According to him, the establishment of the Interconnect Clearing House was illegal since stakeholders were not consulted.

 

He also argued that the Interconnect Clearing House was crippling the telecommunication industry.

 

Speaking on Citi FM‘s News analysis programme The Big Issue, Franklin Cudjoe said: “The National Communication Authority and the Ministry of Communication, exceedingly wasteful enterprises which are causing a lot of harm to us. Even in Pakistan their supreme court ruled that the interconnect clearing house is an illegality.”

 

Describing the project as political, Franklin Cudjoe chided the president for describing the project as transformational in his State of the Nation address on Thursday, adding that “it is a political project which is building war chest of a party and I think it is one of the grandest sponsored schemes ever”.

 

“That the president spends less than a minute on an illegality, which is the interconnect clearing house and he suggested that is something transformational. This is one bad piece of legislation which was smuggled through cabinet because it never had any serious discussion in the public and certainly no telco was involved. Very bad communication policy,” he added.

 

The Ministry of Communication has defended the project which it says will provide a common platform of interconnectivity for the exchange of data among the telecom operators.

 

While the government argues that the intended move will help ensure revenue integrity in the sector, telecom service providers have argued the move will undermine service quality, compromise privacy of customers and lead also to high tariffs.

 

The Ghana Internet Services Providers Association (GISPA), the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber and the Wireless Application Services Providers of Ghana (WASPAG), last year in December petitioned parliament over the National Communications Authority (NCA)’s move to implement the interconnect clearing house.

 

They also argued that the new system when implemented would create an additional cost to Telcos and Services providers which would be passed on to consumers.