$89m Telecom Deal Entirely Different From Subah, Afriwave Among Others

The Ministry of Communications refuted claims by IMANI Africa that its contract with KelniGVG for the provision of oversight and revenue assurance monitoring is a duplication of roles.

A statement issued and signed by Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, on Friday, said this current deal is rather providing significant savings for the state for even more work done than in past deals.

“Contrary to claims by IMANI that the contract awarded to the new company is a drain on the resources of the country, the Minister insists Ghana is making a monthly savings of $1.1 million on account of KelniGVG's engagement,” the statement said.

IMANI Africa sounded an alarm over the details of the deal and called its termination.

The President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, argued that the deal mirrored the controversial deals the state entered into with Subah Infosolutions and Afriwave Telcom Ltd in 2010 and 2016 respectively.

These deals were criticised by the now-governing New Patriotic Party when it was in opposition.

Aware of this, the Ministry of Communications assured “that the necessary due diligence was carried out during the processes that led to the selection of KelniGVG. A lot of care was taken not to repeat the mistakes of the past.”

“Also, prior to this new arrangement, all relevant stakeholders were made aware of the fact that previous contractors' services, namely that of Subah Infosolutions and Afriwave relating to traffic and revenue assurance monitoring were in effect, TERMINATED. There can, therefore, be no duplication as alleged by Imani,” the statement added.

When the NPP came into power in 2017, it held a stakeholder conference and the outcome of the consultation process was for the National Communications Authority (NCA) to amend the Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) Licence to restrict them to clearinghouse operations and for Ghana Revenue Authority to abrogate the contract with Subah.

“After the forum, a new procurement process was launched in accordance with the law, to select a suitable vendor to meet the requirements defined by the NCA and GRA and in December 2017, the contract was awarded to a Ghanaian entity, duly registered under the laws of the Republic of Ghana called KelniGVG Limited.”