Communication Minister Sam Nartey George says Ghanaians will enjoy cheaper and enhanced data bundles on five national holidays this year following a breakthrough agreement with telcos.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Joy News\u2019\u00a0PM Express<\/em>\u00a0on Tuesday, the Ningo Prampram MP revealed details of the deal reached with telco CEOs and outlined broader plans to make data more affordable.<\/p>\n \u201cI went to the CEOs with 18 holidays in the country, asking that they do what they did on Independence Day,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said I was going to collapse and bankrupt the businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n After back-and-forth negotiations, a compromise was reached. \u201cWe agreed on five national holidays,\u201d he disclosed.<\/p>\n \u201cIndependence Day, May Day, Republic Day, Founders\u2019 Day, and Farmers\u2019 Day. On these five days, there will be specialized data bundles, cheaper rates for every Ghanaian.\u201d<\/p>\n The initiative builds on the Independence Day data relief that offered enhanced packages. \u201cWhat we did on Independence Day, the enhanced bundles \u2014 that\u2019s going to be replicated,\u201d he confirmed.<\/p>\n Sam George stressed that this isn\u2019t the end of the push for lower prices. He set up a committee that has already submitted a roadmap.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople said I promised prices would drop in 14 days. No. I said I would get a roadmap in 14 days,\u201d he clarified. \u201cAnd in 13 days, the committee submitted it.\u201d<\/p>\n That roadmap contains short, medium, and long-term solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the short term, we are not in a position to drop prices across the whole spectrum,\u201d he admitted. \u201cSo we\u2019ve picked specific demographics.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ministry, with help from the regulator, is now building databases to target those groups.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we have the data sets of individuals we are targeting, the announcement will be made,\u201d he said. \u201cI met with the stakeholders today who must provide that data.\u201d<\/p>\n The effort has received full support from telcos. \u201cI met all three CEOs. And all three agreed we needed to do something about data prices.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the immediate plans, the minister identified taxation and power costs as structural barriers. \u201cTaxation is a big part of it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the cost build-up in terms of power.\u201d<\/p>\n He announced that the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission will be engaged to create a telecom tariff, similar to what exists for mining firms.<\/p>\n \u201cMining gets bulk power at a preferential rate. Telecom doesn\u2019t, even though towers across Ghana are consuming power. That must change.\u201d<\/p>\n Through this multi-pronged approach, the minister believes meaningful and sustainable data pricing reform can be achieved.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not just a talk shop,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re putting in the work.\u201d<\/p>\n He also expressed deep appreciation to industry players.<\/p>\n \u201cI must say I\u2019m extremely grateful to the three telcos. They\u2019ve shown commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n The Communication Minister made it clear that while change won\u2019t happen overnight, Ghanaians will soon begin to feel the impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Communication Minister Sam Nartey George says Ghanaians will enjoy cheaper and enhanced data bundles on five national holidays this year following a breakthrough agreement with telcos. Speaking on Joy News\u2019\u00a0PM Express\u00a0on Tuesday, the Ningo Prampram MP revealed details of the deal reached with telco CEOs and outlined broader plans to make data more affordable. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":10522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,41,175,20],"tags":[2157,3349,3348],"class_list":["post-10521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fish-tv","category-general-news","category-lifestyle","category-tech","tag-communication-minister","tag-public-utilities-regulatory-commission","tag-sam-nartey-george"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10523,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10521\/revisions\/10523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}