MTN Milking Ghanaians Excessively

when I saw the face of the South African business magnate, Cyril Ramaphosa, a protégé of His Excellency Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, who was once tipped to succeed him, on Ghana’s television networks fronting for MTN, as they took over AREEBA, I knew Ghanaians were in for a deal that would milk them excessively for the cow master.
I though Ghanaian journalists could do a diligent work by finding out more about MTN and even mobile network operators in South Africa, so they could adequately inform their countrymen about what that takeover meant for the ordinary Ghanaian in the street.
Hardly had the pomp and the pageantry associated with takeovers of the sort died down than Ghanaians started having incessant problems with their networks. Network users had to conjecture their own explanations for complete network crash whereby even a phone placed next to a caller continued to receive ‘out of coverage area’ or ‘switched off’ messages. Even with standardization, calls placed to specific numbers continue to run into other networks and so on. But in all this, no Ghanaian journalists have not been able to take the trouble to find out about Ramaphosa and his MTN deal.
South Africa has one of the uppermost costs for mobile network operations in Africa, if not in the world. It is therefore not surprising that in less than six months after the takeover, the Ghana Government is asking Ghanaians to pay tax on talk time on the networks. MTN, being the principal mobile service provider in Ghana, is in league with the Ghana government is now positioned to milk Ghanaians for their selfish interest. I am aware that MTN was sent packing in a country within the sub-region.
It is for this reason that in any country where the leadership cares about the welfare of its citizenry, they will do a diligent work by insisting on ‘value for money’. But in the case of Ghana, what matters most is the percentage the Minister, under whose orbit the operation falls, is going to get is of utmost importance.
Ghanaians must begin to take special interest in things happening around them. By so doing, they would be able to comprehend some of these issues to the benefit of the society. There is a leadership failure in Ghana and anybody who thinks that those leading the country have its people at heart must look beyond the political rhetoric.
Sam Jonah ran AGC down but was able to mobilize millions of Rands in an investment in South Africa. He is just at the thresholds of having his own mine. He is the member of Thabo Mbeki’s Economic Management Team, and today, South African Blacks are worse off economically and socially than they were under the Whiteman in less than two decades ago.
But being the Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, he found it wise to bestow honorary doctorate on Thabo Mbeki who is loathed in his own country (the case of Thabo Mbeki and his former Vice, an alleged criminal speaks volumes). So scratch my bag and let me scratch yours is what we are witnessing in today’s Ghana. Jonah’s investment is more secured in South Africa just as Ramaphosa’s is secured in Ghana.

Email: be.otoo@yahoo.co.uk