Industry News

The Ghana Statistical Service, Vodafone Ghana and the Flowminder Foundation, an NGO that provides insights, tools and capacity-strengthening to governments, international agencies and NGOs, have embarked on a partnership to produce official statistics using identified telecommunications data to strengthen humanitarian and development decision-making in the country.

Under the partnership, some staff of the statistical agency are undergoing training on how to use data to solve critical problems and inform policy decisions.

The collaboration is aimed at taking advantage of technology to transform the production of official statistics.

Speaking to Citi Business News, a former Government Statistician and current chairperson of the GSS, Dr. Grace Bediako, says the project, which will end in 2020, will benefit Ghana immensely.

“This is part of what we have been calling big data. A lot of information housed in many service providers domain and in this case the telcos and we are working with Vodafone. So, we are hoping that this will help us bridge the data gaps because with the SDGs, there is a lot that we need to inform ourselves about and track; mobility is part of it,” she said.

Data Scientist and Project Manager at Flowminder, Tracey Li says the data will help the country in diverse ways.

“Our role in this project is to strengthen capacity within the GSS by way of providing tools, knowledge and skills to enable staff of GSS be able to process and analyze telecommunications data and incorporate that data into the production of official statistics,” she explained.

Source: www.citibusinessnews.com

 

The state is losing more than GH¢3 million a month to an illegal scheme that diverts international calls into local ones, according to the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications.
Known as sim box fraud, the illegality is perpetrated by Ghanaians and their international partners who route international calls through the Internet and terminate them on local mobile phone numbers to attract local charges.

The mechanism denies the government the necessary revenue from international calls.
Beyond the monthly losses, activities of the fraudsters have also led to a decline in International Direct Dialling (IDD) revenue from as high as GH¢222 million in 2012 to about GH¢56 million, which is projected for the end of 2019, a 74 per cent reduction.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in an interview, said the fraudsters were now employing newer and more improved technologies to help mask their locations and make it difficult to trace their whereabouts.

New schemes

He said although the telecom companies (telcos) had blocked about 70,000 SIM cards since January this year, they had also identified a number of new schemes employed by the fraudsters to perpetrate the illegality.

They included bypass, CLI masking and number refilling, both of which had the same effects as SIM box fraud.

“In CLI masking, the offending operator manipulates the calling party number to make it look as if it were a local call,” Mr Ashigbey explained.

That means that telecom operators in the country would not be able to bill the appropriate rate for such transactions, he said, adding that the difference then went to the fraudsters through their international counterparts.

As a result, Mr Ashigbey said, some of the telcos had also adopted advanced technology to ruthlessly deal with the emerging phenomenon.

“Our members have to ensure that we are also ahead of the curve, so that we can arrest these fraudsters, but it requires investments in new technologies, systems and processes to counter the fraudsters,” he said.

Pricing

Asked why the illegality persisted and how it could be resolved, he said as an industry, the chamber had always advocated the removal of the surcharge on incoming international traffic (SIIT).

That was because the fraudsters were currently leveraging and exploiting the arbitrage between the international rate of 19 cents and local rate of 10Gp per minute.

“We have made presentations to the government on the issue on several occasions and are still engaged to ensure that we deal with the issue.

“Within this much liberalised economy, we should remove the $0.19 on all international incoming minutes and allow the market to determine the tariff. We need to take out the arbitrage that currently exists,” he said.

However, Mr Ashigbey noted that based on the constant and continuous research and work by the telecommunications companies, telcos continued to find ways of cleaning up the telecommunications and cyber space in a bid to improve cyber hygiene and make the ecosystem safe for customers.

Clamp down

On the role of the police in clamping down on such fraudsters, the Head of the Cyber Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Dr Gustav Yankson, told the Daily Graphic that although there was an alarming surge in the activities of the fraudsters, a joint effort by the Cyber Crime Unit and the Telecommunications Chamber had resulted in a series of operations to round up the criminals in different locations in Accra.

Arrests

Within the last two weeks, he said, the joint effort had resulted in raids at different locations within Accra, in the course of which four adults were arrested, while two others were on the run.

All the arrests were made in suburbs of Accra, including Alhaji Tabora, Nungua, Awudome Estates and Mamprobi.

Although the police did not give the names of the arrested suspects, Daily Graphic checks revealed the identities of the suspects as Comfort Dede, arrested at Korle Gonno, Emmanuel Nii Tagoe, arrested at Awudome Estate.

The rest are Mallam Bako and Defence Doh, both arrested at Alhaji Tabora, and Richard Wils Kobby, who was arrested at Nungua.

Destruction

In all, five SIM boxes, each loaded with a minimum of 100 SIM cards, were retrieved from the fraudsters.

Asked what would be the fate of the suspects, Dr Yankson said the police were conducting further investigations, after which the suspects would be arraigned.

He explained that due to the fact that the suspects would be charged with fraud, the police needed to ascertain how much their activities had cost the state as of the time they were arrested before they would be put before court.

Dr Yankson sounded a caution to individuals indulging in such illegal activities to desist from them, as the police would find them.

“We are able to track them real time and, per the law, they can face up to 25 years’ imprisonment,” he said.

Source: graphic.com.gh

The government must focus on output tax instead of the current industry specific taxes imposed on the telecommunications industry, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Chamber of Telecommunications, Kenneth Ashigbey, has said.
That, he said, would help promote the growth of the telecommunications industry in the country.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times on the side-lines of a press conference to announce the outcome of a Telecommunication Tax Contribution (TTC) survey, Mr Ashigbey said telecommunication sector was saddled with a lot of taxes, which in total constitute 40 per cent of the cost of operations of the telecommunication companies.

He said the industry must not be seen as a cash cow, but a ‘driving horse’ to propel and drive the other sectors of the economy.
According to him, it was important for the government to reduce the numerous taxes imposed on the industry to allow companies in the sector to invest more in expanding infrastructure to make more spectrums available and improve on their services.
He explained that if the industry was supported to grow through tax reliefs and incentives, the government could generate more taxes from the services the industry generated.

Touching on the total tax contribution of the TTC to the government tax revenue in 2018, Mr Ashigbey said the industry last year contributed GH¢2.2 billion.
“Value Added Tax stood as one of the top tax lines of the industry, representing approximately 19 per cent of the TTC in money terms of over GH¢412 million and Communication Service Tax also generated GH¢420 million to government,” he said.
Corporate Income Tax, the CEO said contributed GH¢342 million and Pay As You Earn contributed GH¢64 million, withholding tax, GH¢293 million, import duty GH¢180 million and Surcharge on International Incoming Traffic contributed GH¢115 million.

Mr Ashigbey said the industry last year contributed two per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and industry players in 2018 invested more than GH¢628 million in capital expenditure and GH¢345 million in other remittances.
The CEO said aside the tax contribution to the State; the telecommunication industry gave 6500 direct jobs and 1.6 million indirect jobs.
Quizzed about the claim of government that the telecommunications companies were under declaring profit, the CEO said the telecommunications companies said no study had confirm that and the Chamber of Telecommunications had written to the Ghana Revenue Authority to provide it with information to that effect if there is any.

He said some of the telecommunication companies were listed both locally and internationally and shareholders were concerned about the bottom lines of the companies.
Mr Ashigbey said the telecommunication companies took their tax obligations seriously.
On the Communication Service Tax, he said members had completed the process to stop the upfront deductions of the CST.

Mr Ashigbey touching about the move to tax Mobile Money said the move would be akin to the VAT on the banking services government abolished in 2017.
Citing Uganda as an example, he said taxing Mobile Money would reduce the uptake of the service.
On the intention of government to roll out a test run for 5G service next year, Mr Ashigbey called for comprehensive policy to bring all sectors of the economy on board the exercise.

Source:Ghanaian Times

 

The African Development Bank and technology firm Microsoft have launched the ‘Coding for Employment’ digital training platform, an online tool to provide digital skills to African youth, wherever they are across the continent.

The platform, launched at the 2019 African Economic Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, aims to promote a continuous learning culture among young people and build their capacity to shape the continent’s future.

The high-level event drew heads of state and government, ministers and leaders from the private sector and academia to discuss how this new tool and other technological innovations could be used to spur development across the continent.

“The youth employment and skills development challenge is a complex issue that requires systemic thinking and bold partnerships … to address the existing skills gap and link youth to decent and sustainable employment,” said Hendrina Doroba, the African Development Bank’s acting director for Human Capital, Youth & Skills Development.

“The skills training platform launched today is a testament to the impact that such partnerships can achieve and the Bank looks forward to strengthening similar partnerships.”

The platform teaches technical courses such as web development, design, data science and digital marketing and will be constantly adapted to respond to market demand. It is accessible on mobile devices, even in low internet connectivity settings and has an affordable, easy-to-navigate, secured and private interface.

“A defining challenge of our time is ensuring that everyone has equal opportunity to benefit from technology,” Ghada Khalifa, Director of Microsoft Philanthropies for the Middle East and Africa, said at the launch.

“Forward-thinking initiatives such as the digital training platform represent our commitment to helping drive the momentum needed. Though there is still much work to be done, we believe that through dynamic partnerships such as these, we can help build a knowledge-based economy in Africa that leaves no person behind.”

The Coding for Employment Program is a crucial part of the African Development Bank’s strategic agenda to create 25 million jobs by 2025, and to equip 50 million African youth with competitive skills. The Bank piloted the program in five countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire) in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation and Microsoft and is currently developing 14 ultra-modern centers specialized in ICT and entrepreneurship skills trainings for youth.

The goal is to scale up the program to 130 centers of excellence across the continent over a 10-year period. It will create nine million jobs by building synergies with the public and the private sector globally to deliver demand-driven, agile and collaborative skills to empower young people to become innovative players in the digital economy.

The Coding for Employment training platform can be accessed here across 54 African countries

Source: www.biztechafrica.com

 

Vodafone Ghana in partnership with StarLife Assurance Company has launched a travel companion for its Vodafone Cash subscribers following the launch of its recent Vodafone Cash Agent Insurance product.

The unique product, Vodafone travel companion, has been designed to insure customers against death, permanent disability and hospital admissions, which result from a car, train or ferry accident.

Speaking at the launch, Martison Obeng-Agyei, Head of Vodafone Cash said, “According to the National Road Safety Commission, over 1, 250 Ghanaians lost their lives between January and July, just this year; and over 7,000 Ghanaians were injured during this period. Accidents are inevitable and it is always important to plan for the unexpected. At Vodafone, innovation runs through the very fabric of our organisation. In a fast moving industry like ours, you do not rest on your laurels hence the need to launch this pioneering initiative, our insurance product for our customers.”

“This product will definitely redefine insurance product development in the industry and the country at large. Customers have options to choose daily, weekly or monthly premium payment plans.

Travel Companion has seven unique insurance products. For as little as Ghc 5.50 monthly a customer is entitled to a cover worth Ghc 1500; Ghc 500 should they be admitted at the hospital, Ghc 500 should they suffer any disability, and 500 cedis should they pass away, touchwood. Customer who desire a heavy cover, can go for the Ghc 39.05 monthly which entitles a customer to a Ghc15, 000 cover; Ghc 5000 should they be admitted at a health facility, Ghc 5000 should they suffer any disability, and 5000 cedis, should they pass away, touchwood”
he explained the product.

For his Head, Group and Distribution for StarLife, Mr Alex Twumasi, said “After a good research on the market, we scanned the market and realised that clients especially those in the informal sector really needed a travel insurance. This has never happened because most of the covers out there go basically for a niche market but we are coming for the mass market; the ordinary mate or seller can easily patronise this policy using the Vodafone Cash platform.”

Mr. Obeng-Agyei urged Ghanaians to buy the travel insurance policy in this festive season.

“There are millions of people who are going to travel and we hope not but definitely there might be one or two accidents and you can call on StarLife and your claims will be paid to you”.

Vodafone Cash has become integral in the promotion of a cash – lite society in Ghana with its varied initiatives and products that continue to excite Ghanaians since its inception in Ghana three years ago. It is currently the only mobile money operator that allows customers to send money from their wallets to other Vodafone Cash wallets without charges.

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

 

Afrobarometer Report on public confidence in the safety of Ghana’s financial institutions, following the clean up in the sector, indicates over 70% of Ghanaians trust mobile money more than other financial institutions.

The report put together by CDD-Ghana noted that in spite of the cleanup, 83% of Ghanaians still trust in banks, but the reputation of savings and loans, microfinance and traditional susu companies has declined considerably.

Only 8% of the 2,400 Ghanaians surveyed said they will save with savings and loans; another 8% trust in traditional susu, while 7% says they still trust microfinance companies.

Meanwhile, some 11% say they would rather keep their money at home instead of saving with any financial institution.

But even though mobile money is about the latest addition to the options in the financial sector, a whopping 72% of respondents say they either trust it fully or trust it somewhat.

MoMo Stats

Public confidence in Mobile Money is indeed aptly reflected in the subscription, and transaction volume and value figures released by the Telecoms Chamber recently.

The figures indicate that currently, there are 13 million active mobile money wallets, doing 4 million transactions daily, and the balance of cash floating on the mobile money platform is a whopping GHC2.6 billion at any point in time.

The Chamber also noted that last year alone, telecom operators paid GHC2.2 billion in taxes, and that included taxes on the revenue they make from mobile money services.

Afrobarometer Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at CDD-Ghana, Samuel Adusei Baaye told Adom News Mobile Money is clearly a key driver of financial inclusion and needs to be protected from fraudsters and from over taxation.

He said plans by the Communications Ministry to tax mobile money fees of the telcos is a threat to the growth of the service and its role in boosting financial inclusion.

Samuel Adusei Baaye argued that whatever tax government places on the mobile money earnings of telcos will be transferred to customers and that can discourage usage of the service and thus affect financial inclusion negatively.

MoMo earnings

The Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu Ekuful has said her target is not to burden customers with taxes on mobile money services, but to tax the estimated GHC71 million services charges that telcos earn from mobile money every month.

But she, herself, admitted that her colleague Finance Minister, Ken Ofori- Atta disagrees with her call for the state to tax the earnings of telcos from Mobile Money outside of what they already pay as part of their taxes on all their revenue streams.

The CDD-Ghana official says he agrees with the position of the Finance Minister, because “we are already grappling with the 9% Communications Service Tax (CST) so adding on another tax will not be good for mobilising funds into the financial sector for national development.”

He believes the more affordable Mobile Money services are, the higher the potential for it to mobilize more money into the financial sector, which can then be accessed by companies to expand and create more jobs and impact lives directly.

“It is understandable that government needs to find innovative ways to generate revenue for development, but taxing mobile money earnings of telcos in addition to what they already pay would only affect customers in the long run and make the country lose the financial inclusion battle,” Samuel Adusei Baaye said.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

 

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey said this week that he plans to move to Africa for up to six months next year. The tech executive announced the planned move following a month-long trip visiting entrepreneurs on the continent.

“Sad to be leaving the continent … for now. Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!),” Dorsey tweeted from Addis Ababa on Wednesday. “Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020. Grateful I was able to experience a small part.”

Asked for comment, Twitter said in an email: “We’ve nothing to share beyond Jack’s initial tweet.”

Dorsey began traveling Africa on 8 November and visited Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, CNN reported.

In Ethiopia, he listened to startup pitches. In Nigeria, he had meetings with entrepreneurs and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Twitter board member who formerly worked as managing director of the World Bank.

Software developer Dara Oladosu, who created the Twitter bot Quoted Replies, which aggregates comments on tweets, received a job offer after meeting company executives, CNN said.

Dorsey also met bitcoin business owners in Ghana. Dorsey has expressed plans to integrate bitcoin use on Twitter and the payment app Square, according to CNN.

Africa’s tech industry is presently experiencing rapid growth. GSMA, a mobile services industry group, said there were 618 “active tech hubs” on the continent this year, up 40% from 2018. According to GSMA, Nigeria and South Africa have the most, with 85 and 80, respectively.

The Kenyan tech entrepreneur John Karanja launched BitHub, an incubator for cryptocurrencies, in 2015. Ethiopia’s government reportedly hopes that a tech-centric economy could create 3m jobs.

Dorsey’s African tour comes as social tech giants continue to face criticism over the spread of hate speech and misinformation online. Dorsey announced in October that Twitter would ban political advertising, putting pressure on Facebook to enact a similar policy.

Source: theguardian.com

Hundreds of Vodafone cash subscribers have yet again participated in one of the exciting pre-Xmas shopping experiences in Accra.

The one-day cashless bazaar held at the forecourt of Vodafone Ghana Head Office on Friday offered customers heavy discounts on a variety of items.

The periodic arts, fashion and food fair organized by Vodafone gives its Vodafone cash subscribers and the public an opportunity to shop from more than hundred carefully selected vendors, at massive discounts using Ghana’s most secured mobile money platform, Vodafone Cash.

Speaking at the Bazaar, Martison Obeng-Agyei, Head of Vodafone Cash, said, “The Vodafone Cash pre-Xmas is a continuation of our Vodafone Cash Bazaar in June. Customers requested for another edition because they were very happy with the discount they got on their previous purchases.

“They are very satisfied with our mobile money service transactions that allow them to purchase anything from Vodafone Cash wallets without charges.”

He said apart from the primary aim of the event to reward Vodafone Cash subscribers with massive discounts, they also used the platform to encourage customers and the public at large to send money via Vodafone Cash.

So far, Vodafone the only mobile money operator that allows subscribers to send money from their wallets to other Vodafone Cash wallets without charges.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

 

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, has been adjudged the best CEO in telecoms at the Industry CEO Awards, held over the weekend.

The awards event, which was based on 100 per cent public votes and delivered through SMS, is an annual event aimed at identifying and publicly recognising the most outstanding Chief Executives across a wide range of sectors.

Commenting on the award, Patricia said, “It is truly delightful to be acknowledged. I thank Ghanaians for recognising my commitment towards innovation and transformation.

“This award really reflects the tremendous work of our dedicated employees and senior management, who have been supportive and remarkable; as well as the great products, and quality network delivery over the period.”

The award is an affirmation of the impact Mrs Obo-Nai is already making, barely seven months in office.

Key amongst these is the simplification of Vodafone’s products and the introduction of the industry-first real family product – Vodafone One.

Additionally, she’s also displayed leadership in empowering 700 young girls with STEM education and digital coding; and network expansion.

Vodafone is currently offering its mobile money customers an unprecedented experience of sending money to other Vodafone Cash wallets without transfer charges.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

 

Telecommunications giant, MTN Ghana has launched a campaign which will allow customers to choose a project they want to be implemented in a community of their choice in Ghana.

The initiative dubbed ‘Brighten Your Community’ being championed by the MTN Foundation will be run via the company’s social media handles: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The campaign officially starts on Monday, December 2, 2019, and ends on Monday, December 9, 2019.

Speaking at the launch, acting Corporate Services Executive of MTN Ghana, Georgina Asare Fiagbenu, said the campaign is to ensure customers support MTN Ghana to extend help to deprived areas in our country.

She noted that, MTN Ghana has allocated an amount of GHS 750,000 through its Foundation to be invested in three focus areas which are Education, Health and Economic Empowerment within three communities in Ghana.

“The top three communities at the end of the social-media-driven competition will be allocated GHS250,000 each to implement the selected projects,” she stated

Georgina Asare Fiagbenu added that, the campaign is part of their corporate social responsibility to delight customers and brighten their corner since 2019 is the ‘Year of the Customer’.

Source: Myjoyonline.com