving their customers less airtime/data than they purchased.
Ghana recently redirected its telcos to stop offering voice and data bundles that expire to its users.
Ghanaians took to Twitter to vent out their frustrations over the high cost of the data packages using #SaveOurData.
Dear Vodafone, the future is NOT exciting at all.
Dear MTN, you are not present at everywhere we go but everywhere we pay
Dear Airtel/Tigo, Life with you is NOT simple
Dear Glo, how can we rule our world with an unstable network #SaveOurData and give us quality service
— Saddick Adams (@SaddickAdams) December 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/ohenebaKwesi3/status/1202157063780085760
https://twitter.com/kwabyna_/status/1202154806279856128
You could have done better earlier than coming out now with lies after you've dubiously deducted and stolen from the innocent clients accounts.#SaveOurData and stop playing the mind games. Whoever is behind these must bow his/her down in shame. https://t.co/giZ7Bn0DRt
— General-Lord✍🏾 (@PantherLordGh) December 4, 2019
We can't be spending all our incomes on data bundle,, please all the telecos should do something before we demonstrate against them,,, @SaddickAdams #SaveOurData
— Shafiwu_Ba 💙💙 (@AM_Daghara) December 2, 2019
it is good they seem to be listening to our concerns but we are still demanding a reduction in data, not just with @MTNGhana but the other telecos too, so thank you but no thank you. still #SaveOurData https://t.co/QJYnkPxprN
— Nasir (@AlagmaIbra) December 4, 2019
The data issue is just depressing chale. And has been so for awhile. Frustration is how powerless it all seems.#SaveOurData
— Gary Al-Smith (@garyalsmith) December 1, 2019
Dear Vodafone, the future is NOT exciting at all.
Dear MTN, you are not present at everywhere we go but everywhere we pay
Dear Airtel/Tigo, Life with you is NOT simple
Dear Glo, how can we rule our world with an unstable network #SaveOurData and give us quality service
— Saddick Adams (@SaddickAdams) December 2, 2019
The lash out by the Ghanaians attracted the attention of their parliament. Representatives from the telcos operating in Ghana are expected to meet the Parliament’s Communication Committee later today. They’ve been summoned to explain their high cost of data and these concerns are expected to be the agenda of today’s meeting.
BREAKING: Ghana's Parliament has summoned the Telcom Companies to appear before it tomorrow to explain high costs to data after public outcry via #SaveOurData
— Saddick Adams (@SaddickAdams) December 3, 2019
We’ll keep you posted with new updates as the story develops.
