Togo Ban Sale of Ghanaian Mobile Chips

Togolese authorities have described the sale of Ghanaian mobile network chips in Togo as �illegal� and have therefore issued a stern warning against the sale of the mobile phone chips in the capital, Lome. The Togolese National Frequency Allocation Board has stated that the police will arrest anybody found to be dealing in the �illegal trade�. However, checks by the New Crusading Guide newspaper at Aflao confirm that, trade in the Ghanaian mobile network chips are still on high demand by Togolese mobile users despite the official ban. The boom for Ghanaian mobile network chips in Ghana�s Eastern neighbor was as a result of Togo�s second largest Mobile Telecommunication provider MOOV, to shut down its operations a month ago, leaving over 150,000 subscribers of the mobile company in limbo. This has left mobile users in Togo no other choice than to resort to crossing the Aflao border to Ghana for the purchase of MTN, Zain, Kasapa and Tigo mobile chips. A mobile vendor at the Ghana side of the boarder Bismark Agbezuhlor told the Crusading Guide yesterday on phone that, sale of Ghanaians chip cannot be stopped because most mobile users in Togo preferred the Ghanaian chips because of the variety of the Ghanaian Mobile Network signals in their country air space. He indicated that the ban by the Togolese authorities could not in any way have effect on the sale and demand on Ghanaian Mobile chips. The directive by the Togolese Telecommunication Frequency regulator as at now seems to be falling on deaf ears, because opinions against the directive persist that, the cross border trade in mobile products were legal as enshrined in the ECOWAS Convention on the movement of person, goods and services.