Last updated on Thursday, 29th July, 2010, at 11:06am
Telecoms to submit local procurement plan in 30days
By Citifmonline.com | Wed 03rd March, 2010 16:56 GMT
Minister of Coomunication-Haruna Iddrisu

 The Communications Ministry has given a 30-day ultimatum for the telecom companies to submit their respective local procurement plan for the printing of recharge cards to ensure their compliance with this directive by the President in June last year.

 
President Mills had directed the mobile telecom operators to print at least 40 percent of their recharge scratch cards in the country as part of their Social Responsibility obligations to government and Ghanaians in general.
 
The Ministry said the printing of recharge cards locally is crucial especially when there is evidence of local industry capacity. 
 
The rationale is not only for the economic benefits of job-creation and revenue generation but the development of the telecom sector as a whole.  
 
In furtherance of this, the Communications Ministry has asked the telecom companies to present to the regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA), their local content procurement policies within 30 days. 
 
The Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu told Citi Business, this has been necessitated by unsatisfactory reports of a general non-compliance to the president’s directive by the operators.                                            
                                              
According to him, “We expect the telephone operators to partner government to develop local entrepreneurs especially in the printing business and cease the needless importation of scratch cards which can easily be manufactured here in Ghana”, he noted.
 
“I’m reliably informed that even within Ghana today, we have an industrial sector where Sim cards can be manufactured and we want to encourage them to support local business initiatives”, he added.
 
Regarding what consequences for any of the companies that fail to comply with this directive he said this is to be known in due course but expect the companies not to give government the cause to impose any sanctions.                                                                                  
“We will state our next line of action but I believe that the operators themselves will support us develop Ghana because we have developed an enabling environment for them to have their businesses secured”.
 
 
 
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