The Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has pointed out that MTN Ghana’s near monopoly in the Ghanaian mobile industry is inimical to the growth of the industry.
She posits that, the largest mobile company on the continent’s clout hinders the operations of other companies in the sector.
As a result, she made it clear in an interview that, the ministry will continue on its plans to implement the Significant Market Power (SNP) policy as soon as court processes initiated by MTN Ghana are over.
This is because, according to her globally, whenever a company is assuming the status of a monopoly, some regulations are enacted to prevent that from happening.
“In the entire world, when one operator exceeds 40 percent of market share and the revenue share, certain rules kick in. In Ghana, MTN is close to 75 percent. It’s dangerous for the growth of the industry because it makes the other companies operations unsustainable and unprofitable.”
She, therefore, indicated that, but for MTN’s applications in court to prevent the implementation of the SNP policy, the ministry would have long initiated the policy.
“So, yes, we designated MTN as a Significant Market Power through the {National Communications Authority} NCA and certain rules were supposed to kick in but they’ve gone to court and so that has stalled the process a bit. I say they are merely delaying the inevitable because from the evidence that I’ve received from the regulator, they followed whatever rules they needed to follow to come up to that designation.”
However, she said the ministry’s next action will be contingent on the court’s decision.
“But, we will abide the decision of the court. They (MTN) have a lot interlocutory applications going back and forth, so far, so the substantive matter they took to court hasn’t yet been addressed. We are hopeful that it will be done quickly. As soon as the court decides one way or the other, we will continue the process or abort it, depending on which way the decision comes.”
Statistics from the NCA shows that MTN’s share in mobile data subscriptions accounted for almost 70%, of the market from January to March.
As a result, the regulator, the NCA indicated in June 2020, that it will implement a series of measures including a favourable connection rate for disadvantaged operators, the setting of floor and ceiling pricing on all minutes, data, text messages and mobile money. The regulator will also ensure that, the various operator vendors are not subject to exclusionary pricing or behaviour.
Days later, MTN Ghana released a statement that suggested the company had not been officialy notified by the move to reduce its market share.
When the company was formally informed, MTN came out to say it had engaged the NCA and other stakeholders in a dialogue to share their “views on the matter.”
However, the company was not pleased with the outcome of the dialogue.
“While these engagements have been largely encouraging, the NCA continues with the implementation of the specified interventions. As such, MTN Ghana has, after much consultation, and as a last resort, made the difficult decision to resort to the law courts for redress in the form of a judicial review of NCA’s decision, to ensure the observance of the requirements of procedural fairness.”
