By RARZACK OLAEGBE
*Penalties do not help to improve poor telecom services
Ghana must go. Three words. Forty-three years ago, those three words signified pain and anguish. It was the exodus of our neighbours. Men and women were forced out of Nigeria. Ghana must go. These words evoked fury among Ghanaians who were expelled from Nigeria in 1983.
President Shehu Shagari gave the executive order. He ordered the deportation of our West African neighbours from Nigeria in January 1983. President Shagari forced the illegal immigrants to leave the country. Or face arrest. Because of Shagari’s executive order, over two million immigrants were deported. One million Ghanaians left Nigeria in 1983.
On the one hand
Ghana is not facing expulsion anymore. It is making a significant change to telecom regulation. Ghana has ordered telecom operators to build towers, antennas, and network upgrades that subscribers can feel in their day-to-day use; instead of penalising operators for poor services. The Communications Minister, Samuel Nartey George, had instructed the operators to resolve the issues themselves. Smart move, Samuel.
On the other hand
Anyway, while the move is a smart one, it follows a different direction. It is different from how regulators used to regulate the sector in Nigeria and Ghana. For instance, the Nigerian Communications Commission [NCC] and the National Communications Authority of Ghana had penalised operators in the past for not meeting service benchmarks. Then they would keep the money. Nigeria is still in the act. Ghana is out of the act.
In the long term
For instance, after a recent quality-of-service breach, the National Communications Authority ordered MTN Ghana and Telecel Ghana to build a combined 1,150 new cell sites in 2026. The regulator made the announcement on April 12 during the launch of the One Million Coders Programme. MTN Ghana has committed to erecting 800 sites. Telecel will deliver 350.
Reports indicated that over the last decade, MTN Ghana averaged over 200 new sites per year. In 2024, Ghana had 30 sites. In 2025, it had 50 sites. For a country that is still dealing with a dearth of connectivity, especially outside major cities, the pace is s.l.o.w.
In context, in the last five years, Nigeria has had about 60,000 towers. This has helped to improve broadband and telecoms service delivery. With this number, Nigeria is still contending with a poor quality of service. This is why the NCC has mandated the operators to compensate the subscribers directly if any of them suffer poor quality service, such as dropped calls, slow internet, and patchy coverage.
Why does this matter?
For Ghana, mandating the operators to build towers and antennas is another method to develop its infrastructure. Will the operators deliver the infrastructure as scheduled? For Nigeria, it is obvious that penalties do not help to improve poor telecom services. Can we walk Ghana’s path? Build more infrastructure. Bundle penalty with infrastructure. This is a Made in Ghana style of regulation.
In the short term
Ghanaians are not immigrants anymore. Therefore, nobody can say Ghana must go again!
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