Ghana Telecom Records ?120bn Loss

THE Ghana Telecommunications Company (Ghana Telecom) Limited has declared a loss of ?120 billion for the 2002 financial year.
The loss has come as a result of a significant reduction in revenue of ?36 billion from international traffic owing to the illegal by-passing of the company's international gateway by other operators in the telecommunications industry.
The Chief Executive of the company, Mr Oystein Bjoige, who confirmed this in an interview in Accra yesterday, said in order to reverse the trend, the company is in the process of acquiring new equipment and a software at a cost of about $3 million to monitor and prevent such illegal actions.
It will be recalled that, due to the enormity of the losses to GT and for that matter the state, the National Communications Authority (NCA) launched an investigation into the matter last year to find which companies were behind the deal and bring them to book.
Mr Bjoige said other reasons for the loss include imbalance in the tariffs, which makes it much cheaper to call from the fixed network of the company to other mobile operators.
He said the net payment to other operators by GT, increased by ?56 billion, representing a rise of about 262 per cent over the previous year’s, adding that this clearly justifies the need for the company to re-balance the tariffs to avert future losses.
The GT Chief Executive explained that when one uses the GT fixed line in calling a mobile phone, GT is made to pay more to the mobile phone operator for what is termed in the industry as an interrupting call and this is what has caused the company to pay so much.
One other cause of the huge loss deficit a currency loss, which increased by ?41 billion.
He said although losses cannot be avoided, they could have been reduced significantly if there was proper financial management.
He said provisions for bad debts and receivable which had to be written off, amounted to ?155 billion, an increase of ?134 billion over that of the 2001 financial year. This implies that the bad debts were under-provided in the previous years.
Asked whether the company was able to identify any wrongdoing on the part of any official, he replied in the negative, saying, that although the company's managers need to be equipped with additional skills to enhance their performance, there is so far nothing against any of them.
He also announced that sooner than later, the company may come out with new tariffs, since the current tariffs are too low, compared to the cost of service.
Mr Bjoige said the company remains committed to providing a considerable number of lines for its mobile phone subscribers.
He said the company will undertake a massive expansion of its network before the end of the year and gave the assurance that the it will recapture the market. Mr Bjoige said there is an increase in number of domestic subscribers and, therefore, a rise in revenue to ?180 billion.
This, he said can be used to offset the other losses the company has made.