Public warned against reselling of chips

Mr John Appiah Boateng, Brong Ahafo Regional Manager of Ghana Telecom Company Limited, on Tuesday cautioned the public against the re-selling of the one touch chips at a higher cost to other people.

He alleged that some people buy the chip at the controlled price of 480,000 cedis from the company and resell to others at as high as one million cedis.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Sunyani on the shortage of chips in the Regional Capital, Mr Boateng said "the situation is not only being experienced in the region but throughout the country".

He described the practice as "naked robbery" and warned that the law would deal accordingly with any one caught in the practice.

The Regional Manager said about 40 per cent of chips so far supplied in the Region "have found themselves back in Accra, where cell sites are already over loaded, creating problems for users in the Metropolis".

Mr Boateng said measures were being taken by the company's management in Accra to stop the practice and added that supplies would now be made on regional basis and the chips would preferably be sold to organizations to arrest the flagrant abuse.

He advised people, who are not in need of the chip, to desist from buying to pave way for others who need them to be served

"Those who indulge in the practice will never have the chance of getting a chip from the company since their identities are computerised in their system."

Consumers in Sunyani are going through difficult experiences as for sometime now they have not been able to obtain chips from the Regional Office of Ghana Telecom for their phones.

In an interview most of them called on the company to expedite action on investigations into the alleged re-sale of chips bought in the Regions and being used in the Accra-Tema Metropolis to enable them to obtain theirs.

"A mobile phone is very handy and very convenient for especially business transactions and our inability to obtain the chips is really disturbing us," a lady trader told Ghana News Agency.