A member of the Communications Committee of Parliament, Joe Badu Ansah has advised government and the telecom companies in Ghana to work towards making SIM box fraud unattractive to perpetrators.
[contextly_sidebar id=”iq9rmEKDwtdu30NF7pyeloO4dyDiJTMR”]He argued that the ongoing blame game and speculations on who is responsible for the increasing number of SIM box fraud cases, will not resolve the situation which is costing the nation millions of dollars.
Since the arrest of six persons including the former GREDA boss for their involvement in SIM box fraud, questions have arisen on the how the suspects were able to acquire the over 20, 000 SIM cards without a possible involvement of the telecommunication companies.
The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has blamed the high tariffs on international calls as a major contributing factor to the problem.
Others have also suggested that reducing tariffs will not solve the problem but the setting up of an Interconnect Clearing House (ICH).
Forget Interconnect Clearing House
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwesimintsim, Mr. Badu Ansah on the Citi Breakfast Show said, setting up an Interconnect Clearing House is not the way to go.
“Interconnect Clearing House can never address the issue. If you use it, then all what you are doing is to create another avenue for corruption and overburdening consumers because it doesn’t solve the problem.”
He asked, “Who is going to create the clearing house? It’s not going to be a government clearing house; it’s going to be operated by private people. Who is going to pay them? Where are they going to get the money from? How much are you losing and how much are you going to put down?”
The MP admonished government to think through the decision to set up an Interconnect Clearing House.
“It will not solve the problem,” he stressed, adding that opting for a clearing house will only “cream out some money for some group of people to benefit but it will not in the interest of the state and neither is it in the interest of the consumer.”
Reduce Tariffs
Mr. Badu Ansah maintained that the problem can only be solved “when you don’t make it attractive for the thieves to steal but as it is, we are still going to make it attractive for them to steal.”
He argued that SIM box fraud is a problem because of the pricing policy on international calls.
“If you have a situation where government has pegged a minimum of 19 cents for incoming calls from abroad – government takes 6 cents, the telcos take 13 cents. If you have anyone who can arrange for a lesser amount, it becomes very attractive so I believe that it is a policy issue because pricing is a policy,” he explained.
He maintained that the problem is with policy because “in Nigeria, there is no SIM box fraud, in South Africa, it is not like that and it’s because the policy does not encourage anybody to do SIM box fraud.”
Don’t blame Telcos
The member of Parliament’s Communication Committee dispelled rumors that the SIM box fraudsters connive with some workers of the various Telecom operators to perpetrate the crime.
According to him, “there is no proof that it is the cooperation of the Telcos. It is being speculated but it has happened so you would have to look at the solution for the problem – that is what is important.”
“The solution to the problem doesn’t lie with the blame game or the speculation,” he argued.
He thus challenged the security agencies to proof this assertion by making arrests saying, “if you can arrest anyone and link them up to the Telcos, that is great; but we shouldn’t sit down and speculate. If you know that Telcos are involved, arrest them.”
Mr. Badu Ansah pointed out that the six arrested suspects were able to procure the about 20,000 SIM cards because they possibly have a good network for fraudsters.
“If you have a good network of people around the country who are buying 10 SIM cards here, 20 SIM cards there, you will get the number they are talking about,” he said.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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