Reforms at NCA: Bernard Forson out, Van Percy in

Credible information available to the Financial Intelligence (FI) has it that government has finalised plans for the change of guard at the helm of affairs at the National Communications Authority (NCA).

According to FI seat of government, current Director General, Bernard Forson would be asked any time soon as his replacement one Van Percy a financial consultant is set to assume duty on June 1.

The source reveled to the FI that PaaRock Essuman Van-Percy, formerly of Merchant Bank has already accepted in writing, his appointment after picking up the appointment letter last week.

This change according to industry watchers is long overdue since the current leadership seems to have been overwhelmed by challenges in the communications industry.

They however contend that the change does not necessarily resolve the myriad of issues in the communications sector.

“It is rather a strong leadership that is willing to enforce regulation to the highest levels that is needed for the problems in the sector to be dealt with,” a stakeholder told the FI.

Currently, subscribers have to live with inefficient services such as poor customer service, and poor quality of service.

These problems are compounded by the inter-agency issue of proliferation of masts with the NCA and Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology most of the times singing different tunes regarding the practice.

There is congestion on the networks of all the cellular phone service providers and they keep pilling on new subscribers without investing in the infrastructure to accommodate them.

There is also the need for hard currency to support their operations, however, these service providers have the capacity to generate foreign exchange through the termination of foreign calls but the use of such resources is questionable leaving the burden on government to finance their foreign exchange needs. It has also come to light that these service providers act in total disregard to government and government agencies.

It is expected that innovative solutions would be adopted to deal with these issues in order to bring back some sanity into Ghana’s growing communications industry.

Source Financial Intelligence(www.fighana.com) Justice Lee Adoboe