Too much 'noise' over $178m Kelni GVG deal – Ofori-Atta

There is too much noise surrounding the $178 million deal with Kelni GVG signed by the National Communications Authority (NCA), Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, has said.

Policy think tank, IMANI has questioned the rationale behind the new contract with Kelni GVG, describing it as wasteful and aimed at milking the public purse. According to the policy think tank, reasons espoused by government officials to back the deal lack financial sense except that it was premised on political thinking.

President of Imani Franklin Cudjoe condemned the revenue assurance deal which is meant to monitor revenue in the telcos industry.

Although the government insists the deal saves the country $1.1 million a month, Mr Cudjoe wonders why the state has been paying the firm $1.5 million per month since January for “no work done”.

To Mr Cudjoe and Imani, the deal is “needless” and a rip-off.

But speaking at the MTN Ghana Initial Public Offering (IPO) launch on Tuesday May 29, Mr Ofori-Atta said: “…There’s a whole lot of noise about some platform services going on and I think people have also brought up the issue of data protection. These are all things that we can find cures to without getting political and I think it is incumbent on the telcos to be able to provide solutions to some of the issues of data protection."

He further noted that “the issue of monitoring is important. This is not the first place that’s going to be done and we should marshal ourselves as a people in a certain direction to make sure that the nation moves ahead.”